ISI/nsiders Podcast: Meet the Humans Behind ISI

USC Information Sciences Institute | November 19, 2024 

ISI’s Artificial Intelligence director, anthropologist Adam Russell, gets to know researchers from across the institute.

ISI podcast Banner

ISI/nsiders – ISI

After the success of AI/nsiders, the director of AI at the Information Sciences Institute, anthropologist Adam Russell, expands his horizons beyond AI in his new podcast, ISI/nsiders. He interviews the computer scientists of the institute specialized in disciplines such as cybersecurity, quantum, computational systems, data management, and even space.

EPISODE 16 — 6/25/25 — Terry Benzel, Associate Director at ISI
Podcast episode: Genuine curiosity pays off in a deeply technical environment

EPISODE 15 — 6/11/25 — Craig Knoblock, the Keston Executive Director of ISI
Podcast episode: Having an AI strategy is becoming more complex because it's unpredictable

EPISODE 14 — 5/28/25 — Yolanda Gil, Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives in AI and Data Science at ISI Podcast episode: My hope for AI is that it will make us better people

EPISODE 13 — 5/14/25 — Maxyn Leitner, a Research Assistant at ISI
Podcast: AI is making outputs more accessible, forgetting the value of the process

EPISODE 12 — 4/30/25 — Joe Barnes, a Senior Research Engineer at ISI Podcast: You can only design a system to the limit of what you can plan for

EPISODE 11 — 4/16/25 — Erik Kline, a Computer Scientist and Principal Scientist at ISI Podcast episode: You have to make your security useful for people without it being a burden

EPISODE 10 — 4/2/25 — Federico Spedalieri, Managing Director of the Quantum Initiative at ISI
Podcast episode: Quantum could be able to explain features of nature that change the world

EPISODE 9 — 3/19/25 — Alefiya Hussain, Supervising Computer Scientist and Principal Scientist at ISI Podcast episode: You want to build resilient systems because bad things can happen fundamentally

EPISODE 8 — 3/5/25 — David Balenson, Interim Director of the Networking and Cybersecurity Division at ISI Podcast episode: We over rely on technology but lack the resilience we need to depend on it

EPISODE 7 — 2/19/25 — Wes Hardaker, a Senior Computer Scientist at ISI Podcast episode: My career goal is to make difficult technology more usable

EPISODE 6 — 2/5/25 — Jonathan Habif,  Principal Scientist at ISI Podcast episode: I tell my students to get curious, get confident, then get active

EPISODE 5 — 1/22/25 — Jelena Mirkovic,  Project Leader at ISI
«We are not studying how humans respond to misinformation properly»

EPISODE 4 — 1/8/25 — David Barnhart, Director of the Space Engineering Research Center at ISI
«AI has the greatest potential leverage in long duration spacecrafts»

EPISODE 3 — 12/18/24 — John Heidemann, Principal Scientist at ISI
Image

EPISODE 2 — 12/4/24 — Elizabeth Boschee, director of ISI’s Boston office; associate director of ISI’s AI division
Image

EPISODE 1 — 10/20/24 — Jacob Lichtefeld, Research Engineer
Image

Published on November 19th, 2024

Last updated on July 6th, 2025