Prof. Milind Tambe
Milind Tambe
Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Research in Computation and Society (CRCS) at Harvard University.
Director, AI for Social Good at Google Research India.
Maxwell Dworkin 125, SEAS
Harvard University,
33 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
milind_tambe@harvard.edu
Teamcore Group Home
- Inagural seminar by @DaniCMBelg for our @HCRCS #AIforSocialImpact seminar series tomorrow Jan 25 at 11 AM Eastern! Thank you organizers @arpitabiswas777 @hermansaksono t.co/N4IZRwUtaf
- Check out the special issue of AI Magazine on AI for Social Impact (t.co/BfvAxaRK6y), featuring me, @fangf07, @aruneshsinha, and @MilindTambe_AI on a decade+ of case studies and lessons learned. Non-paywalled preprint: t.co/ivngfg6yik
-
Everyone is excitedly awaiting their chance to check out the new Science and Engineering Complex. t.co/qVu0M9VzrR
Research and Awards

Another example is Prof. Tambe and his team's first large scale applications of social network algorithms for public health. Conducted In collaboration with social work researchers, their large-scale field study focused on spreading HIV prevention information among youth experiencing homelessness (YEH). Empirical results with 750 YEH in in Los Angeles demonstrated that their AI-guided interventions were far more effective than traditional methods in spreading HIV prevention information. Other examples include work in collaboration with NGO ARMMAN (see below work at Google Research India) to improve maternal health outcomes.
As a third example, Prof. Tambe and team provided the first ever applications of computational game theory for operational security, starting with deployment of game theoretic algorithms for security (e.g., counter terrorism) at LAX airport in 2007. This is one of the largest and busiest airports in the United States that serves 80 Million passengers. This research was followed by pioneering deployments of security games used by major security agencies for the allocation of limited security resources, including the US Coast Guard, the US Federal Air Marshals and others. This research has led him and his students to receive commendations and certificates of appreciation from the US Coast Guard, the Federal Air Marshals Service and the city of Los Angeles. See also Teamcore group home page.
Prof. Tambe's work at Google Research India, as director for AI for Social Good is seen in this blog post. These projects have successfully transitioned to actual deployment.
Prof Tambe's early research provided foundational models of multiagent teamwork. His JAIR 1997 "Towards flexible teamwork" won the AAMAS influential paper award (an award given out 10 years after publication of a paper). Tambe and collaborators also the foundational paper Distributed Constraint Optimization (DCOP) that started that subfield by providing the first comprehensive algorithm with quality guarantees (“ADOPT:Asynchronous distributed constraint optimization with quality gurantees” Artificial Intelligence Journal. 2005). Finally, their earlier paper introducing a novel Distributed POMDP model for teamwork won the AAMAS’02 Best paper.
Prof. Tambe completed his PhD from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to that, he completed his undergraduate education at BITS, Pilani, India, which awarded him their Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Teaching and Service

Selected News Stories
2020
- CREATE, USC, December 2020: Milind Tambe is the winner of the CREATE Detlof Von Winterfeldt Outstanding Research Award
- The Brilliant, November 2020: Milind Tambe: matchmaking AI experts and non-profits can make the world a better place
- Mongabay, November 2020: Where to patrol next: ‘Netflix’ of ranger AI serves up poaching predictions
- The Economic Times, August 2020: Speed over accuracy as a testing strategy can help in better containment of Covid-19: Milind Tambe
- New York Times, August 2020 (links to this preprint): ‘It’s Kitchen Sink Time’: Fast, Less-Accurate Coronavirus Tests May Be Good Enough
- Time, July 2020 (links to this preprint): America Needs to Radically Rethink Our COVID-19 Testing Approach
- Jagran Josh, July 2020: BITS Pilani announces distinguished alumnus awards
- BBC "People fixing the world", June 2020: How tech is tackling wildlife trafficking
- Forbes, June 2020: 10 Wonderful Examples Of Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) For Good
- KNX 1070, Los Angeles, News Radio Interview, May 2020 (4 minutes): What is the right strategy to limit the spread of COVID-19?
- ABC 7, WJLA, Washington DC interview, May 2020: COVID-19 Agent-based Modeling and Simulation
- Harvard University news and Events, May 2020: What is the right strategy to limit the spread of COVID-19?
- Nature Asia, April 2020: Model finds 'middle ground' for India's lockdown exit
- The Daily Beast, April 2020: New Model Shows How Deadly Lifting Georgia’s Lockdown May Be
- Harvard University news and Events, February 2020: Coding for uncertainty increases security
2019
- Financial Times, November 2019: Science v poachers: how tech is transforming wildlife conservation
- The Harvard Crimson, September 2019: New Computer Science Professor Milind Tambe Aims for Social Impact
- BBC World Service, Newsday, August 2019: Using Technology to Take on Poachers
- Viterbi Magazine, April 2019: AI Is For Animals - Software Created By USC Viterbi’s Milind Tambe To Thwart Poachers Could Soon Be Deployed As Part Of The Smart Platform In Up To 600 Protected Areas Worldwide
- AAAI Conference Analytics, January 2019: Who are the most-cited scholars of all time by AAAI papers?
2018
- USC Annenberg Media, November 2018: Artificial intelligence helps wildlife rangers combat poaching
- USC News, August 2018: How artificial intelligence can help us eat better
- IJCAI, July 2018: Milind Tambe Receives IJCAI 2018 John McCarthy Award
- USC Viterbi School of Engineering, May 2018: USC Center for AI in Society Seeks to Reduce Military Suicides
- PC Magazine, April 2018: How AI Can Outsmart Criminals and Improve Society
- VentureBeat, March 2018: AI could help fight the spread infectious disease around the world
- HealthData Management, February 2018: USC algorithm could reduce spread of infectious diseases
- The Tribune, February 2018: New AI system may help check TB spread in India
Featured Videos
International Joint Conference on AI John McCarthy Award lecture
[2018, 45 min]
WJLA Interview: Agent-based modeling for COVID-19 [2020, 7 min]
AAMAS Panel: Future of Agents & Multiagent Systems [2020, 5 min]