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Marko DragojevicView profile

Associate Professor

• Language Attitudes
• Communication Accommodation Theory
• Processing Fluency
• +4 more

Marko Dragojevic is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Kentucky's College of Communication and Information (CI). He holds a PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Dragojevic's research focuses on language attitudes, communication accommodation theory, and processing fluency, particularly examining how accent, code-mixing, and group identity influence social perceptions. His work intersects sociolinguistics, intergroup communication, and health communication. Key research areas include: Effects of accented speech on audience perceptions Code-mixing in educational and tourism materials Role of processing fluency in communication effectiveness Stereotyping based on linguistic and cultural markers Awards include the 2017 Wethington Excellence in Research Award and the 2018 James J. Bradac Early Career Award. He has led grants on topics like 'Americans’ Attitudes Toward Foreign Accents' and 'Effects of Jargon and Accent on Science Communication.' His research demonstrates trends in analyzing how linguistic features shape intergroup interactions, with implications for public health messaging, educational policy, and organizational inclusivity.

Christian PipalView profile

Researcher

• Digital political communication
• Elite behavior
• Computational social science methods

Christian Pipal is a Senior Research and Teaching Associate and External Lecturer at the Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich, Switzerland. He concurrently holds a Ph.D. researcher position at the Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam (since 2019), and has served as a Visiting Researcher at the University of Vienna (2020-2021) and a Research Associate at NEOS Lab (2018-2019). His academic journey includes a B.A. in International Development Studies (University of Vienna, 2013) and an M.A. in European Union and Russia Studies (University of Tartu, 2015). Pipal’s research focuses on digital political communication, elite behavior, and computational methods, with particular emphasis on text analysis, sentiment modeling, and multimodal data integration. His Ph.D. thesis, funded by the Horizon 2020 POLEMIC project, examines “The Emotional Rhetoric of Political Elites” , supervised by Gijs Schumacher, Mariken van der Velden, and Bert Bakker. Pipal’s work bridges political psychology, computational social science, and digital media studies, with contributions to datasets like EUSpeech V2 and methodological frameworks such as the MEXCA emotion pipeline. Pipal’s articles address challenges in computational text analysis, political tone dynamics, and social media engagement. His research agenda emphasizes overcoming gaps in validation practices, cross-lingual analysis, and methodological transparency. He has also explored TikTok’s role in political communication, NATO framing in the Ukraine conflict, and multiverse approaches to news-sharing behavior. His grants include the Horizon 2020 POLEMIC funding and collaborative projects at the NEOS Lab. Pipal actively contributes to labs like the Computational Communication Lab (University of Vienna) and co-develops tools for emotion expression analysis. His work intersects with interdisciplinary teams in political science, computer science, and behavioral psychology.

Ming XiaoView profile

Associate Professor

• Wireless Communications
• Network Coding
• Machine Learning
• +10 more

Ming Xiao is an Associate Professor in the Division of Information Science and Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology's School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). He is affiliated with the Digital Futures Faculty and leads research in wireless communications, machine learning, and network coding. His work focuses on 6G networks, distributed learning, and secure communications. Affiliations: KTH EECS, Digital Futures, Swedish Research Council, EU Horizon Europe projects Roles: Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, TPC Co-Chair for VTC Fall Research Interests: Dr. Xiao's expertise spans wireless communication systems (e.g., mmWave, NOMA), network coding, machine learning applications in communications, and energy-efficient distributed systems. He has pioneered work on intelligent reconfigurable surfaces (RIS), federated learning in edge computing, and integrated sensing-communications (ISAC). Projects: Ongoing EU-funded projects include ASCENT (autonomous vehicular networks) and COVER (unmanned aerial vehicles for emergency response). Past projects include 6G channel coding and intelligent energy management in smart communities. Grants: Over 12 active grants from VR, EU Horizon Europe, FORMAS, STINT, and VINNOVA Awards: IEEE Vehicular Technologies Society Best Paper Award (2023), World Top 2% Researcher (2020–2023), Highly Cited Researcher in Computer Science/Engineering. Labs/Teams: Leads the KTH Digital Futures initiative, collaborates with RISE Research Institutes, and manages a team of 12 PhD students/postdocs focusing on 6G, distributed ML, and secure IoT.

