CS welcomes Clinical Assistant Professor Daniel Ayala
CS welcomes Clinical Assistant Professor Daniel Ayala Heading link
Daniel Ayala joins the computer science department this fall as a clinical assistant professor.
Ayala earned his PhD in computer science at UIC in 2017, where he was advised by Richard and Loan Hill Professor Ouri Wolfson. He earned his BS from Universidad de Puerto Rico and his MS from the University of Illinois, both in computer science. After completing his PhD, Ayala obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Trinity International University in 2022.
Most recently, Ayala taught computer science at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at one of his alma maters, the Universidad de Puerto Rico, while pursuing research in urban computing and data science. He also led a bioinformatics and biostatistics research core that supports investigators from health-related fields at the university.
Prior to that, Ayala was an assistant professor at Lewis University, teaching both computer science and data science programs; and an assistant professor at Trinity International University, helping establish a new computer science department and teaching all courses in the program.
While earning his PhD, Ayala was a senior researcher with HERE Inc, part of the parent company Nokia, in their Automotive Cloud Services Division of the Connected Driving department. He was also an NSF- Integrated Graduate Research Traineeship fellow in computational transportation science under Wolfson from 2007 to 2014.
“I have very fond memories of my time here as a student and have always been impressed by the continued growth in the department over the years,” Ayala said. “I feel blessed to have this opportunity to now return as faculty and serve our diverse population of students.”
This fall, Ayala will co-teach CS 251, Data Structures, with Lecturer Cody Cranch.
In total, three new clinical faculty and eight new tenure-track faculty will join the department this academic year at UIC.