Alan Ritter is an Associate Professor at the School of Interactive Computing , Georgia Institute of Technology, with additional affiliation to the Machine Learning Center . His research focuses on Natural Language Processing , particularly robust models across domains/languages with fewer labels and efficient resource use, plus data-driven dialogue agents for open-topic conversations. Research Interests : Robust NLP models, cross-lingual transfer, resource-efficient learning, dialogue systems, cultural bias measurement, and privacy-aware language models Students : Mentors Ph.D. students in Georgia Tech's ML and CS programs, including Junmo Kang, Yang Chen, and Duong Minh Le. Alumni include Fan Bai (Ph.D. 2023), Yang Chen (Ph.D. 2024), and Andrew Li (M.S. 2024). Awards : NSF CAREER Award, Amazon Research Award, ACL 2024 Best Social Impact Paper, IUI 2009 Best Student Paper. Recent Work : Studies training budget allocation between supervised and preference-based finetuning, cross-lingual information extraction, cultural bias in LLMs, and privacy risk mitigation in social media disclosures. Service : Served as Program Chair for NAACL 2025, Area Chair for multiple top-tier conferences (COLM, EMNLP, ACL, EACL, AAAI). Email : alan.ritter@cc.gatech.edu
Dr. Kaya de Barbaro is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin (College of Liberal Arts). She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California San Diego. Her research focuses on bridging computer science and developmental/clinical psychology, particularly maternal mental health and infant social-emotional development. She directs the Daily Activity Lab, which uses mobile/wearable sensors and machine learning to analyze real-world interactions, aiming to develop just-in-time interventions for new mothers. Key research areas include maternal-infant dynamics, physiological synchronization, and the impact of environmental chaos on development. She has pioneered methods for analyzing high-density data, such as Granger causality and machine learning algorithms to detect behaviors like crying and holding. Recent work emphasizes leveraging ecological momentary assessment surveys and 24-hour LENA audio recordings to understand proximal mechanisms of development. Dr. de Barbaro teaches Psychology 333D (Introduction to Developmental Psychology) and has developed curricula for both in-person and online formats. She is actively involved in training students through the Eureka program at UT Austin. Her lab collaborates on tools like chatbots for postpartum mental health and has published extensively on sensor-based methodologies in developmental science.
Prof. Matthias Nießner is a Professor at the Technical University of Munich, leading the Visual Computing Lab. His research intersects computer graphics, vision, and AI, focusing on 3D reconstruction, semantic understanding, and AI-driven video synthesis. He holds a PhD from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (2013) and was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Stanford University (2013–2017). Notable awards include the ERC Starting Grant (2018), Nvidia Professorship Award, and Eurographics Young Researcher Award (2019). His work has been featured in mainstream media and led to startups like Synthesia Inc. Research spans Gaussian splatting, neural radiance fields, and generative AI for 3D avatars. Over 150 publications include SIGGRAPH, CVPR, and ECCV, with best paper awards. Projects like Face2Face and ScanNet have driven innovation in facial reenactment and 3D scene datasets. Education: PhD in Computer Science, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (2013) Diploma in Computer Science, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (2010) Research Interests: 3D digitization, neural rendering, generative AI, non-rigid reconstruction, and applications in AR/VR. Awards: ERC Starting Grant (2018) Nvidia Professorship Award (2018) Google Faculty Award (2018) SIGGRAPH Best Emerging Tech Award (2016) Grants: Over €1.5M from ERC and industry partnerships. Labs/Teams: Visual Computing Lab at TUM and Synthesia Inc. (co-founder). Key projects include ScanNet (large 3D indoor dataset), Face2Face (real-time facial reenactment), and Gaussian-based 3D avatars. Current work focuses on diffusion models, neural radiance fields, and AI-generated media detection.
