Dr Bahareh Zaghari (MSc, PhD, CEng, FHEA) is a Lecturer in the Electrical Power Engineering group at the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science. Her research focuses on electrified aircraft systems, sensors with machine learning applications, electrical power systems, and nonlinear dynamics modeling. Current projects include acoustic sensing for temperature/flow measurement Co-design of electrical machines for aircraft electrification Research activities span hybrid-electric aircraft design (FutPrint50 Horizon project), fully electric aircraft development (EnabEl Innovate UK), and smart sensing systems for aerospace components. Industrial collaborations include KISTLER, iNetic, PALL Aerospace, Safran, ARUP, Embraer, and BAE Systems. Conference coordinator for IEEE Transportation Electrification Council's Electrified Aircraft committee Chair of IEEE/AIAA Electrified Aircraft Technology Symposium (2023) Panel moderator at AIAA Propulsion and Energy (2021) Her work demonstrates innovative applications of acoustic transducers in harsh environments, with contributions to temperature mapping, fault analysis, and energy harvesting systems. She currently supervises PhD student Shikhar Singh.
Lauren Andrews serves as Associate Professor and Marvin and Eva Schlanger Faculty Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research integrates synthetic biology and genetic engineering to develop programmable cellular systems for biotechnological applications. Education: Postdoctoral Training: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Biological Engineering and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard) PhD: University of Colorado Boulder, Chemical Engineering (2012) MS: University of Colorado Boulder, Chemical Engineering (2009) BS: Cornell University, Chemical Engineering (2006) Dr. Andrews' research focuses on establishing genetic design rules for reprogramming cellular regulation and metabolism. Her lab pioneers synthetic gene networks, genetically-encoded biosensors, and high-throughput methodologies for optimizing genetic designs in both model and non-model bacteria. This work enables precise control of cellular sensing, memory, and environmental responses through multiplexed DNA assembly and next-generation sequencing. Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals dominant themes in bacterial biosensor development (particularly for bioremediation), quorum sensing engineering, and programmable genetic circuits for probiotic applications. Her research consistently bridges fundamental genetic circuit design with practical implementations in bacterial consortia and non-model organisms. Scientific Awards: Marvin and Eva Schlanger Faculty Fellowship NSF CAREER Award (2020) for "Programmable synthetic microbial consortia for complex multicellular functions" Her grant portfolio demonstrates significant funding for collaborative research in bacterial communication systems and model-guided design of synthetic ecosystems. The Andrews Lab maintains active partnerships with the MIT-Broad Foundry and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where she co-founded the Synthetic Biology Summer Course. Current projects focus on CRISPR-based regulation in non-model bacteria and algorithmic programming of sequential logic in probiotic strains. The Andrews Lab operates within the Life Science Laboratories at UMass Amherst, utilizing advanced facilities for genetic prototyping and high-throughput screening. Her team develops multiplexed tools for exploring genetic design spaces, with particular emphasis on soil bacteria and Gram-positive pathogens for environmental and therapeutic applications.
Ambuj Varshney is an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Computing , leading the WEISER research group . His work bridges electronics, wireless communication, computer science, and AI with a focus on creating ultra-low-power embedded systems for sustainable IoT deployments. University of California, Berkeley: Postdoctoral Scholar (2020-2022) Uppsala University: PhD in Sustainable Networked Systems NXP Semiconductors: Software Engineer (prior to PhD) Bachelors in Information & Communication Technology Research interests center on overcoming wireless systems' energy asymmetry through tunnel diode oscillators , LiFi-RF hybrid networks , and battery-free communication architectures . His group develops STICORS —sticker-like computers for industrial and medical monitoring. Recent publications demonstrate AudioCast 's FM-band utilization for 130m transmission, TunnelSense 's vital monitoring, and PixelGen 's diffusion model cameras. These works combine IoT sustainability, spectrum efficiency, and hardware innovation . 2024: Google Research Scholar Award 2023: MobiSys Best Demonstration 2021: Berkeley FORM+FUND Fellowship 2019: ABB's $300K Research Award As an educator, he teaches CS4222 Wireless Networking and CS5272 Embedded Software Design . Past students include Wenqing Yan (NUS/UCB PhD), Qiao Yukai , and Kunjun Li . His team collaborates with Prabal Dutta (UCB), Christian Rohner (Uppsala), and Prateek Saxena (NUS).
