Faculty mentorship fuels alumni impact in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence
Randy Marchany was inducted into the Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science Academy of Distinguished Alumni, while Ashwin Aji received the department’s Distinguished Early Career Alumni Award for leadership in cybersecurity, high-performance computing, and AI research
The Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science honored two alumni whose careers reflect the department’s long-standing impact on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing research.
The awards were presented during the department’s spring banquet at the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center. Randy Marchany, Virginia Tech information technology security officer and the director of the university’s IT Security Lab, was inducted as the 15th member of the Department of Computer Science Academy of Distinguished Alumni.
Ashwin Aji, principal researcher at AMD Research, became the seventh recipient of the department’s Distinguished Early Career Alumni Award.
For Marchany and Aji, faculty mentorship at Virginia Tech helped shape careers that would later influence the future of computing.
“What strikes me about both Ashwin and Randy is that their work doesn't just advance their fields, it matters to people,” said Christine Julien, head of computer science. “Ashwin's contributions are helping us model climate systems at scales we couldn't reach before, and Randy has dedicated his career to protecting the university and the nation's cyber infrastructure.
“That's Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) at work — a spirit of service that is woven into everything we do at Virginia Tech — and both of these alumni embody it beautifully," Julien said. "Recognizing them reminds me of what a CS@VT education, at its best, can produce."
Appreciate the past and pay it forward
When Marchany arrived at Virginia Tech in the 1970s, computer science was still an emerging field. He credits early department faculty, especially founding department head George Gorsline, with creating a culture that encouraged students to experiment, collaborate, and support one another.
“One of the things that Dr. Gorsline instilled in that first cadre of students was to pay it forward,” Marchany said.
Marchany earned his undergraduate degree in computer science in 1981 and spent decades helping Virginia Tech become a national leader in cybersecurity operations and education. As the university’s longtime IT security officer and director of the IT Security Lab, he helped develop early cybersecurity standards and created one of Virginia Tech’s first hands-on cybersecurity training environments for students. His work in cybersecurity went far beyond Virginia Tech, with service on numerous foundational national regulatory and cyberdefense efforts and incident responses.
Many students who trained in the lab went on to leadership roles in cybersecurity and technology organizations.
“We were able to graduate, I think it’s 14 Ph.D. students, 15 or 16 master’s students, and we got three cybersecurity patents out of the work they did,” Marchany said.
Marchany also helped launch the Virginia Cyber Range, a cloud-based cybersecurity education platform used by K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities across the commonwealth.
Mistakes can be the foundation of success
Aji’s path to Virginia Tech began in the mid-2000s, when he traveled from India to pursue graduate studies in computer science.
“Professor Wu Feng took a chance on a very raw aspiring master’s student from India,” Aji said. “That trust changed my life.”
Aji earned both his master’s degree and doctorate from Virginia Tech and now serves as a principal member of technical staff at AMD Research. His work in AI systems optimization and high-performance computing has contributed to scientific computing breakthroughs, including Frontier, the first exascale supercomputer in the United States.
Aji said one difficult early research presentation at Virginia Tech taught him resilience and helped shape his approach to research and innovation.
“It was rough,” Aji said. “But I felt something liberating after the presentation. I realized that there was only one direction I could go from there — it was up.”
Together, the distinguished alumni awards highlight the Department of Computer Science’s influence across generations of alumni working in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, advanced computing research, and other fields that lead to innovation and better lives for all.
“Don’t be afraid to try something,” Marchany said. “Dare to suck. You’re going to learn from your mistakes.”