William BrownView profile

Adjunct Associate Professor

• Biomedical Informatics
• HIV Clinical and Behavioral Research
• Health Disparities
• +12 more

William Brown is an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), School of Medicine. He is affiliated with multiple research centers, including the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, the Division of Prevention Science, and the Bakar Computational Health Science Institute. His work bridges biomedical informatics and HIV clinical and behavioral research, with a strong emphasis on health equity and community engagement. His research interests include: Biomedical Informatics and Clinical Research Informatics mHealth and New Media for HIV prevention and treatment Semantic Harmonization and Data Integration Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities Natural Language Processing in EHRs His recent publications (2020–2025) reflect a consistent focus on leveraging digital health tools—particularly SMS, telehealth, and secure messaging—to improve chronic disease management, HIV prevention, and health equity in underserved populations. He frequently employs mixed-methods approaches and is deeply involved in the design and evaluation of patient-centered technologies. His scientific awards include: AMIA Annual Symposium Paper Competition (2nd Place, 2016) NIMH Loan Repayment Program Award (2012, renewed 2015) Academic Grant Award, Russell M. Grossman Endowment (2010) Kaiser Foundation Academic Grant Award (2009) Brown has been a Principal Investigator on NIH-funded studies related to opioid use disorder risk assessment using NLP, HIV self-testing, and secure messaging in diabetes care. He has also served as Co-Investigator on major grants focused on chronic disease disparities and learning health systems. His research often involves collaboration with community organizations and vulnerable populations, including African American, Latino, and LGBT communities. He leads the CODE Lab (Clinical and Observational Data Excellence) and has contributed significantly to the development of tools for data visualization, semantic harmonization, and patient engagement in research.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Deep Learning
• +9 more

Professor Sule Yildirim Yayilgan is a distinguished academic at the Department of Information Security and Communication Technology (IIK) within the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Gjøvik. She has held the position of Professor since 2020, following her tenure as Associate Professor from 2016-2020. Dr. Yayilgan previously served as Head of Department between 2005-2009 at HIHM (now part of NTNU). Her academic journey spans over 30 years in teaching and research, with significant contributions to interdisciplinary fields bridging AI, cybersecurity, and privacy. Her educational background includes a MSc in Computer Engineering (1995) and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science (2002). Dr. Yayilgan has led and participated in numerous international research projects funded by EU Horizon 2020, Eurostars, Erasmus+, and various Norwegian research councils. She currently leads the MR PET (Multidisciplinary Research group on Privacy and data protEcTion) research group and serves on the scientific board of NTNU's strategic area in Data Science. Dr. Yayilgan's research spans multiple domains with a unifying focus on ethical, legal, and privacy-preserving AI systems. Her work addresses critical challenges in health, energy, education, and security sectors through advanced AI methodologies. She has published over 100 journal and conference papers, with recent work focusing on hate speech detection, border security technology acceptance, smart grid security, and explainable AI applications. Her publications demonstrate a strong emphasis on practical implementations that balance technical innovation with societal considerations. As an active research leader, she currently oversees several significant projects including VIPA-DELF (vineyard disease detection using federated learning), METICOS (border control technology monitoring), CINELDI (intelligent electricity distribution), and AQMA (air quality monitoring). She also serves on multiple ethics boards and research integrity committees, reflecting her commitment to responsible innovation. Dr. Yayilgan has supervised numerous graduate students throughout her career, advising 41+2 (in progress) MSc students and 3+2 (periods) +6 (in progress) PhD candidates. Her administrative contributions include membership in NTNU's Research Integrity Committee, the Trondheim ACM Women Chapter, and various project management boards for EU-funded initiatives. She maintains active professional affiliations with IEEE, the International Association for Pattern Recognition, and COST Actions focused on language technologies and security research.

Nigel John MuskView profile

Assistant Professor

• Language learning
• Multilingualism
• Linguistic practices
• +7 more

Nigel John Musk is an Assistant Professor at Linköping University, working within the Department of Culture and Society and specifically in the Department for Language, Culture and Interaction. His academic work focuses on language education, multilingualism, and linguistic practices in social contexts. His research examines how individuals learn languages and use them in social contexts, considering how language intertwines with other resources such as movement, gaze, and object use. He approaches these topics through conversation and interaction analysis, with particular focus on educational contexts. Musk leads the research project "Revisions in digital collaborative writing," funded by the Swedish Research Council's Education Science Committee (2018-2020), which examines how upper secondary school students revise texts when writing collaboratively in English using digital tools. His research contributes to the field by conducting basic research on collaborative writing, developing refined methods to understand writing processes, and providing pedagogical recommendations. His publications from 2021-2024 focus on translation tools in language learning, collaborative writing strategies, and conversation analysis methodologies, appearing in journals like Linguistics and Education and Classroom Discourse. Musk has previously participated in the LINT research project (2008-2012) on learning and memory, and his doctoral thesis focused on bilingualism among young people in Welsh bilingual education settings. He teaches courses on interaction in language classrooms, varieties of English worldwide, and English language history. He has course responsibility for English 3 and the English Master's Year, and coordinates degree theses in English. He is affiliated with research environments including the Conversation and Interaction Seminar and the Language and Culture research environment.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Data Analytics
• Machine Learning
• +3 more

