10/23/2026 Rudy San Miguel
Yuxiong Wang has been selected as an inaugural Office of Naval Research (ONR) Chief of Naval Research (CNR) Fellow. Wang, CS associate professor at the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science in The Grainger College of Engineering, was one of 12 selected from more than 180 nominations representing about 70 academic institutions across the United States.
Written by Rudy San Miguel
Yuxiong Wang has been selected as an inaugural Office of Naval Research (ONR) Chief of Naval Research (CNR) Fellow. Wang, CS associate professor at the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science in The Grainger College of Engineering, was one of 12 selected from more than 180 nominations representing about 70 academic institutions across the United States.
According to ONR’s official release, “The CNR Fellows program is designed to bring a steady infusion of state-of-the-art knowledge into ONR, while building a growing network of researchers who can translate Navy and Marine Corps’ priorities into science and technology (S&T) that benefits Sailors and Marines.”
The one-year fellowship comes with a $150,000 stipend and an expectation for participants to learn and contribute quickly, with the goal of expanding the program with permanent ONR and Department of Navy (DoN) advocates on their campuses. The immersive fellowship will focus on naval science and technology, including critical Navy and Marine Corps operational problems and the roles of various naval laboratories and industry partners.
Wang’s research connects how AI understands the world, anticipates what may happen next and uses that understanding to make decisions and act. His expertise lies in computer vision, learning from limited data, intelligent agents and robotics. Because real-world problems often require these capabilities to work together, Wang was an obvious choice for the fellowship. Reliability, Wang said, is a central thread: making these systems dependable when information is incomplete or conditions change, as is often the case in naval operations.
“Seeing our research used in fields such as autonomous driving, agriculture and health care has also helped me understand what it takes for promising ideas to work beyond the lab,” Wang said. “That combination of scientific breadth and practical judgment is what I hope to offer ONR.”
"From a university lab, it is easy to see the technology but harder to see the mission," Wang said. Through the fellowship, he hopes to learn where today’s AI systems fall short. That means understanding the realities behind naval challenges firsthand, including unreliable communications, limited computing resources, changing environments and the need for people to trust the systems they use.
“In working closely with ONR’s program officers and naval researchers, I hope to turn those insights into research directions where AI can make a lasting difference, with clear ways to measure progress,” Wang said.
He also hopes to understand how ONR sets its research priorities and develops promising ideas into programs. That perspective, he said, will help him contribute more effectively to ONR, bring better research questions back to Illinois and strengthen the partnership in the years ahead.
For Wang, this honor is the next chapter in a long relationship with ONR. His research has been supported by ONR since his time in graduate school, from early-career multidisciplinary projects to those he now leads at Illinois.
Wang is particularly looking forward to learning from fellows across different disciplines and from ONR colleagues because those exchanges can reveal connections that are difficult to see within one field. It’s also important to him to support the greater community.
"This is an opportunity to give back,” Wang said. “I take seriously the responsibility to offer candid, independent judgment about both AI’s potential and the scientific challenges that remain.”
He knows that responsibility will continue long after the one-year program ends. Wang said he wants to share the naval research challenges with colleagues at Illinois and connect ONR with researchers whose expertise could help, including those who have not worked with the organization before. He also wants students to discover research, internship and career opportunities in naval science and technology that they might not otherwise encounter.
“A particularly meaningful outcome would be seeing a conversation during this fellowship spark a new collaboration or help a student find a direction they want to pursue,” he said. “That is how this opportunity can benefit a community much larger than my own lab.”
Grainger Engineering affiliations:
Yuxiong Wang is an Illinois Grainger associate professor of computer science in the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science.