TILOS is a National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institute, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), with additional support from Intel Corporation. Our mission is to make impossible optimizations possible, at scale and in practice.
A partnership of faculty from University of California, San Diego, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas at Austin, and Yale University, TILOS use-domain research pioneers learning-enabled optimizations that transform chip design, robotics, communication networks, and other use domains that are vital to our nation’s health, prosperity and welfare.
Our foundational research pursues five main pillars:
- Bridging discrete and continuous optimization.
- Distributed, parallel, and federated optimization.
- Optimization on manifolds.
- Dynamic decisions under uncertainty.
- Nonconvex optimization in deep learning.

When and Why Pretrained Language Models Hallucinate
Adam Kalai, OpenAI
Recordings of past TILOS Seminars and other presentations are available at tilos.ai/recorded_talks.
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Secure AI for Health, Defense, and Beyond
TILOS Tutorial on AI Alignment
TILOS Seminar with Surbhi Goel of University of Pennsylvania
Who to Vaccinate First? Penn Engineers Answer a Life-or-Death Question with Network Theory
Construction robot researchers target dangerous and dirty jobs
TILOS Faculty Affiliate Rose Yu honored with Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
Chips team co-lead Farinaz Koushanfar inducted into National Academy of Inventors Class of 2024
TILOS at NeurIPS 2024
STATEMENT OF VALUES
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY
We are a community of cross-disciplinary scholarship, creativity and curiosity, and value the pursuit of knowledge, the advancement of technology, and professional development.
INTEGRITY
We are a community of integrity and character that values what is honorable and honest in addressing real societal needs and grand challenges.
INCLUSIVITY
We are an inclusive and engaged community of diverse people and perspectives that values and seeks out different viewpoints and styles of thinking.