TILOS is a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) 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.
A diagram representing the interconnectedness of the various components of TILOS mission
FEATURED PRESENTATION
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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Congratulations to Tajana Rosing, recipient of the 2025 SRC Sustainable Future Award!

The Semiconductor Research Corporation Sustainable Future Award recognizes researchers whose work is driving meaningful progress toward energy-efficient, sustainable technologies—whether in manufacturing or in computing and communication systems at scale...

Congratulations to Rose Yu, recipient of the Samsung AI Researcher of the Year award!

UC San Diego professor and TILOS affiliate faculty member Rose Yu is one of three winners of the 2025 Samsung AI Researcher of the Year award! The winners were recognized...

Interdisciplinary Teams Win Three Data Storage Awards from Western Digital

UC San Diego Today || Researchers from UC San Diego, including TILOS Foundations team member Sean Gao and affiliate Rose Yu, received three Western Digital Petabyte Innovation Quest (Peak) awards...

How Robotics, AI, and Automation are Changing Our Future

In this interview with TILOS Robotics team co-lead Henrik Christensen by the Association for Advancing Automation, Christensen offers a deep look into the future of robotics and AI, and shares...

How faithful and trustworthy are neuron explanations in mechanistic interpretability?

Understanding what individual units in a neural network represent is a cornerstone of mechanistic interpretability. A common approach is to generate human-friendly text explanations for each neuron to describe their functionalities—but...

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.