Find your path to Curtis
1,291 people in our graph share verified history with Curtis — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
About
Curtis Northcutt is Director of AI Research at Handshake, where he leads data-centric AI research on foundation models. He previously co-founded and served as CEO of Cleanlab, whose business was acquired by Handshake AI in January 2026, and earlier developed the CAMEO cheating detection system used to validate MITx and HarvardX certificates. Northcutt holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT, advised by Isaac Chuang, and graduated as valedictorian from Vanderbilt University with a degree in mathematics and computer science.
Founder at Cleanlab
Intro paths
In turn, Curtis can intro founders to Cleanlab's investors below.
Cleanlab's investors · 8
Co-founders at Cleanlab
CTO at ChipBrain
Intro paths
In turn, Curtis can intro founders to ChipBrain's investors below.
ChipBrain's investors · 1
Experience
- HandshakeDirector, AI Researchcurrent2026 — present
- CleanlabCEO & Co-Founder2021 — 2026San Francisco, California, United States
- ChipBrainCTO & Co-Founder2020 — 2021Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)PhD in Computer Science2017 — 2021Cambridge, MA
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)Masters in Computer Science2013 — 2017Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- Oculus VRVisiting Research Scientist with Dr. Steve Lovegrove2018 — 2020Redmond, Wa
- Oculus VRFacebook Reality Labs, Oculus Research Intern with Dr. Richard Newcombe2018Redmond, WA
- Knowledge AIChief AI Scientist2019 — 2020Greater Boston
- GoogleGoogle AI Research Intern2019New York City Metropolitan Area
- AmazonAmazon Research Scientist (Alexa Machine Learning) Intern with Dr. Ming Sun2017Cambridge, MA
- Facebook AIFacebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) Intern with Dr. Y-Lan Boureau and Yann Lecun2016New York City Metropolitan Area
- Microsoft ResearchMicrosoft Research Visiting Scientist (USAID Research and Innovation Fellowship) with Dr. Bill Thies2014Bangalore, India
- MIT Lincoln LaboratoryNetwork Intrusion Detection and Cybersecurity Research with Joshua W. Haines2013Lexington, Massachusetts
- CourseraCoursera Research: Unsupervised learning for Education with Dr. Derek Bruff2013Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
- Vanderbilt UniversityIntelligent Learning Environments Research with Dr. Gautam Biswas2013Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
- Vanderbilt UniversityCyber-Physical Security (CPS) Systems and Artificial Intelligence Research, Dr. Xenofon Koutsoukos2012
- MicrosoftTechnical Program Manager Intern for Windows Phone, Camera and Photos Team2012Microsoft Corporation, Windows Phone Division, Redmond, WA
- National Science Foundation REU at University of Notre DameExperimental Research on Wireless Networking (ERWiN) NSF-Sponsored REU in Computer Science2011University of Notre Dame
- GE General Electric AppliancesEngineering Intern, Databases and HCI2010Appliance Park, Louisville, KY
- NASA Langley Research CenterNASA Inspire, Aerospace Research2009Langley, VA
- University of Kentucky, Dept. of Biology and PhysiologyNeurobiology Research on Glutamatergic Synaptic Transmission2008 — 2009
Skills & more
+12 more
Data AnalysisData MiningMathematicsProgrammingEngineeringArtificial IntelligenceScienceProduct ManagementArtificial Intelligence (AI)TeachingTheoretical Computer ScienceProbabilistic ModelsLanguages C++ · English · Java · Javascript (HTML, CSS) · LISP · MATLAB · Prolog, LaTeX, VHDL, MIPS · Python · SQL · Spanish
- LearnLab Educational Data-mining track — Carnegie Mellon University
- MIT Global Fellow — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
From Curtis's professional profile.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Curtis Northcutt?
- Curtis Northcutt is Director of AI Research at Handshake, where he leads data-centric AI research on foundation models. He previously co-founded and served as CEO of Cleanlab, whose business was acquired by Handshake AI in January 2026, and earlier developed the CAMEO cheating detection system used to validate MITx and HarvardX certificates. Northcutt holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT, advised by Isaac Chuang, and graduated as valedictorian from Vanderbilt University with a degree in mathematics and computer science.
- Where does Curtis Northcutt work?
- Curtis Northcutt is Founder of Cleanlab and CTO at ChipBrain.
- What companies did Curtis Northcutt found?
- Curtis Northcutt founded Cleanlab.
- Where did Curtis Northcutt go to school?
- Curtis Northcutt studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Computer Science); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Master of Science - MS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science); Harvard University (Cross Registration as MIT PhD Student, Machine Learning).
Founder mafias
Massachusetts Institute of Technology mafia1,221
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
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Vanderbilt University mafia99
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 92 more
National Science Foundation mafia38
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 31 more
Coursera mafia34
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 27 more
Handshake mafia15
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 8 more
Same school
Also attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology2,000
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Also attended Harvard University2,000
+ 1,994 more
Also attended Vanderbilt University374
+ 368 more
Shared employers
Also worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)817
+ 811 more
Also worked at Google2,000
+ 1,994 more
Also worked at Microsoft Research2,000
+ 1,994 more
Also worked at MIT Lincoln Laboratory60
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