Professor Xiaohui Tao is a distinguished academic at the University of Southern Queensland's School of Mathematics, Physics and Computing, leading the Computing Discipline Team and chairing the ICT Programs Governance Committee. He holds a PhD in Information Technology from Queensland University of Technology (2009). His research focuses on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and health informatics, with over 200 publications in top journals like IEEE TKDE and conferences such as AAAI and IJCAI. He has mentored 10 doctoral students and leads a research group developing real-world AI applications. Education: PhD in Information Technology, Queensland University of Technology, 2009 Research Interests: Dr. Tao's work spans AI-driven health informatics, machine learning algorithms, natural language processing, and privacy-preserving technologies. His projects address critical challenges like mental health monitoring, smart healthcare systems, and privacy in 5G/IoT environments. Recent advancements include federated learning for unlearning mechanisms and multimodal fusion for medical decision support. Grants & Awards: Awarded Australia Research Council grants (DP220101360), Australian Endeavour Fellowships, and multiple best paper awards at conferences like BESC’22 and WI-IAT’20. Recognized for contributions to remote patient monitoring and AI in depression treatment. Labs & Teams: Leads a research group focused on AI applications in healthcare and data science, collaborating on projects like computational social science for mental health and privacy-preserving IoT systems.

Sandra GaudenziView profile

Visiting Professor

• Interactive Narratives
• Interactive Documentary (i-doc)
• Digital Media Theory
• +3 more

Dr Sandra Gaudenzi is a globally recognized academic and practitioner in interactive narratives, particularly in interactive documentaries (i-docs). She holds a Visiting Professor role at the University of Westminster, where she co-leads the Digital and Interactive Storytelling LAB MA program. She also serves as a Visiting Fellow at the Digital Cultures Research Centre (UWE, UK), co-directing the i-Docs conference and co-editing the foundational text i-docs: The Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary . Her professional background spans factual television production and over two decades of research, teaching, and consulting in digital storytelling. Gaudenzi's research focuses on interaction design in digital narratives, storytelling ideation processes, and co-creative methodologies. Notable projects include the Corona Haikus collaborative pandemic response project and her role as Creative Director of the BBC Taster's DigitalMe interactive experience. Her PhD, The Living Documentary , explores participatory reality co-creation in digital documentaries. She has presented at over 30 international conferences since 2013, including talks on AR in crisis communication, immersive trends, and ethical AI in storytelling. Gaudenzi pioneered the !F Lab training initiative (2015–2018), developing the WHAT IF IT ideation process for interactive narratives, documented in her !F Lab Field Guide . Her work bridges academic research with industry practice through workshops, symposia, and collaborative productions across Europe and South America.

• Bilingualism
• Multilingualism
• Language Acquisition
• +7 more

Josje Verhagen is a researcher at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam, specializing in Dutch Language Studies. Her work focuses on bilingualism, multilingualism, and language acquisition in early childhood, with a particular emphasis on cognitive development, statistical learning, and the use of social robots in second language education. She collaborates with institutions on projects like the Netherlands Urban Field Station and contributes to understanding how language exposure and input quality affect vocabulary growth and executive functions. Research Themes: Bilingualism, Cognitive Control, Social Robotics, Statistical Learning, Early Childhood Education Contact: j.verhagen@uva.nl Her recent publications explore topics such as family language strategies, teacher impacts on executive function, and the cognitive benefits of multilingualism. She also investigates technological interventions like robot-assisted language learning to support immigrant children’s education. No scientific awards or student advisement details are explicitly mentioned in the available data.

