Sumit K. Jha

News

• Call for PhD Applications starting Fall 2026, 2026
  We are inviting applications for multiple fully funded PhD positions starting Fall 2026. Highly motivated students with strong foundations in mathematics, computer science, or related fields are encouraged to apply.
• ICML Paper Acceptance, 2025
  Our paper on grammar-based translation from natural language to temporal logic has been accepted at ICML 2025.
• ICLR Paper Acceptance, 2025
  Our paper on metric-driven attributions in vision transformers has been accepted at ICLR 2025.

Research

Research Interests

Robust, interpretable, and controllable AI, formal methods, and emerging computing systems.

Publications

• Grammar-Forced Translation of Natural Language to Temporal Logic using LLMs
  William H. English, Dominic Simon, Sumit Kumar Jha, and Rickard Ewetz
  Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2025 | PDF
• Metric-Driven Attributions for Vision Transformers
  Chase Walker, Sumit Kumar Jha, and Rickard Ewetz
  Proceedings of the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), 2025 | PDF
• Explaining ViTs Using Information Flow
  Chase Walker, Md Rubel Ahmed, Sumit Kumar Jha, and Rickard Ewetz
  Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS), 2025 | PDF
• LOGIC: Logic Synthesis for Digital In-Memory Computing
  Muhammad Rashedul Haq, Sven Thijssen, Sumit Kumar Jha, and Rickard Ewetz
  ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems, 2025 | PDF
• Integrated Decision Gradients: Compute Your Attributions Where the Model Makes Its Decision
  Chase Walker, Sumit Kumar Jha, Kenny Chen, and Rickard Ewetz
  Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2024 | PDF
• On the Design of Novel Attention Mechanism for Enhanced Efficiency of Transformers
  SK Jha, S. Jha, R. Ewetz, and A. Velasquez
  ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC), 2024 | PDF
• Shaping Noise for Robust Attributions in Neural Stochastic Differential Equations
  Sumit Kumar Jha, Rickard Ewetz, Alvaro Velasquez, Arvind Ramanathan, and Susmit Jha
  Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2022 | PDF
• ExplainIt!: A Tool for Computing Robust Attributions of DNNs
  Sumit Kumar Jha, Alvaro Velasquez, Rickard Ewetz, Laura Pullum, and Susmit Jha
  Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) — Demonstrations Track, 2022 | PDF
• On Smoother Attributions using Neural Stochastic Differential Equations
  Sumit Kumar Jha, Rickard Ewetz, Alvaro Velasquez, and Susmit Jha
  Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), 2021 | PDF

Teaching

Awards & Recognition

Best Paper Awards and Nominations

• Best Paper Award Nomination, Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), 2023
• Best Paper Award Nomination, International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), 2022
• Best Paper Award Nomination, Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), 2021
• Best Paper Award Nomination, Workshop on Artificial Intelligence Safety (AISafety) at International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), 2019
• Best Paper Award, The 10th International Symposium on Foundations & Practice of Security (FPS), 2018
• Best Paper Award, IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences (ICCABS), 2014 and 2011.

Other Selected Awards

• FIU Top Scholar, 2025
• Eminent Scholar Chair Professor, Florida International University, Miami, 2024
• University-level Nomination, UTSA Research Achievement Award, 2023
• Air Force Young Investigator Program Award, 2016
• IEEE Orlando Section Outstanding Engineering Educator Award, 2013

Fellowships

• US Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, 2020
• Air Force Research Laboratory Visiting Faculty Research Program, 2018
• UCF Predictive Analytics Innovation Fellow, 2017
• US Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, 2014
• Air Force Research Laboratory Visiting Faculty Research Program, 2013
• Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science Graduate Fellowship, 2004-2010

Selected Student Awards

• Sven Thijssen, University of Central Florida ORC Fellowship, 2020
• Alvaro Velasquez, University of Central Florida 30 under 30, 2019
• Alvaro Velasquez, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2015
• Alvaro Velasquez, Outstanding Thesis Award, 2014
• Emily Rebecca Sassano, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2012

Service

Leadership Roles

• Senator, Faculty Senate, Florida International University, 2024
• Chair, IEEE Computer Society Orlando Chapter, 2014, 2015

Funding Agency Reviews

• Reviewer for National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, U.S. Army Research Lab, Swiss National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and others

Conference Program Committees

• AAAI, DAC, ECCV, ICCAD, ICCABS, ICCD, ICCV, ICML, IJCAI, ISQED, NeurIPS

Contact

Email: sumit.jha@ufl.edu

Office:
Room 3106, Malachowsky Hall
CISE Department
University of Florida
1889 Museum Road, Gainesville, FL 32611

Job Openings:
Positions available for postdocs, PhD students, research staff, undergraduates, high-school students and other interns in AI control, AI interpretability, formal methods, and in-memory computing. Please email with CV and specific research interests.