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From BU Today<\/a>\u00a0– Stan Sclaroff, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of computer science, has been appointed\u00a0<\/span>dean ad interim<\/a>\u00a0of Arts & Sciences for the current academic year. A leading scholar in computer vision, pattern recognition, and machine learning, he replaces Ann Cudd, who\u00a0<\/span>stepped down as dean<\/a>\u00a0July 31 to become provost of the University of Pittsburgh. A nationwide search for a permanent dean will launch this fall.<\/p>\n A CAS faculty member since 1995, Sclaroff brings a wealth of leadership experience to his new role. He was previously associate dean of the faculty for mathematical and computational sciences and was chair of the computer science department from 2007 to 2013.<\/p>\n \u201cI see my role as an advocate for, a champion for, an enabler for, a facilitator for all of the departments and programs in the college, and a connector,\u201d he says. \u201cThe point being I\u2019ll focus on a more complete picture of the college, when previously I was looking at a slice.\u201d<\/p>\n Sclaroff founded the computer science department\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Image and Video Computing Group<\/a>, and he holds an affiliate appointment in the College of Engineering electrical and computer engineering department. He was also a member of the implementation task force for the\u00a0<\/span>BU Hub<\/a>, the first University-wide general education program, debuting this semester.<\/p>\n He is recognized for having developed one of the internet\u2019s first content-based image retrieval systems, and one area of his current research is focused on\u00a0<\/span>explainable AI<\/a>\u00a0(artificial intelligence), which could determine, for example, how a deep neural network examines an image and decides, \u201cIs this Bob or is it not? Is this cancer or is it not?\u201d Sclaroff says. \u201cThe basic idea is to provide ways for humans to see what evidence was used by the network in producing an output.<\/p>\n \u201cIn any of these projects, there\u2019s a team of people working on it, students and postdocs and collaborators\u2014I want to be very clear about that,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople think that computer science is a person sitting in a room writing a program, but a lot of the work we do involves derivations and meetings and collaborations, within BU and outside of BU.\u201d<\/p>\n