BIOGRAPHY

Sanjay Ranka

6226 Malachowsky Hall for Data Science
Dept. of CISE
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611

sanjayranka [a t] gmail [d o t] com
(352) 514-4213

Sanjay Ranka is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering at the University of Florida. His research brings together data science, machine learning, applied algorithms, and high-performance computing to address problems in transportation, health care, and scientific computing. His work includes intelligent traffic intersections and digital twins, smartwatch-based health monitoring, GPU and exascale computing, and scientific data compression with error guarantees.

He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota in 1988, his M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota in 1986, and his B.Tech. in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur in 1985. He joined the University of Florida as a tenured Associate Professor in 1995, following faculty appointments at Syracuse University from 1988 to 1995. From 1999 to 2002, he served as Chief Scientist and Chief Technology Officer at Paramark.

His research connects theoretical algorithms with practical software and computing systems. In transportation, his group develops methods for analyzing video, LiDAR, and traffic-sensor data to assess intersection safety, model traffic dynamics, and support signal optimization. In health care, his work includes the ROAMM smartwatch platform and machine learning for identifying high health care utilizers. In scientific computing, his research addresses error-bounded data compression, GPU computing, scheduling, load balancing, and performance–energy tradeoffs.

He has authored or coauthored more than 360 refereed publications and several books. His Google Scholar record in the July 2026 vitae reports more than 17,000 citations and an h-index of 65. He has graduated more than 55 doctoral students, with graduates working in academia and at companies including Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft. Since 2016, he has served as principal investigator on more than $16 million in funded research and as co-principal investigator on more than $18 million in funded research.

From 1999 to 2002, he served as Chief Scientist and Chief Technology Officer and co-founded Paramark in Sunnyvale, California. He developed PILOT, a real-time advertising-optimization service that processed more than 10 million decisions per day with 99.99% uptime. Paramark raised more than $10 million in venture capital, was recognized as a Top 100 Internet technology company in 2001 and 2002, and was acquired in 2002.

He is a Fellow of the IEEE, AAAS, AAIA, and AIIA. His honors include the IEEE Technical Committee on Cloud Computing Research Impact Award in 2020, the IIT Kanpur Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2022, and the UF College of Engineering Doctoral Dissertation Mentorship Award in 2024. He served on the board of the American Society for Artificial Intelligence in 2023–2024.

His editorial service includes Associate Editor-in-Chief for Algorithms at the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing (2011–2021), Associate Editor of ACM Computing Surveys (2013–2024), IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (2010–2014), and IEEE Transactions on Computers (2011–2015). He is a member of the editorial board of Applied Sciences (2019–present).

His conference leadership includes General Co-Chair of ICDM 2009, Program Co-Chair of ICDM 2022, Program Chair of IPDPS 2013 and HiPC 2015, and Program Chair of the International Conference on Contemporary Computing in 2025. His UF service includes the Claude Pepper Center Executive Committee and the UF Transportation Institute Internal Steering Committee.

Honors, Awards, and Special Appointments

  1. AIIA Fellow, 2024.
  2. College of Engineering, Doctoral Dissertation Mentorship Award, 2024.
  3. Board Member, American Society for Artificial Intelligence, 2023.
  4. University of Florida Foundation Research Professorship, 2023–2026.
  5. AAIA (Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association) Fellow, 2022.
  6. Distinguished Alumnus Award from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 2022.
  7. Research Impact Award for “significant and impact contributions to theory and practice of cloud computing,” IEEE Technical Committee on Cloud Computing, 2020.
  8. University of Florida Foundation Research Professorship, 2018–2021.
  9. Outstanding Service Award, IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Parallel Processing, 2015.
  10. AAAS Fellow for “distinguished contributions to theory and practice of parallel and distributed computing,” 2006.
  11. IEEE Fellow for “contributions to theory and practice of high-performance computing,” 2002.
  12. Advisory Board Member, IEEE Technical Committee on Parallel Processing, 1998–2003.
  13. Member, IFIP Committee on System Modeling and Optimization, 1999–2012.
  14. Associate Editor-in-Chief for Algorithms, Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing (Algorithms and Scientific Computing), 2011–2021.
  15. Subject Area Editor, Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing (Algorithms and Scientific Computing), 1993–2010.
  16. Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 2010–2014.
  17. Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Computers, 2011–2015.
  18. Associate Editor, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 2013–2024.
  19. Associate Editor, Sustainable Computing: Systems and Informatics, 2010–2025.
  20. Associate Editor, Knowledge and Information Systems, 2010–2022.
  21. Associate Editor, International Journal of Computing, 2010–2021.
  22. Associate Editor, ACM Computing Surveys, 2013–2024.
  23. Member, Editorial Board, Applied Sciences (Computing and Artificial Intelligence), 2019–present.
  24. Top 50 Tech Visionaries, Intercon Conference 2021.
  25. National Talent Search Award, India (1978).
  26. 2nd Place, All India Mathematics Olympiad (1978).