Carol J. Smith is an Adjunct Instructor at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) and a Research Scientist at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). She focuses on improving the design of AI/ML systems through UX and HCI methods to build trustworthy technologies. Her work emphasizes ethical AI, user trust, and human-AI collaboration. Research Interests: Trustworthy AI systems Ethical design of AI User experience (UX) in AI development Bias mitigation in machine learning Human-AI teaming frameworks Awards: 2023: Listed among 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™ 2021–2025: ACM Distinguished Speaker Labs/Teams: Software Engineering Institute (SEI) HCII's AI Ethics and Trustworthiness Research Group
Mohammad Sadoghi is a Professor at the University of California, Davis, with former affiliations at Purdue University, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, and the University of Toronto. His research focuses on distributed systems, blockchain technologies, consensus protocols, and fault-tolerant computing. He has contributed extensively to transaction processing, stream processing architectures, and the integration of edge-cloud systems with blockchain frameworks. Current Affiliation: University of California, Davis Former Affiliations: Purdue University, IBM, University of Toronto Research Interests include consensus algorithms, Byzantine fault tolerance, distributed ledger technologies, and scalable data processing. He has pioneered systems like ResilientDB and ByShard, addressing challenges in global-scale distributed systems and blockchain fabrics. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical implementations, emphasizing real-world applications in edge computing and hybrid cloud-edge environments. Key publications highlight advancements in consensus protocols, blockchain scalability, and fault-tolerant architectures. Recent trends in his work focus on concurrent consensus mechanisms, DAG-based systems, and secure geo-replication. Contributions span both academic publications and industry-oriented solutions, such as the Bedrock platform for BFT protocol analysis. Grants and advising roles are implied through his extensive research output, though specific grants are not detailed in the provided text. His collaborations include projects on self-curating databases (e.g., L-Store) and systems like SplitJoin for stream processing.
Vedhus Hoskere is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston. His research focuses on interdisciplinary areas at the intersection of civil engineering, computer science, and robotics, emphasizing automated infrastructure inspection, machine learning, and AI-driven solutions for structural health monitoring. He holds the Liu Huixian Earthquake Engineering Scholarship (2018) for his work on automated post-earthquake building inspections. Key research areas include image analysis, machine learning, robotics, scientific computing, and visualization. His work integrates computer vision with civil infrastructure challenges, such as flood modeling, structural damage assessment, and autonomous inspection systems using drones and robotics. Notable projects include developing digital twin frameworks for bridges, synthetic environment testing for inspection algorithms, and semi-supervised learning for disaster damage analysis. His recent publications highlight advancements in transformer networks for instance segmentation, physics-informed generative models for damage assessment, and AI-driven hurricane resilience strategies. Hoskere collaborates on platforms like InstaDam for automated damage segmentation and explores Bayesian neural networks for quantifying uncertainties in infrastructure monitoring. Key Awards: Liu Huixian Earthquake Engineering Scholarship (2018) Advising & Labs: While no specific student names or grant details are provided, his research group likely focuses on robotics, computer vision, and AI applications in civil engineering. He contributes to open-source tools like the InstaDam platform and collaborates with institutions like the University of Illinois and USACE.
Nisar Ahmed is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado within the Aerospace Engineering Sciences department. His research focuses on the intersection of Artificial Intelligence , Robotics , and Autonomous Systems , emphasizing decision-making under uncertainty, sensor fusion, and human-machine collaboration. Key research interests include: Active Inference for autonomous planning Decentralized Data Fusion in multi-robot systems Machine Self-Confidence and competency assessment Reinforcement Learning for spacecraft and robotic guidance Uncertainty Quantification in dynamic environments Recent publications highlight trends in Pareto-optimal decision-making , Bayesian optimization , contextual bandits , and trust calibration for UAS and planetary rovers. His work integrates probabilistic modeling with real-time autonomy , ensuring robustness in applications like search-and-rescue missions and lunar exploration. Contact: Nisar.Ahmed@Colorado.EDU
Peter Behrensdorff Poulsen serves as Solar Photovoltaic Systems Group Leader at the Department of Electrical and Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU). His work spans photovoltaic research, solar-powered lighting systems, and drone-based inspection technologies within DTU's College of Engineering. His research focuses on Solar Cell Engineering , Photovoltaic Modules , and Drone Applications for renewable energy systems. Key areas include bifacial photovoltaics, electroluminescence imaging diagnostics, building-integrated photovoltaics, and ultra-efficient solar-powered lighting solutions. His work significantly contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to affordable clean energy and sustainable cities. Recent publications reveal strong trends in AI-driven PV diagnostics , bifacial module performance in northern climates, and dark-sky compatible lighting systems . His research bridges fundamental photovoltaic science with practical applications in urban infrastructure and environmental sustainability. Best Poster Award at 44th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference Best Poster Award at 48th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference Characterizing the Performance of Daylight Filters for Electroluminescence Imaging Poster Award at 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference Poster Prize at Sustain 2017 Poulsen leads multiple research grants including the Ultra-efficient Dark Sky-compatible Solar-powered Outdoor Lighting project (2024-2026) and previously managed the DronEL project (2017-2019) for drone-based PV inspection. His work connects photovoltaic engineering with practical lighting applications through the Lighting Color and Radiation Laboratory. He actively collaborates with industry partners on building-integrated photovoltaics and solar-powered infrastructure solutions, with notable projects including the Plateau Sun Hub public charging stations and Black Si BIPV panel development.