Nabil Alshurafa is an Associate Professor at Northwestern University, holding joint appointments in the McCormick School of Engineering (Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering) and the Feinberg School of Medicine (Preventive Medicine). He directs the HABits Lab, which focuses on developing mHealth systems to address health behaviors such as overeating, stress, and UV exposure. His work integrates wearable sensors, machine learning, and behavioral science to create passive sensing solutions. Education: PhD in Computer Science and Wireless Health (UCLA), MS and BS in Computer Science (UCLA). Research Interests: Body sensor networks, activity recognition, embedded systems, and health informatics. His lab designs wearable devices (e.g., neck-worn sensors, UV patches) and AI frameworks to detect behaviors like eating patterns and stress levels. Collaborations include domain experts in medicine and engineering to translate technical innovations into clinical interventions. Recent Projects: Developing systems for stress monitoring via ECG-PPG patches, UV exposure tracking, and just-in-time interventions for overeating. The lab emphasizes ethical design, privacy preservation, and user-centered technology. Students and Lab Team: Supervises PhD, MS, and undergraduate researchers in areas like machine learning, embedded systems, and health data analytics. Notable advisees include Rawan Alharbi (PhD candidate), Shibo Zhang (PhD student), and Wilson Wang (MS student). Labs/Teams: HABits Lab collaborates with experts in Preventive Medicine, Psychiatry, and Dermatology to advance interdisciplinary health research. Current projects include predictive analytics for weight loss and interventions targeting maternal stress during pregnancy.
Yang Weng is an Associate Professor at the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University. He leads the U.S.-Israel International Consortium on Energy Cyber Initiative on Cybersecurity R&D and directs a research lab focused on smart grid resilience and machine learning applications. Previously, he was a TomKat Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University. Education: Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University M.S. in Machine Learning, Carnegie Mellon University Research: His interdisciplinary work bridges power systems, machine learning, and cybersecurity, emphasizing renewable integration, grid optimization, and cyber-physical resilience. Key themes include physics-informed AI, adversarial robustness in energy infrastructure, and real-time control algorithms for dynamic grids. Publications: Recent articles (2024–2025) demonstrate strong trends in AI-driven grid security, adaptive control under uncertainty, and climate-impact modeling. Dominant domains include neural network applications for stability guarantees, cyber-attack mitigation, and data-efficient renewable integration. Awards: NSF CAREER Award (2021), Amazon Research Award (2023) Best Paper Awards at IEEE SmartGridComm (2012, 2013), PES GM (2014), PMAPS (2016) IEEE Senior Member, Sun Award (ASU), Centennial Award (ASU) Grants & Leadership: Secured DOE, NSF, and AFOSR funding for projects on AI-enhanced grid resilience. Advises PhD/postdoc candidates and chairs the U.S.-Israel Energy Center consortium. Organized international workshops (e.g., ICRDE 2023) and validated research via hardware-in-the-loop experiments. Lab & Team: Directs a research group developing deployable ML solutions for utilities (e.g., OPAL-RT collaborations). Focus areas: cybersecurity toolchains, reinforcement learning for grid control, and anomaly detection architectures.
Andrew Markham is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford , affiliated with Kellogg College . He leads a research group focusing on Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) , specializing in sensors, signal processing, and machine learning to enable machines to better perceive the physical world. His work emphasizes cross-disciplinary collaboration, notably in wildlife tracking and indoor positioning systems. He has held roles as a Postdoctoral Fellow (2008-2012), Associate Professor (2013), and Full Professor (2021). Education : PhD in Electrical Engineering (University of Cape Town, 2008), BSc (Hons) in Electrical Engineering (2004). Research Interests : Tracking and localization in GPS-denied environments (e.g., underground, indoors), magneto-inductive systems, physics-informed machine learning, and data-driven approaches for noisy sensor data. His projects include wildlife monitoring via wireless sensor networks and mmWave radar for human motion capture. Key Projects : CARACAL acoustic monitoring system, mmPoint dense human tracking, and RandLA-Net for large-scale point cloud segmentation. His work spans robotics, environmental sensing, and biomedical applications. Advising & Grants : Supervises over 30 students and collaborates with industrial partners. Research teams include Cyber Physical Systems, Autonomous Ubiquitous Sensing, and Wildlife Monitoring initiatives. Labs/Teams : Leads the CPS research group, focusing on sensor networks, inertial navigation, and multimodal fusion systems. Collaborates with zoology and earth science disciplines on applied projects.
