AI’s Next Frontier: Dean’s Circle Spotlight

Bikash Koley M.S. ’97, Ph.D. ’00 always looked up to his father, a professor of animal genetics at the West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences in Kolkata. “He taught me to be curious and was the reason I got so interested in science,” Koley says.

With that curiosity and his technical mind, Koley pursued a career focused on networking and digital infrastructure. In his 16+ years at Google, culminating in the role of vice president of global infrastructure, he oversaw the physical infrastructure that delivers Google products to customers worldwide. (He was recently announced as the chief technology and product officer at the Blackstone–Google joint venture, Crux AI.)

Koley says he also values other, less literal kinds of “networks”: cross-disciplinary research collaborations and partnerships among academia, industry, and government, which were essential to his own graduate work at Maryland.

Koley has served on the Clark School of Engineering’s Board of Visitors for seven years, building vital connections between the university and industry. Now, he has established the Dr. NP Koley Physical AI and Emerging Intelligent Systems Endowed Professorship in Engineering to honor his father’s legacy by supporting interdisciplinary research at Maryland.

“AI has created a new golden era of cross-disciplinary research,” Koley says. “The next frontier is building the most intelligent systems that can touch all aspects of engineering."

The Dean’s Circle

recognizes those who have committed $100,000 or more during their lifetime to the Clark School. To learn how your charitable donation can make a significant difference in the future of Maryland Engineering, contact Jennifer L. Schwartz, assistant dean for advancement, at 301-405-0317 or jschwar2@umd.edu.

Koley became interested in networking in the last year of his undergraduate program at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. He continued his studies at Maryland because of its strong optical networking program, bolstered by collaborations among the university, industry, and government agencies. Electrical and computer engineering faculty such as his Ph.D. adviser, Professor Mario Dagenais; Distinguished University Professor John Baras; and Distinguished University Professor Emeritus Edward Ott imparted technical skills—more importantly, Koley says, they taught him how to think, reinforcing lessons from his father.

“My professors and mentors were all experts in their fields, but they were focused on what was not known,” Koley says. “They taught me that learning how to ask the right question is more important than the answer itself.”

Koley’s generosity will encourage Clark School faculty and students to ask questions that will advance physical AI: artificial intelligence that operates in the three-dimensional world rather than in software alone. Take, for example, self-driving cars, which are equipped with both the reasoning made possible by large language models as well as an understanding of spatial relationships and the rules of physics. Physical AI systems can take in data about their surroundings via sensors, combine that data with their knowledge of how the physical world behaves, and adjust their behavior in real time. They can support equipment as small as a humanoid robot that helps with household tasks or as large as an entire factory assembly line.

With Koley’s gift, the Clark School will turn the curiosity of Terp engineers into exactly that kind of AI innovation.

“Physical AI is only possible through interdisciplinary research, as it involves multiple engineering disciplines and even other fields of science,” Koley says. “It can have numerous outcomes, but those I care deeply about are advancements in medical science, drug discovery, and medical instrumentation. My dad was a professor in genetics, and AI has an incredibly important role to play in genetics.”

Published November 4, 2026