About ICSI

The International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) is a leading center for research in computer science and one of the few independent, nonprofit research institutes in the United States. With its unique focus on international collaboration, ICSI brings together experts from around the world in areas such as computer networking, speech and language processing, bioinformatics, computer architecture, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. This is accomplished through active international visitor programs in which researchers from abroad visit ICSI to work with staff scientists and their networks of academic, government, and industrial partners.

ICSI's research depends on the entrepreneurial activity of its principal investigators, who have the vision, drive, and leadership skills to build independent, cutting-edge research and technology initiatives. These span the spectrum from fundamental theory to technology ready for commercial licensing or new business creation; the common threads are originality, depth of experience, and excellence. Current areas of focus include Internet architecture, network security, network routing, speech and speaker recognition, spoken and text-based natural language processing, biological system modeling, computer architecture, and computer vision. Algorithm development--with application to bioinformatics, video and speech processing, Internet routing and measurement, and machine learning--is one of ICSI's particular strengths.

Since its inauguration in 1988, ICSI has maintained an affiliation with the University of California at Berkeley. Several of ICSI's scientists hold joint faculty appointments at UC Berkeley, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses and supervising students who pursue their doctoral thesis research at ICSI. ICSI's offices are located in downtown Berkeley, adjacent to the UC Berkeley campus and in close proximity to San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. There are approximately eighty scientists in residence at ICSI including principal investigators, postdoctoral Fellows, visiting researchers, and students. Administrative staff provide computational and research support services, as well as housing location and visa assistance for international visitors. The director and CEO of the Institute is Dr. Roberto Pieraccini.