Yongfeng Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University. He is also the Director of the AIOS Foundation . His research focuses on Machine Learning, Data Mining, Recommender Systems, and Explainable AI , with notable contributions to fair and personalized AI, AI for science, and social good. Education and Experience: PhD in CS (2011–2016) from Tsinghua University Postdoc at UMass Amherst (2016–2017) Joined Rutgers as Assistant Professor (2018), promoted to Tenured Associate Professor (2024) Research Interests: Machine Learning, Data Mining, Information Retrieval, Recommender Systems, Natural Language Processing, ML Systems, AI Agents, Explainable AI, Fairness, and AI for Science. Recent Achievements: Received the 2024 ACM SIGIR Test of Time Award, 2024 Presidential Teaching Excellence Award, and multiple NSF grants. He has advised over 15 PhD students and led projects on trustworthy AI, generative recommendation, and causal inference. Awards: 2024 ACM SIGIR Test of Time Award 2021 NSF CAREER Award 2015 Microsoft PhD Fellowship Grants & Labs: Led NSF grants on explainable AI, conversational recommendation, and neural-symbolic AI. Active in the AIOS platform development and multiple research labs.
Dr. Meredith Carroll is a Professor of Aviation Human Factors and Director of the ATLAS Lab at Florida Institute of Technology's College of Aeronautics. She holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia, an M.S. in Aviation Science from Florida Tech, and a Ph.D. in Applied Experimental Psychology and Human Factors from the University of Central Florida. Her research focuses on human performance in aviation systems, including decision-making under stress, human-autonomy teaming, advanced air mobility (AAM), and cybersecurity education. Key research initiatives include: Investigating trust dynamics in human-agent teams funded by AFOSR User-centered design of multi-UAV ground control stations for NASA eVTOL battery display design and pilot interface studies Cybersecurity curriculum development for underrepresented high school students Adaptive flight training strategies funded by the Naval Air Warfare Center Her lab facilities include Florida Tech's Center for Aeronautics and Innovation with advanced flight simulators and UAS testing environments. Current projects explore VR training immersion effects, multi-agent team repair strategies, and AAM operational challenges. She advises 12+ graduate and undergraduate researchers and collaborates with industry partners like P17 Solutions and Rockwell Collins. Recent publications emphasize trust calibration in autonomous systems, IoT-based cybersecurity education, and adaptive training efficacy. She has secured grants from NASA, FAA, AFRL, ONR, and NAWC totaling over $5M in external funding.
Dr. Yuanyuan Yuan is a Researcher at the Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, based at CNB H 104.1, Universitätstrasse 6, 8092 Zurich. Her work bridges computer security and machine learning with a focus on practical vulnerabilities in deployed AI systems. Her research centers on exposing and mitigating security flaws in deep learning deployments, particularly targeting trusted execution environments (TEEs) and on-device inference systems. Key contributions include pioneering side-channel attacks against TEE-shielded neural networks (CipherSteal, HyperTheft), bit-flip attack surfaces in DNN executables (BitShield), and novel testing methodologies for neural network robustness. She investigates cache/timing side channels, ciphertext analysis, privacy leakage in partitioned ML, and concept-based explainability. Analysis of her 2023-2025 publications reveals a cohesive focus on offensive security research for AI infrastructures, with consistent contributions to top venues in security and machine learning. Her work demonstrates expertise in low-level system interactions (memory, cryptography) applied to ML security, spanning attack vectors, defensive mechanisms, and validation frameworks. The research trajectory shows increasing sophistication in exploiting hardware-software interfaces while developing practical hardening techniques for real-world deployments.
