UCI and UCLA engineering schools launch collaborative workshop series on trustworthy AI

Session topics span agentic AI security, interpretable machine learning and autonomous systems perception

Two men standing near a poster, with one pointing at the poster.

Sept. 29, 2026 - Faculty, researchers and students from UC Irvine and UCLA gathered Monday, Sept. 21, at the CalIT2 Auditorium on the UCI campus for the first installment of the UCLA-UCI Samueli Engineering Workshop on Trustworthy AI. 

Designed to strengthen research ties between the two Samueli Schools of Engineering and funded through the UCLA-UCI Collaborative Grants Program, the daylong event featured four sessions covering some of the most pressing challenges in artificial intelligence research. The event was highlighted by talks on topics such as governance, trustworthiness, accountability and societal impacts.

The event was organized by UCI associate professors Yasser Shoukry and Yanning Shen, alongside UCLA associate professor Quanquan Gu. Graduate students and postdocs from both schools presented posters during the lunch break, with 20 students represented. 

"Bringing together UCLA and UCI researchers of all levels gives us an opportunity to advance the science of trustworthy AI,” Shoukry said. “By strengthening ties between our two schools, we can build the interdisciplinary research partnerships needed to tackle these challenges at scale."

"This workshop is about exchanging ideas and building a shared vision,” Shen added. “These presentations, posters and collaborative sessions will help us to identify common research priorities. From there, we can form new teams and chart a roadmap for joint initiatives that can shape the future of responsible AI development."

The UCI event marks the first of a two-part series: Participants are set to reconvene at UCLA on Friday, Oct. 23, to build on the connections and research directions that emerged from the Irvine sessions.

-    Paul McQuiston
 

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