Kian-Lee Tan is a Tan Sri Runme Shaw Senior Professor and Professor of Computer Science at the School of Computing, National University of Singapore (NUS). He holds a Ph.D. (1994), M.S. (1992), and B.Sc. (1st Class Honours) from NUS. His academic career spans decades of contributions to database systems and data analytics. Ph.D. in Computer Science, National University of Singapore (1994) M.S. in Computer Science, National University of Singapore (1992) B.Sc. in Computer Science (1st Class Honours), National University of Singapore As a leading researcher in database systems, Tan focuses on query processing and optimization in multiprocessor/distributed systems, database performance, security, and multimedia information retrieval. His work extends to computational biology applications like genome databases and real-time influence analysis on social streams. His recent publications highlight trends in GPU-accelerated graph analytics, trajectory pattern mining, and computational journalism. These works emphasize parallel processing, performance optimization, and social/media data analysis. IEEE Technical Achievement Award (2013) President Science Awards, Singapore (2011) NUS Graduate School Excellent Mentor Award (2010/2011) Outstanding University Researchers Award (1997/1998) Tan has supervised numerous research projects and mentored students contributing to database systems. He secured significant grants including a US$1 million Ripple Foundation grant (2024) for financial technology education. His editorial roles include ACM Transactions on Database Systems and IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering. He leads the FinTech Lab at NUS Computing and has served on the VLDB Endowment Board (2012-2017). His work bridges database foundations with emerging applications in AI, fintech, and computational journalism.
Min Yen Kan is an Associate Professor and Vice Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the National University of Singapore's School of Computing, Department of Computer Science. With a PhD from Columbia University (2002), he leads the Web Information Retrieval / Natural Language Processing Group (WING.NUS) and serves as ACL Ethics Committee co-chair. His research spans Natural Language Processing , Large Language Models , Digital Libraries , and Information Retrieval , with specific focus on scientific discourse analysis, fact verification, and multimodal systems. Current projects include Scholarly Document Information Extraction (TRL 6), Task-Oriented Dialogue Systems (TRL 4), and Recommendation Systems (TRL 5). Recent publications reveal strong trends in LLM limitations (bias, hallucination, evaluation), conversational recommendation systems , and misinformation detection . His work consistently bridges theoretical NLP with real-world applications in digital libraries and scientific communication. Award highlights include: CIKM 2019 Best Paper Award ACL Distinguished Service Awards Vannevar Bush Best Paper Award (JCDL 2012) ACM Distinguished Speaker designation Kan mentors PhD students with placements at Google and USTC, and serves as associate editor for Information Retrieval and survey editor for Journal of AI Research . His lab WING.NUS develops practical tools like SciWING for scientific document processing and FANG for fake news detection. Media engagements include commentary on AI regulations in Southeast Asia and workforce implications in the AI era.
Dr. Anna Dubiel is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at King's Business School, King's College London. Her research focuses on the intersection of innovation and R&D management with international markets, particularly in emerging economies. She teaches a broad range of Marketing topics in postgraduate and executive programmes covering International Marketing and Digital Marketing. Dr. Dubiel obtained her PhD from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany, where she previously served as Assistant Professor of International Innovation Management. Her academic journey includes visiting researcher positions at Boston College, Judge Business School, and London Business School, as well as a Visiting College Research Associate position at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge in 2017. Her research expertise centers on Innovation Management , New Product Development , R&D Management , International Marketing , and Emerging Economies . Dr. Dubiel's work particularly examines how businesses can develop better products and services for consumers and businesses at the subsistence market ends. Her current research project focuses on 'Risk Management in Emerging Economies: A Marketing Perspective. The Context of Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) Insurance,' which studies how to reach buyers of complex new services in subsistence marketplaces and raise insurance literacy. Dr. Dubiel's publications reveal a consistent focus on innovation in emerging markets, with significant contributions to journals such as the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, and International Marketing Review. Her work often explores frugal innovation, new product development strategies, and international market adaptation, demonstrating how businesses can succeed in resource-constrained environments while creating social impact. Her notable scientific achievements include: Highly Commended Paper Winner of the Journal of Indian Business Research (2014) Finalist for the Thomas P. Hustad Best Paper Award for the Journal of Product Innovation Management (2016) Academy of Marketing Teaching Excellence Award (2020) British Academy of Management Early Career Education Practice Award (2021) Finalist for the Academy of International Business Teaching Innovation Award (2021) HEA Fellowship (2019) Multiple Case Writing Competition awards from AESE Business School (2010, 2011) Dr. Dubiel has received research funding from several intramural grants as well as the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust. Her teaching methodology emphasizes practical application through managerial guest lectures and consulting projects conducted by students for real organizations. While she is not currently accepting new PhD students, her research group focuses on marketing financial services to first-time buyers in emerging markets, with evidence from Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) Micro-Insurance in Kenya.