Alfonso Emilio Gerevini is a prominent researcher in artificial intelligence with over 30 years of continuous academic contributions. His work spans theoretical foundations of automated planning to practical healthcare applications, with recent publications demonstrating significant impact in both traditional AI domains and emerging interdisciplinary areas. His research interests focus on automated planning systems , temporal reasoning , and multi-agent coordination , with recent expansion into healthcare applications using machine learning techniques. Gerevini has made fundamental contributions to planning algorithms, particularly in width-based search, case-based planning, and privacy-preserving multi-agent planning. His work on PDDL (Planning Domain Definition Language) has been influential in standardizing planning representations. Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals a strategic evolution from core planning research toward impactful healthcare applications, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. While maintaining his expertise in planning algorithms, he has successfully integrated machine learning techniques to address real-world medical challenges including radiology report analysis, prognosis prediction, and lab test interpretation. His work demonstrates exceptional versatility across both theoretical and applied domains of artificial intelligence. Gerevini maintains a robust collaborative network, primarily with Italian researchers including Ivan Serina, Alessandro Saetti, and Luca Putelli. His publications appear consistently in top-tier AI venues including Artificial Intelligence journal, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, and AAAI/ICAPS conferences. The collaborative patterns suggest he leads a significant research group focused on advancing planning systems while applying them to critical real-world problems.
Dr. Julian Hough is an Associate Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Swansea University, affiliated with the School of Mathematics and Computer Science under the Faculty of Science and Engineering. His research focuses on improving human-agent interaction through Natural Language Processing (NLP) and AI, emphasizing ethical and quality outcomes in human-robot collaboration. His work spans Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), dialogue systems, and cognitive applications of speech technology. Notable projects include the FLUIDITY initiative exploring virtual reality platforms for HRI and the ARCIDUCA project annotating dialogue using conversational agents in games. He has secured significant grants, including a £587,000 EPSRC New Investigator Award for FLUIDITY and a £1.09M EPSRC grant for ARCIDUCA. Research interests include multimodal communication, disfluency analysis in dialogue, and applying LLMs to word sense disambiguation. His work often bridges computational linguistics with practical robotics and health technology, such as analyzing wearable sleep-tracker subjectivity and detecting Alzheimer’s through speech patterns. Collaborations span institutions globally, with contributions to workshops and conferences on HRI and dialogue systems. He actively supervises postgraduate research in areas like incremental intention recognition and computational law semantics.
Camelia D. Brumar is a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at Tufts University and a Visiting PhD Student at Harvard University's Visual Computing Group. She co-founded Boston Vis , a collaborative network for visualization researchers in the Greater Boston Area. Education: B.S. in Theoretical Mathematics from University of Maryland, College Park Research Focus: Systematic visualization design for decision-making processes, bridging gaps between problem spaces and design spaces through qualitative methods Her work intersects Visual Analytics , Human-Computer Interaction , and Machine Learning , with recent publications on decision-making taxonomies, dimensionality reduction explanations, and knowledge graph visualization. Key trends include: Interactive predicate logic for pattern explanation Domain expert challenges in automated data science Anomaly reasoning frameworks Medical AI applications for embryo grading Scientific Achievements: Organizer of Boston Vis (2024) Tutorial presenter on LLMs for research paper interaction (2024) IEEE Visualization 2024 Doctoral Colloquium participant Contributor to Dagstuhl Seminar on provenance in automated data science (2023) Industry experience includes roles at Tableau Research , Alife Health , and Bose Corporation , with collaborations spanning MIT Lincoln Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Dr. Yu (Chelsea) Jin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University at Buffalo, specializing in quality inspection, predictive modeling, and data analytics for advanced manufacturing systems. She holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Arkansas, an ME from the University of Michigan, and dual BS degrees in Network Engineering and Finance from Jinan University. Her research focuses on integrating machine learning and physics-based models to optimize manufacturing processes, such as additive manufacturing, PCB assembly, and pharmaceutical distribution systems. She has developed frameworks like ReflowNet for reflow oven optimization and physics-informed neural networks for thermal profile prediction. Her work emphasizes both theoretical advancements and practical applications in smart manufacturing and healthcare logistics. Dr. Jin's recent publications highlight contributions to generative AI for knowledge retrieval, AGV system optimization, and multi-source transfer learning for pandemic modeling. She actively collaborates with industry partners to bridge academic research and real-world manufacturing challenges.
