The Carnegie Bosch Institute, an entity established in 1990 following a $10 million endowment from Germany-based The Bosch Group to increase international collaboration and research at Carnegie Mellon University, announced that Christopher Martin has been tapped to serve as the institute's new president. He succeeds Sylvia B. Vogt, who retired from the post in January after leading CBI since 2009.
Martin, who will continue to serve as director of engineering, research and development for the Bosch Research and Technology Center in Pittsburgh, will also now oversee the management of a new $3 million gift to CBI from Bosch Research to further pursue development in areas relating to AI and cybersecurity.
"This gave me the chance to pursue something that has always been near and dear to my heart," Martin said. "Bosch and CMU have worked so closely over these last decades that we are — both in the cultures and the missions and also the interests of these organizations — so well aligned that Bosch and CMU were comfortable with having somebody such as myself in an R&D function take over this role as this dual responsibility. We agreed that the potential upside of a lot of these things was high enough to bring these functions together."
An alum from CMU, both for undergraduate and graduate school, Martin said he's always been thinking about the advancements and capabilities that CBI can offer the region. Deciding what the institute gets to do next is now at his discretion.
"We talk about Bosch becoming this AIoT company, this artificial intelligence Internet of Things company, and the challenges that we face to get there; cybersecurity for AI development, business models — this is what CMU is world-class in," Martin said. "So the chance to bring this stuff together and to do my best to be a steward of the significant investment that we have with this endowment, I mean, that's an incredibly lucky opportunity for a Tartan alumni to have."
Since 2019, CBI said it has funded 12 CMU research projects across fields touching on AI, cybersecurity and sustainability. Under his leadership, Martin said he is looking forward to continuing to enhance CBI's ability to support faculty, students and staff who are pioneering new advancements at CMU.
“Through the Carnegie Bosch Institute as well as other collaborations, CMU and Bosch have been able to explore many research areas that have provided benefit to both organizations as well as to academia and business at-large,” William Sanders, dean of the college of engineering at CMU, said in a statement. CBI is based out of CMU's engineering college.
In addition to his role at Bosch Research, Martin also directs operations for the Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence in Pittsburgh.
