Draft:Mayank Kejriwal
Computer scientist and AI researcher of Indian origin at the University of Southern California
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Mayank Kejriwal is a computer scientist of Indian origin and research associate professor at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering and USC Information Sciences Institute. He directs the Artificial Intelligence and Complex Systems (AICS) group and is a principal scientist at USC's Center on Knowledge Graphs. His research applies artificial intelligence — particularly knowledge graphs and natural language processing — to high-impact societal challenges, most notably human trafficking investigation and disaster response. He is the runner-up in the inaugural ASU–Science Prize for Transformational Impact (2026) and the first USC faculty member to be named a finalist for the AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science (2021).
Comment: Vast sections of this are unsourced. In addition, his citations are weak, his awards are minor so this is WP:TOOSOON. Please wait some years. Ldm1954 (talk) 06:53, 20 March 2026 (UTC)
 | This is a draft article. It is a work in progress open to editing by anyone. Please ensure core content policies are met before publishing it as a live Wikipedia article. Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL Last edited by Ldm1954 (talk | contribs) 1 second ago. (Update)
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University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D.)
University of Southern California (M.B.A.)
AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science, Finalist (2021);
Mensa Foundation Intellectual Benefits to Society Award (2019);
Mensa Foundation Copper Black Award for Creative Achievement (2019);
International Best Dissertation Award, Semantic Web Science Association (2017);
Key Scientific Challenge Award, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (2018)
Mayank Kejriwal | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (B.Sc.) University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D.) University of Southern California (M.B.A.) |
| Known for | Domain-specific Insight Graphs (DIG) for combating human trafficking; knowledge graph research; AI for social good |
| Awards | ASU–Science Prize for Transformational Impact, Runner-up (2026); AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science, Finalist (2021); Mensa Foundation Intellectual Benefits to Society Award (2019); Mensa Foundation Copper Black Award for Creative Achievement (2019); International Best Dissertation Award, Semantic Web Science Association (2017); Key Scientific Challenge Award, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (2018) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Artificial intelligence, knowledge graphs, semantic web, computational social science, AI for social good |
| Institutions | University of Southern California (Viterbi School of Engineering; USC Information Sciences Institute) |
| Doctoral advisor | Daniel P. Miranker |
| Website | viterbi |
Education
Kejriwal received his B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin under the supervision of Daniel P. Miranker; his dissertation, "Populating a Linked Data Entity Name System," was awarded the International Best Dissertation Award by the Semantic Web Science Association in 2017.[1] He subsequently completed an M.B.A. at the USC Marshall School of Business.
Career
Kejriwal joined USC's Information Sciences Institute in 2016 as a researcher in the Center on Knowledge Graphs, following completion of his Ph.D. He has since become a research associate professor in the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and principal scientist at ISI. He leads the AICS group, which focuses on building AI systems for social good in domains including human trafficking, crisis informatics, causal reasoning, and geopolitical forecasting. He also co-leads the Global Trafficking Initiative, a hub for collecting research and reports on trafficking worldwide.
His research has been funded by DARPA, IARPA, NSF, NIH, and corporate and philanthropic sponsors including Yahoo, Microsoft, and Kaiser Permanente. He has served as principal investigator on three multi-million dollar DARPA programs, with collaborators at MIT, Stanford University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of California, Irvine, and Purdue University.
Research
Knowledge graphs
Kejriwal's primary research area is knowledge graphs (KGs) — graph-based structures that enable machines to represent entities, relations, and facts in ways that support downstream reasoning and search. His research has explored KG construction, entity resolution, semantic web, and neuro-symbolic AI. He is the co-author of Knowledge Graphs: Fundamentals, Techniques and Applications, a graduate-level textbook published by MIT Press in 2021 that has been translated into multiple languages.[2] He is the author of four books in total.
Domain-specific Insight Graphs (DIG) and human trafficking
Kejriwal's most widely recognized applied work is the development of Domain-specific Insight Graphs (DIG), an AI-powered investigative search system built to help law enforcement detect and disrupt sex trafficking networks operating on the open web. DIG was developed as part of the DARPA MEMEX program, a multi-million-dollar initiative designed to go beyond conventional web search for domain-specific investigative purposes.
DIG uses knowledge graph technology to extract structured information from billions of unstructured web pages — including fragmented phone numbers, aliases, and ad listings — linking disparate data points to reveal hidden organized crime networks. The system compresses investigative processes that might otherwise take months into days or hours, and has been adopted by more than 200 law enforcement agencies.[3] The myDIG system — a user-configurable version of DIG — was nominated for a Best Demonstration Award at the AAAI conference in 2018.
Kejriwal's trafficking research received coverage from 60 Minutes, Forbes, Scientific American, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and Wired. He presented on AI and child trafficking at the Concordia Summit, held alongside the United Nations General Assembly, in New York City in September 2019.
Other research areas
Beyond trafficking, Kejriwal has applied AI methods to disaster response (including the 2010 Haiti earthquake and Hurricane Harvey), detection of secretive offshore financial networks, vaccine hesitancy mapping at the ZIP code level, and the analysis of structural trends in AI research.
Public engagement
Kejriwal is a noted science communicator and public engagement practitioner. He has published widely in popular and policy outlets including The Conversation, Big Think, and Science & Diplomacy. He served as a mentor at the "End Human Trafficking Hackathon" organized by Cornell Tech in 2017, where interdisciplinary student teams presented solutions to the District Attorney of New York.
In 2021, he was named a finalist for the AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science — the first USC faculty member to receive that recognition in the award's 11-year history.[4]
Awards and honors
| Year | Award / Honor |
|---|---|
| 2026 | ASU–Science Prize for Transformational Impact, Runner-up (inaugural) — AAAS / Arizona State University / Science |
| 2021 | AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science, Finalist (first USC faculty member named) |
| 2021 | USC Graduate Student Mentorship Award |
| 2021 | DataEthics4All Top 100 DIET Champion |
| 2019 | Mensa Foundation Intellectual Benefits to Society Award |
| 2019 | Mensa Foundation Copper Black Award for Creative Achievement |
| 2019 | Yahoo! Faculty Research Engagement Program recipient |
| 2018 | Key Scientific Challenge Award, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence |
| 2017 | International Best Dissertation Award, Semantic Web Science Association |
In 2019 Kejriwal was also shortlisted for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Science category.[5]
Selected publications
- Kejriwal, M., Knoblock, C. A., & Szekely, P. (2021). Knowledge Graphs: Fundamentals, Techniques and Applications. MIT Press.
- Kejriwal, M. (2019). Domain-specific Knowledge Graph Construction. Springer.
- Kejriwal, M. et al. "Turning the web against sex traffickers: Scalable artificial intelligence is harnessed for investigative search." (multiple venues; DARPA MEMEX program output)