• Morphosyntax
• Semantics
• Pragmatics
• +4 more

Laura Margarita Merino Hernández serves as a Lecturer and Research Assistant at the Institute of Romance Studies within Humboldt University of Berlin's Faculty of Languages and Literature. Her academic work focuses on Spanish linguistics, specializing in morphosyntactic and pragmatic phenomena through empirical methodologies. She earned her Doctorate (2021) and Magistra Artium (2015) from Indiana University Bloomington. Her educational trajectory reflects strong foundations in both theoretical and applied linguistics. Merino Hernández's research spans Morphosyntax, Semantics, Pragmatics, Corpus Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Language Change, and Experimental Methods. She investigates syntactic variation in Spanish dialects using mixed-method approaches, with particular expertise in conditional constructions, impersonal structures, and register variation across communicative contexts. Her methodology integrates corpus analysis with experimental techniques to examine language processing and change. Recent publications (2023-2025) reveal concentrated research on conditionality coding in Spanish, impersonal constructions, and Canarian dialect syntax. She actively contributes to the CRC 1412 project on register variation, demonstrating engagement with large-scale collaborative research on situational language use. No scientific awards are documented in available institutional records. Current information indicates no formal student advising responsibilities. Her research participation in CRC 1412 represents institutional grant involvement, though no independent grant leadership is specified. She is an active member of the Collaborative Research Center 1412 (CRC 1412) 'Register Aspects of Language in Situation (REALIS)', contributing to interdisciplinary investigations of functional language variation across contexts and communities.

M. Sedique PopalView profile

Associate Professor

• Applied Linguistics
• Second Language Acquisition
• Sociolinguistics
• +4 more

Dr. Sedique Popal serves as Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for the MA TESOL program in the School of Education at the University of San Francisco, while also holding the position of President-Elect for the California Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (CATESOL). With extensive international teaching experience across seven countries spanning four continents, he has significantly contributed to applied linguistics education and teacher training globally. His academic credentials include: Ed.D in Education with Concentration on Second Language Acquisition from University of San Francisco (1992) MA in English with Concentration on TESOL from San Francisco State University (1985) BA in English Literature from Kabul University (1976) Dr. Popal's research integrates theoretical and practical dimensions of language education, with primary focus on Code-Switching and Code-Mixing in Bilingual Communities, TESOL methodology development, and Second Language Acquisition processes. His work emphasizes cross-cultural communication strategies and community engagement approaches to support diverse learner populations, particularly in multilingual contexts where linguistic identity intersects with educational access. His recent publications demonstrate consistent emphasis on practical classroom applications, with both books addressing foundational needs in teacher preparation. The 2022 publication on lesson planning provides structured frameworks for instructional design, while the 2021 grammar reference work targets pedagogical challenges in language instruction, collectively reflecting his commitment to bridging linguistic theory with classroom implementation. Recognition for his contributions includes: Ignatian Service Award (2022) from University of San Francisco Multiple teaching excellence awards from USF, College of Alameda, and UC Berkeley Distinguished service honors from Peralta Community Colleges and Noor Islamic and Cultural Community Center As MA TESOL Program Coordinator, Dr. Popal mentors graduate students in teacher education while maintaining active conference participation at TESOL, KOTESOL, CABE, and other major forums. His international teacher training initiatives have reached educators across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America, emphasizing culturally responsive pedagogy and practical skill development. Through founding the Noor Islamic and Cultural Community Center (NICCC), Dr. Popal leads refugee resettlement efforts for Afghan communities and operates a K-12 after-school program addressing educational gaps. His dual academic-community leadership demonstrates integrated commitment to educational equity and cross-cultural understanding in both institutional and grassroots contexts.

Shelley B. BrundageView profile

Professor

• Stuttering
• Fluency Development
• Bilingualism and Disfluency
• +3 more

Shelley B. Brundage is a full-time Professor in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences department at George Washington University's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. Her expertise lies in stuttering, fluency development, and virtual reality applications in speech therapy. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, including SLHS 6250: Stuttering, and has been recognized with prestigious awards such as the Morton Bender Teaching Award (2024) and ASHA Fellowship (2013-present). Dr. Brundage holds a Ph.D. in Communication Disorders from the University of Minnesota (1993), with a minor in Gerontology. Her research explores bilingualism's impact on disfluency, virtual reality in stuttering treatment, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). She has led grants including 'Measuring the effectiveness of virtual reality in stuttering therapy' (2024) and co-chaired the Oxford Dysfluency Conference (2023). Her work emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration, evidenced by grants spanning healthcare teams and bilingual child development. She mentors students in clinical research and has pioneered virtual learning environments for healthcare communication skills. Brundage's contributions extend to clinical practice guidelines, including consensus assessments for stuttering across the lifespan. Grants: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2024) NIDCD R13DC0192 (2021-2022) Alzheimer’s Australia Dementia Research Foundation (2015) Awards: Morton Bender Teaching Award (2024) ASHA Fellow (2013-present) Innovation in Education Prize (2014) Brundage's research bridges clinical practice and technology, with over 25 peer-reviewed publications. She advocates for evidence-based pedagogy and has developed virtual reality tools to standardize stuttering assessments. Her lab focuses on advancing both clinical interventions and educational methodologies in communication sciences.