Professor Ruchi Choudhary is a Professor in Architectural Engineering at the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering, within the School of Technology. She leads the Energy Efficient Cities initiative (EECi), a cross-disciplinary research project focused on strengthening the UK's capacity to address energy demand reduction and environmental impact in cities through research in building and transport technologies, district power systems, and urban planning. Her research interests span urban energy systems, building energy modeling, sustainable cities, geothermal energy systems, and data-driven energy modeling . She has pioneered work in digital twins for energy systems, urban subsurface thermal modeling, and building-integrated agriculture. Her research group develops numerical tools to improve energy efficiency of cities, with particular focus on modeling energy consumption of large building sets at multiple time and spatial resolutions. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong trend toward integrating machine learning with physics-based modeling for energy systems, with increasing emphasis on uncertainty quantification, digital twins, and value of information analysis for decision-making. Her work bridges the gap between theoretical modeling and practical urban implementation, with significant focus on city-scale geothermal potential, underground climate change impacts, and energy equity considerations. Professor Choudhary has supervised numerous PhD students who have gone on to prominent positions at institutions including UCL, University of Cambridge, BEIS, Arup, and various international universities. Her research group includes faculty members, research associates, graduate students, and international collaborators from institutions worldwide. Her current research focuses on two parallel investigations: one on using multi-scale multidisciplinary models to address energy use questions in the built environment, and second, on quantifying uncertainties in model outcomes. Current projects include integration of food production in urban environments, analysis of underground transport systems as energy sources, large-scale integration of ground source heat pumps, and distributed energy networks.
Claire Donnat is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Chicago, specializing in statistical and machine learning methods for graph-structured and high-dimensional data. Her work bridges theoretical innovation with applications in biomedical research, environmental science, and public health. Education: B.S. and M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Ecole Polytechnique; Ph.D. in Statistics from Stanford University (2020). Her research focuses on three methodological directions: (1) statistical foundations for graph neural networks (GNNs), (2) structured estimation with graph constraints, and (3) multimodal data integration with uncertainty quantification. Key applications include thermotolerance in photosynthetic microbes, family network analysis for child welfare, and spatial transcriptomics. The 15 most recent publications highlight her work in GNNs, CCA, tensor modeling, and epidemic analysis, with keywords spanning statistics, machine learning, and network science. Her methodological contributions address challenges in sparsity, graph topology, and heterogeneous data fusion. Scientific Awards: Facebook Research Award (2021), C3.AI COVID Grand Challenge winner (2020), Lumiata hackathon winner (2020), Stanford Centennial Award (2019), and others. Claire's research group actively recruits postdocs and students for projects involving graph-based modeling, data integration, and biomedical applications. She also provides research consulting in statistical methodology and graph modeling for life sciences.
Habib Ullah is an Associate Professor in Data Science at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norway, where he conducts research at the intersection of computer vision and machine learning. He is affiliated with the Institute of Data Science under the Faculty of Science and Technology. He has previously held academic positions at COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan, and the University of Ha'il, Saudi Arabia, and served as a postdoctoral researcher at The Arctic University of Norway. Educational Background: PhD in Information and Communication Technology (Computer Vision), University of Trento, Italy (2011–2015) MSc in Electronics and Computer Engineering, Hanyang University, South Korea (2007–2009) BSc in Computer Systems Engineering, NWFP University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan (2002–2006) Habib Ullah's research is primarily focused on computer vision and machine learning, with applications in aquaculture, agriculture, and human behavior analysis. He investigates underwater fish feeding sounds using audio classification, develops zero-shot learning models for recognizing unseen classes, and applies deep learning to detect stress in salmon via skin dot patterns. He also explores AI-driven controlled environment agriculture, leveraging sensors and automation for optimal crop growth. His work emphasizes practical AI solutions for real-world challenges in environmental and biological domains. The recent publications highlight a strong trend in leveraging deep learning for zero-shot and semi-supervised learning, particularly in computer vision tasks such as sea ice classification, crowd anomaly detection, and agricultural monitoring. His research spans remote sensing, biomedical signal processing, and human activity recognition, demonstrating interdisciplinary versatility. The keywords reflect a focus on robust feature representation, knowledge transfer, and model generalization. Scientific Awards and Funding: Industrial PhD grant 'Advancing Controlled Environment Agriculture AI' from The Research Council of Norway (Project number 354125, 2 million NOK, 2024) Team member (Coordinator-Participant) in the Battery Cell Assembly Twin (BatCAT) project funded by Horizon Europe (7 mEuro, 2023–2027) Development of an AI-Based Image Analysis System for Monitoring Plant Status (Funding: 1.8 mNOK, starting 2025) Habib Ullah actively supervises PhD projects and contributes to academic service through editorial and organizational roles. He has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Access, Guest Editor for MDPI Remote Sensing, and Editor of the Springer book Machine Learning Techniques and Sensor Applications for Human Emotion, Activity Recognition, and Support (ML-SHEARS) . He has also been a Track Chair and Program Committee Member for several international conferences, reflecting his leadership in the academic community. His research is supported by significant grants and collaborative projects, indicating strong institutional and international engagement. He is involved in multiple research teams and projects, including the BatCAT project on battery manufacturing and AI applications in controlled environment agriculture with RIFT LABS AS. His lab work integrates deep learning, sensor fusion, and data analytics for environmental and biological monitoring systems.
