Cisco and Ohio State Research Partnership Pushes Innovation
Columbus, OH — For more than two years, The Ohio State University and Cisco Research have partnered to push the boundaries of innovation by funding and working on projects with the potential to make a substantial impact. Experts in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) regularly explore a variety of promising projects that align with both institutions' strategic interests.
The initial phase of these projects began in 2022, focusing on cybersecurity, information and data management, and networking, with contributions from Ohio State CSE professors. This was followed by a second phase of projects that expanded the research scope to include augmented and virtual reality, natural language processing, systems for AI, and edge computing. These most recent collaborations aim to advance future technology and amplify the ability to make a societal impact in smart homes and in the digital lives of consumers. Cisco and Ohio State led projects have focused on protecting user privacy in smart home IoT devices, mitigating social biases in data-driven algorithms, and have expanded efforts to enhance 5G wireless system performance. In addition, investigations regarding algorithms for large-scale machine learning training driven by a Ohio State Research team, underscores the diverse and impactful nature of this ongoing partnership.
“The collaborations with Ohio State researchers not only create strong synergy with our internal projects like machine learning systems, but also helps Cisco connect with world-class academic researchers to explore strategically promising technologies,” said Dr. Myungjin Lee, Senior Researcher, Cisco Research.
Cisco continues to invest in sponsored research opportunities with Ohio State to pioneer projects for natural language interfaces to databases and AI web agents. A natural language interface enables users to talk to a system in an everyday language, like having a conversation. This applicable collaboration has led to the publication of six papers, co-authored by researchers from both institutions. The results have garnered the attention across the tech ecosystem where several tech start-ups are utilizing these new tools.
"Imagine having a database of detailed medical records," said Dr. Huan Sun, assistant professorDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University. "You could ask, 'In 2020, how many women were diagnosed with breast cancer?' and the system would understand and provide the exact number, bypassing the need for intricate queries or cumbersome interfaces."
Cisco’s commitment to efficiency is founded in new web agents that perform tasks on the internet based on user commands. Unlike traditional web agents, Ohio State professors created a tool that can visually perceive websites, enhancing its task execution capabilities.
"These agents can potentially automate enterprise workflows, such as handling reimbursement requests in accounting, which are typically time-consuming and repetitive," said Dr. Yu Su, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Ohio State. "By automating these processes, we can save time, reduce errors, and increase operational efficiency in a variety of practices.”
The collaborations between Ohio State and Cisco are gaining national attention. Most notably, two impactful papers that have been co-authored with Ohio State faculty members, Huan Sun at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL), with several works under review with Parinaz Naghizadeh and Srinivasan Parthasarathy. Parthasarathy’s project has been instrumental in advancing Cisco’s responsible AI framework and the open-source project OpenRAI.
"The collaboration with Cisco exemplifies how industry and academia can work together to drive innovation and create practical solutions,” said Alissa Comella, associate vice president for corporate partnerships in the Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge at Ohio State. “These projects showcase the incredible potential that emerges when we combine cutting-edge research with real-world applications."
About Ohio State's Corporate Partnerships
The Ohio State Corporate Partnership team is dedicated to fostering and facilitating relationships that create mutual value for both the university and industry. These strategic alliances help spur innovation, build talent pipelines, expand student opportunities, leverage expertise, and enhance economic development efforts.
About Cisco Research
Cisco is a worldwide leader in technology that powers the internet, helping customers connect, secure and automate to accelerate their digital agility in a cloud-first world. Cisco Research conducts and fosters research in technology areas of strategic interest to Cisco and generate business, technology, and societal impact.