Professor Carlo Harvey is a creative technologist at the School of Digital Arts (SODA), Manchester Metropolitan University. His interdisciplinary research merges games , machine learning , virtual production , and cultural heritage reinterpretation . He leads industry collaborations with entities like Jaguar Land Rover and Epic Games, focusing on AI-driven interactive audio, real-time visualization, and accessibility solutions. Award-winning projects : TIGA, Innovate UK, and Epic Games MegaGrant for Accession Industry partnerships : Automotive sector, cultural institutions His research spans human-computer interaction , multisensory virtual environments , and acoustic-visual cross-modal perception . Recent publications address robotic simulations, motion alignment, and haptic feedback systems. Scientific recognition : TIGA Award, Innovate UK Funding, Epic Games MegaGrant Advocacy : Digital inclusion, creative collaboration, social impact of technology
James R. Eagan is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science and Networks Department (Infres) at Télécom Paris , part of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder for the 2024–25 academic year. His research focuses on making computers more expressive tools for human interaction, emphasizing malleable software, collaborative dynamic media, and multi-surface environments. His work spans Human-Computer Interaction , Data Visualization , and User Interface Programming . A key theme involves adapting software for user-driven customization, exemplified by projects like Webstrates (shareable dynamic media) and SchemeLens (semantic zoom for technical diagrams). He also explores uncertainty in data analytics and gesture-based interfaces for experts. Recent publications from 2020–2024 address Explainable AI (XAI) , Financial Crime Detection , and Interactive Data Analysis . His tools Tarantula and SchemeLens have received acclaim, including the 2015 ACM SIGSOFT Impact Award and Best Paper at UIST 2015. Scientific accolades include: Prix de l’Impact 2015 d’ACM SIGSOFT Best Paper Award at UIST 2015 Honorable Mention at CHI 2017 He teaches courses in Mobile Application Development , Human-Computer Interaction , and Data Visualization . His lab, DIVA (Design, Interaction, Visualization & Applications), operates within the Information Processing and Communication Laboratory (LTCI). He actively recruits PhD candidates and postdocs for research in these domains.
Prof. Matthias Nießner is a Professor at the Technical University of Munich , where he leads the Visual Computing Lab . Prior to this, he held a Visiting Assistant Professor position at Stanford University . His work bridges computer vision , graphics , and machine learning , focusing on 3D reconstruction , semantic scene understanding , and AI-driven video synthesis . Prof. Nießner has published over 150 works in top venues like SIGGRAPH , CVPR , and ECCV , with several receiving best paper awards (SIGCHI’14, HPG’15, SPG’18, SIGGRAPH’16 Emerging Tech). His research has garnered international media attention, including features in the New York Times , Wall Street Journal , and MIT Technological Review , as well as TV demonstrations (e.g., Jimmy Kimmel Live for Face2Face technology). Awards : TUM-IAS Rudolph Moessbauer Fellowship (2017–ongoing) Google Faculty Award (2017) Nvidia Professor Partnership Award (2018) ERC Starting Grant (2018, €1.5M) Eurographics Young Researcher Award (2019) Research Trends : 3D Gaussian Splatting for real-time rendering Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) with mesh supervision Audio-driven facial animation via diffusion models Latent space diffusion for 3D scenes Self-supervised and zero-shot methods for 3D and image analysis As a co-founder and director of Synthesia Inc. , he drives democratization of synthetic media. His YouTube channel has over 5 million views, reflecting his impact beyond academia.
Nasir Memon is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering and concurrently serves as the Dean of Engineering at NYU Shanghai. He has been a faculty member at NYU Tandon since September 1998. Memon is a co-founder of NYU's Center for Cyber Security (CCS) and NYU Abu Dhabi, and the founder of key initiatives such as the OSIRIS Lab, CyberSecurity Awareness Week (CSAW), the NYU Tandon Bridge program, and the Cyber Fellows program. His work focuses on advancing cybersecurity education and addressing systemic biases in AI-driven systems. Education: Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Nebraska Master of Science, Mathematics, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani Bachelor of Engineering, Chemical Engineering, BITS, Pilani Research Interests: Media Forensics and Authentication Biometric Security and Privacy Data Compression and Privacy-Preserving Techniques Network Security and Incident Response AI Ethics and Fairness in Machine Learning Cybersecurity Education and Workforce Development Awards and Honors: IEEE Fellow (2010) SPIE Fellow (2014) Jacobs Excellence in Education Award (2002) NSF CAREER Award (1997) Advising and Grants: Advises Ph.D. students like Anubhav Jain and Govind Mittal, and mentors Master’s students such as Rishit Dholakia. Recipient of NSF grants and funding from NYU Abu Dhabi and Indiana University Bloomington for projects like computational tools for fact-checking and AI-driven bias mitigation. Labs and Teams: Directs the OSIRIS Lab, a leading research group in cybersecurity and AI. Leads initiatives at the NYU Center for Cybersecurity (CCS) and collaborates with NYU Abu Dhabi’s Center for Cyber Security.