Prof. Dr. Jing Wang is a Full Professor at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zürich. His research focuses on air pollution control, nanoparticle transport, and environmental health and safety (EHS) impacts of nanomaterials. He has held roles including Assistant Professor at ETH Zürich (2010–present), Research Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota (2007–2010), and postdoctoral associate in Particle Technology (2005–2007). Education: Bachelor’s in Engineering (2000) – Tsinghua University, Beijing Master’s in Computer Sciences (2003) – University of Minnesota PhD in Aerospace Engineering (2005) – University of Minnesota Research Interests: Air/water filtration technologies Nanoparticle emission reduction and measurement Multiphase flow mechanics Environmental impacts of nanomaterials Collaborations: Industrial partnerships include 3M, BASF, Boeing, Intel, Samsung, and others in nanoparticle measurement and filtration solutions. Honors: 2011 Smoluchowski Award (Association for Aerosol Research) 2006 ‘Best Dissertation’ Award (University of Minnesota) 2004 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship Teaching: Courses include Air Pollution Control, Environmental Engineering Seminars, and Excursions for Environmental Engineers. Labs/Teams: Leads the Particle Technology Lab and collaborates with the Institute of Environmental Engineering at ETH Zürich.
Dr. Li Wan is an Associate Professor in Urban Planning and Development at the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. He serves as Director for the MPhil in Planning, Growth and Regeneration and is a co-investigator of the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction. Dr. Wan is also a Trustee of the IJURR Foundation and leads a research group focused on understanding urban land and transport development through applied modeling and data analytics. Dr. Wan holds a BArch, MPhil, and PhD from the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining Land Economy, he worked in Architecture and Engineering Departments, giving him a highly interdisciplinary perspective. His research focuses on spatial economic modeling of urban land use and transport systems, with recent interests including strategic planning at city/regional levels, impact studies of flexible working, micromobility, and electric vehicles. Dr. Wan's research group has produced significant work in city digital twins, as evidenced by his 2023 book Digital Twins for Smart Cities: Conceptualisation, challenges and practices . His publications span urban analytics, transport emissions, spatial equilibrium modeling, and economic geography, demonstrating the interdisciplinary nature of his work. Recent research trends show increasing focus on post-pandemic urban dynamics, digital governance, and sustainable mobility solutions. His research group has secured funding from initiatives like AI@Cam for projects examining how local authorities use AI for urban decision-making. Dr. Wan actively supervises PhD and MPhil students, with his group comprising researchers working on diverse urban topics from land-use efficiency to micromobility impacts. As an educator, Dr. Wan teaches courses including Tripos Paper 10 - The Built Environment, PGR01 - Urban and Environmental Planning, PGR02 - Urban and Housing Policy, PGR05 - Place-based Policy, and RM03 – Spatial Analysis and Modelling. His group has presented at major international conferences including CUPUM and ICML, reflecting his active engagement in the academic community.
Dr. Kevin Kochersberger is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech , with a career spanning academic research, technical innovation, and educational leadership. His work focuses on autonomous aerial systems , robotic control , and applied aerodynamics , particularly through the Uncrewed Systems Laboratory . Kochersberger's research has pioneered UAV-based radiation detection , 3D terrain mapping , and low-resource drone applications , including establishing the African Drone and Data Academy in Malawi . Education: Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech (1994) M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech (1984) B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech (1983) A.S., Engineering Science, Jamestown Community College (1981) Kochersberger's publications demonstrate expertise in UAV path planning , smart material actuation , and radiation source localization , with over $9M in research funding. His scientific awards include AIAA Associate Fellow (2009) and Aviation Week Aerospace Laureate (2003). Notable projects involve helicopter-deployable robotic systems and urban canyon navigation without GPS. Recent articles highlight BVLOS drone simulators , 2.5D terrain mapping , and autonomous negative obstacle traversal , reflecting his focus on real-time adaptive control and heterogeneous robotic systems . He teaches Drone Technology and Flight Operations and Advanced Design Projects , emphasizing student-driven innovation and industry collaboration .
