Getting Started with AI: Hands‑On Fundamentals

Karan Girotra, Professor of Operations, Technology and Information Management (OTIM), is the recipient of the Charles H. Dyson Family Professor of Management chair, for a 5-year term. This chair was given by Rob Dyson, MBA ’74 to support a founding faculty position for Johnson instruction at Cornell Tech, in honor of his father, the founder of the Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corporation.

Karan Girotra is a Professor at Cornell Tech and in the Johnson School at Cornell University. Karan collaborates with companies building new business models in the areas of urban living, smart transportation and e-commerce, helping them build rigorous research based solutions.

Karan’s research team has been recognized by multiple awards including the prestigious Wickham Skinner Early Career Research Award and multiple best paper awards. He has also won teaching awards for his teaching on entrepreneurship and new business models and was featured in the Poets and Quant’s Best 40 under 40 business professors lists.

In addition to his academic work, Karan was one of the founders of Terrapass Inc., which the New York Times identified as one of the most noteworthy ideas of 2005. Since then, TerraPass has helped businesses and individuals reduce over hundred million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Karan holds PhD and AM degrees from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Sorin Lerner is the dean of the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, appointed Nov. 1, 2025. A professor of computer science, his research focuses on providing programmers with tools to make software more secure and reliable.

Prior to joining Cornell, Lerner served as chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. There, he helped guide the launch of a new major in artificial intelligence, as well as an online master of data science program, the first fully online degree program at the university. Under his leadership, the department experienced rapid growth, becoming the largest Ph.D. and M.S. programs on campus.

Originally from Montreal, Lerner earned his bachelor of engineering degree from McGill University and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington. He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, several distinguished papers awards, and a UC San Diego Computer Science Teacher of the Year Award.

His recent research has focused on two directions: using AI, machine learning and large language models (LLMs) to build proofs about programs; and using human-centered design, with user studies, to create better programming environments. His studies range from theoretical formal methods to low-level runtime, and from AI/LLMs to human-centered design.

Lerner succeeded Kavita Bala, the inaugural dean of Cornell Bowers, who was named provost in 2024, and Thorsten Joachims, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of computer science and information science, who served as interim dean of the college.