Ceren Budak is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information and holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the College of Engineering. Her work bridges computer science, statistics, and social sciences through computational social science approaches. Her educational background includes a PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2012) and a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Bilkent University in Turkey (2007). Prior to joining the University of Michigan faculty, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Microsoft Research New York. Professor Budak's research centers on computational social science, with particular emphasis on analyzing large-scale datasets to address questions with social, political, and policy implications. Her work spans several interconnected domains: News Media Production & Consumption (examining bias in news outlets and reader preferences), Social Movements & Media (using social media data to study collective action), Social Networks (understanding information diffusion processes), and Measuring and Promoting the Quality of Online Discussions (developing tools to improve online conversations). She teaches SI 608 (Networks) and SI 618 (Data Manipulation and Analysis) at the School of Information. Her publication record demonstrates consistent contributions to understanding how online information ecosystems operate, with recent work focusing on AI-human collaboration, misinformation dynamics, social movement framing, and the application of computational methods to political communication. Her research shows a clear trajectory from foundational work on social network diffusion to increasingly sophisticated analyses of contemporary information challenges. Among her service activities, she has served as Registration chair for COSN (ACM Conference on Online Social Networks) 2015 and as Program Committee Member for numerous prestigious conferences including WWW, ICWSM, WebSci, AAAI, and others. She has also been involved in organizing the MSR NYC Data Science Seminar Series and instructing the Microsoft Research Data Science Summer School.
David B. Lindell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, with affiliations to the Vector Institute and AXL. He is a founding member of the Toronto Computational Imaging Group. His research focuses on physically based intelligent sensing, integrating physical models, signal processing, and AI to advance sensing systems. Notable projects include imaging around corners, through scattering media, and developing machine learning algorithms for 3D scene reconstruction. Education: Ph.D. in Computational Imaging from Stanford University (advisor: Gordon Wetzstein). Awards include the 2024 Ontario Early Researcher Award and the Best Student Paper at CVPR 2025. His work combines computational imaging with applications in computer graphics and autonomous systems. Research interests span non-line-of-sight imaging, single-photon sensing, and neural representations. Key contributions include the Light-Cone Transform (Nature 2018), confocal diffuse tomography (Nature Communications 2020), and AutoInt (CVPR 2021). His lab develops systems for 3D reconstruction, transient imaging, and photon-efficient sensors. Selected grants and support: NSF CAREER Award, DARPA REVEAL program, and KAUST Visual Computing Center funding. Active collaborations with industry and academic institutions on autonomous driving and medical imaging applications.
Subodha Kumar is the Paul R. Anderson Distinguished Chair Professor of Statistics, Operations, and Data Science at Temple University’s Fox School of Business. He serves as the Founding Director of the Center for Business Analytics and Disruptive Technologies and has a secondary appointment in Information Systems. His roles include Ph.D. Program Concentration Director for Operations and Supply Chain Management. With over 240 publications, he ranks #1 globally in Information Systems Research publishing and holds a robotics patent. His research focuses on AI, blockchain, healthcare analytics, and cybersecurity, with notable contributions to digital transformation and operations management. Awards include the INFORMS ISS Distinguished Fellow and POMS Fellow. He advises major journals like Production and Operations Management and organizes conferences like POMS 2018. Media mentions span NYT, WSJ, and CBS. Education: University of Washington faculty Texas A&M University faculty Research Interests: Dr. Kumar explores AI applications, blockchain in fintech, healthcare system optimization, and supply chain analytics. He investigates cybersecurity’s operational impacts and data mining strategies. His work bridges theory and practice, addressing challenges in digital transformation and platform economies. Publications Trends: Recent work emphasizes digital platforms (e.g., blockchain adoption, telemedicine impact), organizational behavior (real-time feedback systems), and healthcare operations (personalized treatment algorithms). He frequently collaborates internationally, with studies appearing in Management Science, Information Systems Research, and Decision Sciences. Awards & Recognition: Changjiang Scholars Chair (China) ISB Visiting Professorship POMS Executive Editor Grants & Labs: Secured NIH grants for health analytics projects. Leads Temple’s analytics center fostering industry partnerships. Active in editorial roles (e.g., Production and Operations Management Journal Deputy Editor). Teaching: Offers courses in data science, optimization methods, and innovation entrepreneurship at graduate/undergraduate levels.
