COSMO is one of five new UT Dallas research centers located in the City of Richardson’s Innovation Quarter (IQ). The IQ is a 1,200-acre urban hub in Richardson, Texas, with a rich heritage of innovation and entrepreneurship. As Texas’ premier tech hub, The IQ is Richardson’s living laboratory for big ideas and groundbreaking technology.
COSMO was founded in 2022 by Dr. Rym Zalila-Wenkstern to foster collaboration between UT Dallas researchers, industry partners, cities, and the community to provide ground-breaking technologies in smart mobility.
COSMO is committed to pursuing community engagement, strengthening industry collaboration, accelerating the transition of research into the real-world, advancing education and outreach efforts, and increasing the participation of women and minority students in engineering projects.
Dr. Rym Zalila-Wenkstern is a Professor of Computer Science at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, the University of Texas at Dallas. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Wenkstern is the Director of the Multi-Agent and Visualization Systems lab. Her research focuses on all aspects of engineering large, complex, real-world systems using the autonomous agent paradigm, with an emphasis on Smart Cities challenges. She has served on several international conference organizing committees and numerous program committees. She has also worked as a consultant for U.S. and European organizations.
Dr. Zalila-Wenkstern's research on Intelligent Transportation Systems received media attention with a news segment on CBS 11 News, press articles in Dallas Innovates and Community Impact, and interviews with the Dallas Business Journal and Smart Cities Connect. In addition, Dr. Wenkstern's research received a Smart 50 Award, which annually recognizes the most innovative and influential global smart projects, and was a finalist at the Tech Titan Awards, which recognizes the elite in North Texas technology. Her work on agent-based simulation and transportation systems received twice the Best Application/ System Award at AAMAS, the flagship international conference on multi-agent systems; the Best Paper Award at Agent-Directed Simulations; and the Overall Best Paper Award at the Spring Simulation Conference.