Gavin AbercrombieView profile

Assistant Professor

• Natural Language Processing
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• +5 more

Gavin Abercrombie is an Assistant Professor at Heriot-Watt University’s School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, specializing in the Department of Computer Science. He focuses on ethical and reproducible approaches in Natural Language Processing (NLP), with a particular emphasis on fairness in human-centred systems. Research Themes : Ethical AI, bias mitigation, code-mixed text analysis, and reproducibility in human-labelled datasets. Collaborations : Active in international research networks, contributing to advancements in NLP and computational linguistics. Recent publications highlight his work on gender stereotypes in AI emotion attribution, reproducibility challenges in sentiment analysis, and counterspeech frameworks against hate speech. His research aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those addressing social justice and responsible innovation.

Olga KellertView profile

Lecturer

• Sociolinguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Historical Linguistics
• +7 more

Dr. Olga Kellert serves as a Lecturer in the Department of Romance Philology within the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Göttingen, where she conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of sociolinguistics, computational linguistics, and historical Romance linguistics. Her work bridges traditional linguistic analysis with cutting-edge digital methodologies, particularly focusing on language variation in social media contexts and diachronic syntactic change. Her research encompasses three primary domains: (1) Sociolinguistic analysis of code-switching and language variation using geolocated social media data, particularly examining Spanish-French interactions in Quebec and Spanish-Italian dynamics in South America; (2) Computational approaches to sentiment analysis and linguistic modeling, with emphasis on syntax-aware NLP systems; (3) Historical evolution of quantificational structures in Romance languages, especially indefinites and free choice items across Old and Modern Italian, Spanish, and Catalan. Current projects include the sociocomputational assessment of belief states among vulnerable indigenous groups in Latin American crises (funded through international collaboration with Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, and Austria) and geospatial analysis of urban linguistic variation using Twitter data. Her publication trajectory reveals a strategic evolution from foundational work in Romance syntax and prosody toward increasingly computational methodologies, with recent publications heavily featuring NLP applications, geotagged linguistic analysis, and interdisciplinary crisis communication research. This shift reflects broader trends in digital humanities while maintaining deep roots in Romance linguistic theory. Habilitation Completion Grant from the Faculty of Humanities, University of Göttingen Dr. Kellert actively supervises student project work on language mixing in social media contexts and collaborates extensively through the University of Göttingen's CRC 'Textstrukturen' research center. Her grant portfolio demonstrates significant international collaboration, particularly with Latin American institutions on crisis communication projects and European partners on historical linguistics initiatives. Current funding includes DFG support for 'Quantification in Old Italian' and international partnerships for sociolinguistic crisis response research. Her research operates within the Collaborative Research Center 'Textstrukturen' at the University of Göttingen, where she contributes to interdisciplinary teams combining linguistic theory, computational methods, and sociocultural analysis. Recent projects involve cross-institutional teams spanning Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Austria, France, and Italy, with particular emphasis on community-engaged research with indigenous populations in Latin America.

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Artificial Intelligence
• Software Engineering
• +7 more

Nadeem Faisal is an Assistant Professor at National Textile University, Pakistan , a Postdoctoral Researcher at the IVU Laboratory (Department of Computer Science, University of Bari, Italy), and a Senior Researcher with the Human Communication and Interaction Group (University of Oviedo, Spain). His academic journey spans 15+ years of teaching and research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) , Artificial Intelligence , and Software Engineering . Current Roles : Assistant Professor (NTU), Postdoctoral Researcher (IVU Lab, Bari), Senior Researcher (HCI-RG, Oviedo) Key Research Areas : Software requirements, AI, UX design, smart systems, human-centered technology Education : B.S. Information Technology (2005, AIOU, Pakistan) M.S. Computer Science (2009, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden) Ph.D. Computer Engineering (2017, University of Oviedo, Spain) Research Trends from his 15 most recent publications (2023–2025) show sustained focus on Human-Computer Interaction (mobile UX, educational apps), AI/ML applications (medical imaging, crop disease detection, sentiment analysis), and Smart Systems (IoT, security surveillance). His work bridges technical innovation with real-world applications in healthcare, education, and sustainability. Scientific Collaborations : EU-funded research contributions International partnerships with institutions in Spain, Sweden, and Italy Advising : Supervised 40+ postgraduate students across AI, HCI, and software engineering. Current research involves mentoring teams in deep learning for medical imaging at IVU Lab and developing augmented reality tools for special education. Labs & Teams : IVU Laboratory (University of Bari, Italy) Human Communication and Interaction Group (University of Oviedo, Spain) Collaborative projects with institutions in Sweden, Spain, and Pakistan