TILOS is a U.S. National Science Foundation Institute for Learning-enabled Optimization at Scale, funded by NSF with additional support from Intel Corporation. Our mission is to become the nexus of learning, optimization, and the leading edge of practice for three high-stage areas: chips, networks, and robotics.
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, NSF 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.

Machine Learning, Fairness and AI: A Conversation with Adam Kalai
Recordings of past TILOS Seminars and other presentations are available at tilos.ai/recorded_talks.
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TILOS Industry Day 2025
Congratulations to Kehan Long for his acceptance to the 2025 RSS Pioneers Workshop!
Steering AI: New Technique Offers More Control Over Large Language Models
Congratulations to Neha Sangwan, winner of the 2025 Thomas M. Cover Dissertation Award!
Recorded Talks from the TILOS HOT-AI Workshop
Expanding the Use and Scope of AI Diffusion Models
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 community that values the perspectives of and contributions from members of all groups.