Tushar Athawale is a Research Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and a Joint Faculty Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His primary research focuses on uncertainty visualization, statistical data analysis, and high-performance computing for large-scale scientific data. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Florida (2015) and has held roles including Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Utah's Scientific Computing & Imaging Institute and Application Support Engineer at MathWorks. His academic and professional affiliations include ORNL's Computer Science and Mathematics Division, the IEEE Visualization Conference program chair (2025), and associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. He has organized workshops, tutorials, and served on program committees for major visualization conferences. Key research interests span uncertainty quantification, topological methods, and visualization techniques for biomedical imaging, fusion simulations, and quantum computing. His work emphasizes trustworthy scientific data analysis through advanced visualization frameworks like VTK-m and implicit neural representations. Awards include ORNL's 2024 Special Award and Best Paper Honorable Mention at the IEEE Uncertainty Visualization Workshop 2024. His contributions bridge visualization theory with practical applications in exascale computing and AI-driven decision-making.
Brian Mitchell is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Drexel University's College of Computing & Informatics (CCI). He brings over two decades of combined industry and academic experience, transitioning fully into academia in 2022 after serving as a Distinguished Engineer at a Fortune 15 company. His work bridges cutting-edge research and practical innovation in software systems. Drexel University, College of Computing & Informatics, Department of Computer Science Education: PhD in Computer Science, Drexel University MS in Computer Science, Drexel University BS in Computer Science, Drexel University ME in Computer & Telecommunication Engineering, Widener University Brian Mitchell's research centers on the intersection of Software Engineering, Software Architecture, Cloud Native Computing, and AI . His early foundational work helped establish the field of Search-Based Software Engineering (SBSE) , particularly in automated software clustering and architecture recovery. Recently, his focus has shifted to modern challenges in cloud-native environments , including misconfiguration detection, malware analysis, and resilient system design. He integrates security, scalability, and intelligent automation into software engineering practices. His recent publications reflect a clear trend toward AI-enhanced cloud-native systems , emphasizing automated analysis, security, and architectural robustness. These works appear in AI and cloud computing venues, showing interdisciplinary engagement. The evolution from source code clustering to cloud-native engineering illustrates his adaptability and leadership in emerging domains. Scientific Awards: Best Paper Award, GECCO'03 Best Paper Award, WCRE'01 Brian is actively involved in mentoring students and encourages research collaboration, particularly with those seeking deeper engagement beyond coursework. He emphasizes hands-on learning and uses modern tools like GitHub and Discord in his teaching. While no specific grants are listed, his industry leadership in digital innovation and open-source contributions suggests strong applied research support. He previously led large engineering teams and drove disruptive technological adoption in enterprise settings. Though no formal lab name is mentioned, his research group appears focused on software architecture, cloud systems, and AI-driven engineering , likely operating under informal or course-based research initiatives. His website and GitHub presence (@ArchitectingSoftware) suggest an active, open, and collaborative environment for student research.
Ammar Mian is an Associate Professor at Université Savoie Mont Blanc, affiliated with the LISTIC lab and Polytech Annecy-Chambéry. He holds a PhD from CentraleSupélec (2016-2019) and conducted postdoctoral research at Aalto University (2019-2020). His research focuses on statistical signal processing, machine learning, and Riemannian geometry with applications in remote sensing and frugal computations. He leads the Qanat project, an experiment tracking tool for reproducible research. Research interests include covariance-based methods for SAR image analysis, robust detection algorithms for sonar and GPR systems, and optimization on Riemannian manifolds. His work emphasizes reproducibility in ML and efficient computational techniques for resource-constrained environments. Key contributions include real-time SAR time-series change detection, robust classification using second-order deep learning models, and novel methods for handling missing data in EEG signals. His recent articles (2023-2025) explore reproducibility frameworks, GPR-based object classification, and Riemannian geometry applications. No awards listed, but maintains active collaborations through LISTIC and industry partnerships. Advises students via internship programs (e.g., Federated ML energy cost analysis). Lab work involves developing open-source tools like Qanat for experiment management and reproducibility.