Professor Omer Rana serves as Professor of Performance Engineering and International Dean for the Middle East at Cardiff University's School of Computer Science and Informatics. He also holds the prestigious position of Cross-Council Research Director for the UK National Edge AI Hub, demonstrating his leadership in national research initiatives. Previously, he led the Complex Systems research group and served as Dean of International for the Physical Sciences and Engineering College at Cardiff University. Professor Rana is a Fellow of both the Learned Society of Wales and the Higher Education Academy, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Welsh Ethnic Minority Professors Initiative (WEMPI). His research expertise centers on the intersection of intelligent systems and high performance distributed computing, with particular focus on applying intelligent techniques to resource management in distributed systems. His scholarly contributions span edge computing, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, federated learning, privacy-preserving systems, and sustainable computing. Professor Rana has published extensively in top-tier journals and conferences, with recent work emphasizing practical applications in industrial automation, smart buildings, and sustainable computing solutions. Professor Rana's publication record demonstrates consistent leadership in edge computing and distributed systems research, with a growing emphasis on practical implementations across diverse application domains. His work bridges theoretical computer science with real-world technological challenges, particularly in industrial automation, smart environments, and sustainable infrastructure. Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales Fellow of the Higher Education Academy Professor Rana actively supervises postgraduate students and has secured significant research funding for projects related to edge computing, IoT, and distributed systems. His international collaborations span Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, reflecting his global influence in the field. He serves as a sought-after keynote speaker, workshop chair, and panel moderator at major international conferences including IEEE/ACM Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC) and IEEE Edge Computing. He leads multiple research initiatives, most notably as Cross-Council Research Director for the UK National Edge AI Hub, where he shapes national research directions in edge computing and AI. His work has practical applications across industrial automation, smart building management, electric vehicle infrastructure, and sustainable computing solutions.
Florian Shkurti is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), affiliated with the UofT Robotics Institute, Vector Institute, and Acceleration Consortium. His research focuses on robotics, machine learning, and computer vision, emphasizing safe and effective autonomous systems in dynamic environments. He directs the Robot Vision and Learning (RVL) lab, exploring areas like environmental monitoring, autonomous navigation, and mobile manipulation. Research Interests: His work spans robotics, machine learning, and computer vision. Key areas include robot perception, planning under uncertainty, safe exploration, imitation learning, and applications in field robotics, autonomous vehicles, and chemistry lab automation. He develops methods enabling robots to perceive, reason, and act safely in collaboration with humans. Publications: Recent work includes advancements in safe multitask learning, interactive crowd navigation, and diffusion models for trajectory planning. His research bridges theoretical foundations with real-world applications in environmental science and autonomous systems. Affiliations: Faculty Member, UofT Robotics Institute; Faculty Affiliate, Vector Institute; Faculty Member, Acceleration Consortium. He also holds positions at UTM's Mathematical & Computational Sciences department. Teaching: Courses include Imitation Learning for Robotics, Neural Networks, and Mobile Robotics. He emphasizes hands-on experience with autonomous systems through projects involving RC cars and simulation tools. Labs & Teams: Leads the RVL lab, collaborating on projects like RoboCulture (automated biological experimentation) and SICNav (safe crowd navigation systems). The lab focuses on cross-disciplinary robotics solutions for real-world challenges.
Robert Dick is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, part of the College of Engineering. He previously held roles as Associate Professor at Northwestern University and Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University and a Bachelor's degree from Clarkson University. His research focuses on Embedded Systems, Learning Dynamics, Efficient Machine Learning, Privacy, and Censorship Resistance. Key themes include defining problems with correct costs/constraints, broadening access to information technology, mitigating negative tech impacts, and solving inference problems with limited resources. He leads the Embedded Systems Graduate Program and is a member of the Michigan Integrated Circuits Laboratory (MICL). His work spans thermal management, energy-efficient computing, and low-power wireless networks. Notable contributions include innovations in embedded system design, machine vision frameworks, and sensor networks. Courses taught include EECS 507 (Embedded Systems Research), EECS 373 (Embedded System Design), and ENGR 100 (Autonomous Systems). His recent publications emphasize AI model analysis, energy-efficient networks, and environmental sensing. Projects include MemX (attention-aware wearable tech) and LoRa-based LPWAN protocols. Dick co-founded Stryd, a company commercializing embedded systems innovations.
