Biography
Prof. KC (Casey) Santosh, a highly accomplished AI expert and TEDx Speaker, is the Chair of the Department of Computer Science at the University of South Dakota (USD). He is also the founding director of the AI Lab. He served the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a research fellow. Before that, he worked as a postdoctoral research scientist at the LORIA research centre, Universite de Lorraine in direct collaboration with industrial partner, ITESOFT, France. He earned his PhD in Computer Science - Artificial Intelligence from the INRIA Nancy Grand Est research centre (France). With funding exceeding $8.7 million from sources like DOD, NSF, ED, and SDBOR, he has authored 10 books and more than 250 peer-reviewed research articles, including IEEE TPAMI, IEEE TMI, and IEEE TAI. He serves as an associate editor for esteemed journals such as IEEE Transactions on AI, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Int. J of Machine Learning & Cybernetics, and Int. J of Pattern Recognition & Artificial Intelligence.
As the founder of AI programs at USD, he has taken significant strides to increase enrollment in the graduate program, resulting in over 3,000% growth in just four years. His leadership has helped build multiple inter-disciplinary AI/Data Science related academic programs, including collaborations with Biology, Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Sustainability and Business Analytics departments. Prof. Santosh is highly motivated in academic leadership, and his contributions have established USD as a pioneer in AI programs within the state of SD.
To name a few, Prof. Santosh is the proud recipient of the Visionary Leadership Award (University of Derby - UK, 2023), the Cutler Award for Teaching and Research Excellence (USD, 2021), the President's Research Excellence Award (USD, 2019), and the Ignite Award from the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS, 2014).
Effective from Spring 2024, he joined the NIST's AI Safety Institute Consortium and, since December 2024, has been serving in the U.S. Speaker Program (U.S. Department of State), delivering talks on AI and AI education—being the only representative from South Dakota in both roles.
Recent grant proposals (funded):
#Grant — SD Biomedical Computation Collaborative (role: PI for AI)
Agency: Department of Education
Funding: $6.5 million (2024 - )
Project: https://sd-bcc.org (For more information: click USD News)
#Grant — Seed Grant - SD Biomedical Computation Collaborative (role: PI for AI)
Agency: South Dakota BOR
Funding: $0.745 million (2023 - )
Project: https://sd-bcc.org
#Grant — Research Infrastructure: CC* Campus Compute: Lawrence 2.0: Advancing Multi-Disciplinary Research and Education in South Dakota
Agency: National Science Foundation, NSF Award # 2346643 (role: Co-PI)
Funding: $0.499 million (2024 - )
#Grant — AI/ML Capacity Building at USD (role - AI Lead)
Agency: Department of Defense DOD News
Funding: $1.0 million (2023 - 2025)
Editor (journals, to name a few):
Associate #EditorInChief of Electronics, MDPI
#AcademicEditor of PeerJ Computer Science (2021 - 2023)
#AssociateEditor of IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging,
#AssociateEditor of IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence,
International Journal of Machine Learning &
Cybernetics, Springer Nature,
International Journal of Pattern Recognition & Artificial Intelligence, World Scientific,
Annual Review of Artificial Intelligence, World Scientific
Advances in Computational Intelligence, Springer Nature,
IET Image Processing,
IEEE Access,
SN Computer Science, Springer Nature,
International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence, IGI Global (resigned 2022, and
Journal of Pattern Recognition Research
#EditorialBoard of Human-Centric Intelligent Systems, Springer Nature
#GuestEditor of Elsevier: Artificial
Intelligence in Medicine, Computers in
Biology and Medicine, and Computer &
Electrical Engineering
World Scientific: International Journal of Pattern Recognition & Artificial Intelligence
IEEE: Journal of Biomedical & Health Informatics
Springer Nature: MTAP, IJST, SN
Computer Science, and IJDAR
MDPI: Information, AI, Applied Sciences, Big Data and Cognitive Computing, Digital, Healthcare, Signals, and Journal of Imaging
IGI Global: IJCVIP
Chair (conferences, to name a few):
IAPR #ICDAR: Doctoral Consortium Chair (2024)
#RTIP2R (2016, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025): Chair (Program, General, Honorary) + Founder
IEEE #CAI 2024 (Publicity Chair), #CAI 2025 (Vertical Chair (Healthcare))
#AppliedAI (2024): Honorary Chair + Founder
#ArtificialIntelligence Symposium (2021, 2022, 2023 [closing remarks: recording], 2024, 2025): Chair/Founder
IEEE #CogMI 2024: Program Chair
IEEE #CBMS (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023): Industry Chair (2023), General Chair (2020, 2022), Special Track Chair (2021), Steering Committee (2020 - present)
IEEE #CVMI 2022, 2023, 2024: Chair
#icSoftComp 2022, 2023: Chair
#AICV, 2023: Chair
IEEE #ICMI, 2022: General Chair
#GREC (2019): Program Chair, (2025) General Chair
#DataHarnessing
symposium (2018 and 2019): Chair/co-Founder
Review panelist (research grant proposals, to name a few):