Alex Ihler, associate professor of computer science, directs UCI's Center for Machine Learning & Intelligent Systems.

Irvine-based Cylance Inc. has donated $50,000 to computer science professors Alex Ihler and Padhraic Smyth to support the activities of UCI’s Center for Machine Learning & Intelligent Systems. The funds will be used to draw distinguished speakers to campus for the center’s weekly seminar series and to recruit Ph.D. students in machine learning. Founded in 2012, Cylance develops cybersecurity software employing machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques. It’s a corporate partner of UCI’s Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences. The first distinguished speaker seminar, on Jan. 27, 2017, will feature Ruslan Salakhutdinov, an associate professor of machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University who recently was appointed director of AI research at Apple. “We are very grateful for this generous gift from Cylance, which will significantly enhance our ability to bring in leading researchers to speak at UCI and attract the brightest doctoral students to participate in our machine learning research program,” Smyth said.