Zhi Da is the Howard J. and Geraldine F. Korth Chair in Finance and Professor of Finance at the University of Notre Dame , Mendoza College of Business, Department of Finance. He completed his Ph.D. in Finance at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management (2006), preceded by an M.Sc. in Financial Engineering from the National University of Singapore (2001) and a B.B.A. with First-Class Honors (1999) from the same institution. Holding editorial roles at Journal of Finance , Management Science , Review of Financial Studies and several other top journals, he is a leading voice in empirical finance research. Education Ph.D. in Finance, 2006 – Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University M.Sc. in Financial Engineering, 2001 – National University of Singapore B.B.A. (1st Class Honors), 1999 – National University of Singapore Research Interests Zhi Da’s scholarship sits at the intersection of asset pricing , behavioral finance , and market microstructure . He investigates how investor attention, institutional trading, liquidity frictions, and information flows jointly determine the cross-section of expected returns. His work delves into retail margin trading, the role of pension-fund flows in exchange-rate dynamics, the informational content of SEC filings, and the efficiency of short-selling mechanisms. By combining large-scale data analytics, textual analysis, and structural modeling, he uncovers novel predictors of returns ranging from presidential approval ratings to real-time attention measures. Recent projects explore fractional trading ’s impact on price efficiency, hedging demand as a driver of intraday momentum, and the hidden effort problem in delegated portfolio management. These themes collectively advance our understanding of limits to arbitrage and the formation of extrapolative beliefs. Publication Landscape Spanning 2025 back to 2009, his 15 most recent articles in Journal of Finance , Review of Financial Studies , Management Science , Journal of Financial Economics , and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis converge on three broad motifs: (1) micro-level trading frictions—liquidity costs, margin requirements, and short-selling constraints; (2) macro-finance linkages—exchange rates, fiscal policy, and global capital flows; and (3) information economics—attention allocation, media analytics, and regulatory disclosures. The collective evidence demonstrates that seemingly small trading or informational frictions aggregate into large, persistent cross-sectional return predictability. Honors and Awards 2017 William F. Sharpe Award for Best Paper, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Lead-article distinctions in Journal of Finance , Review of Financial Studies , and Management Science Featured coverage in SmartMoney and CNBC Teaching & Mentorship At Notre Dame’s Mendoza College, Professor Da teaches Investments (undergraduate and MBA) and Fixed Income Securities , integrating cutting-edge research insights into the curriculum. While specific advisees are not listed, his extensive co-author network (22+ recurring collaborators) attests to a vibrant mentoring environment. Laboratory & Data Resources He publicly distributes the NAT (Net Arbitrage Trading) dataset, a stock-quarter panel of arbitrage positions used in Chen, Da & Huang (2019). This resource has become a standard tool for researchers studying arbitrage capital movements.
Professor Hanumant Singh leads the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Northeastern University, with a joint appointment in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering , and serves as Program Director for the Master of Science in Robotics. He earned his Ph.D. from MIT/WHOI Joint Program in 1995 and has conducted over 60 expeditions globally, focusing on marine geology, polar studies, and coral reef ecology. His research emphasizes field robotics , including SLAM, underwater manipulation, and imaging in extreme environments. He developed the Seabed AUV and Jetyak ASV , widely used in scientific research. His labs include the Field Robotics Lab and the Institute for Experiential Robotics . Research Interests: Machine Learning for Fisheries SLAM with dynamic objects Underwater imaging and manipulation Autonomous surface and aerial systems Polar and marine robotics Awards: ICRA Best Student Paper Award, IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society Distinguished Faculty Award (2025), Lifetime Achievement Award (2022), and IEEE Fellow status. His work has been featured in Nature Geoscience , Polar Biology , and media outlets like WGBH. Students & Collaborations: Advises students like Srinidhi Pattala (MS Robotics) and Dennis Giaya (PhD Computer Engineering). Collaborates with institutions on projects such as Antarctic sea ice thickness estimation and deep-sea submersible missions.
