Sriraam Natarajan is a Professor and Director of the Center for Machine Learning at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer Science, University of Texas at Dallas. He previously served as an Associate Professor at Indiana University (on leave since 2017) and Wake Forest School of Medicine. His research focuses on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and their biomedical applications, particularly in relational learning, reinforcement learning, and graphical models. He leads the StaRLing Lab and holds fellowships from hessian.AI and RBCDSAI. Education: PhD in Computer Science from Oregon State University (2007), advised by Prasad Tadepalli. Postdoctoral research at University of Wisconsin-Madison under Jude Shavlik and David Page. Research interests span statistical relational AI, causal inference, and healthcare applications. Notable awards include AAAI Fellow (2025), UTD Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, and roles as AAAI Program Co-Chair and CODS-COMAD 2024 co-chair. Students supervised include over 20 PhD/MS graduates and current advisees in AI and machine learning. Active in editorial roles for JAIR, Machine Learning Journal, and conference PCs (ICML, AAAI, NIPS).
Yohan PETETIN is an Associate Professor at Telecom SudParis (Institut polytechnique de Paris) in the CITI Department. His research focuses on Bayesian filtering, Monte Carlo methods, hidden Markov models, and multi-object tracking. He has authored over 20 peer-reviewed articles since 2011, with notable contributions in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing and other top venues. His work bridges statistical signal processing with machine learning applications. PhD: Algorithmes de restauration bayésienne mono- et multi-objets dans des modèles Markoviens (2013, Telecom SudParis) HDR: Generative models for time series data (2023, Institut polytechnique de Paris) Research interests emphasize sequential Monte Carlo algorithms, particle filtering optimizations, and deep learning integration for time-series analysis. Recent work explores expressivity comparisons between recurrent neural networks and hidden Markov models. Teaching includes courses on probabilistic graphical models, Bayesian filtering, and deep learning across undergraduate and graduate programs at Telecom SudParis and affiliated institutions.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Philipp Lensing serves as a Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. His academic work focuses on cutting-edge developments in virtual and augmented reality systems, computer graphics, and game programming. His research interests span Virtual Reality , Augmented Reality , Mixed Reality , Game Programming , Computer Graphics , and Natural User Interfaces . Prof. Lensing has pioneered work in real-time global illumination techniques, avatar calibration systems, and the integration of virtual content with real environments. His research has been applied across diverse domains including landscape planning, physics education, medical rehabilitation, and industrial engineering. Prof. Lensing's recent publications reveal a strong trend toward practical applications of VR/AR technologies in scientific, educational, and industrial contexts. His work increasingly focuses on multimodal interaction, haptic feedback systems, and the integration of VR with complex scientific instrumentation like scanning probe microscopy. He has supervised numerous student projects focused on VR/AR applications, game development, and 3D modeling. His teaching includes courses on Computer Graphics, 3D Game Programming, Virtual and Augmented Realities, and 3D Modeling and Animation. Prof. Lensing leads several research projects including GROWTH (funded by BMBF), VRnano (BMBF), VRFlow Suite, VR-Physio-BOX, and MoDal-MR, all exploring innovative applications of immersive technologies in various practical contexts.
Y. Charlie Hu is the Michael and Katherine Birck Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Computer Science (by courtesy) at Purdue University, where he leads the PurNET Lab and contributes to the Systems and Networking Group. His research spans Mobile Systems, Distributed Systems, Operating Systems, and Computer Networks , with a focus on energy-efficient AI systems and edge computing. His groundbreaking work on smartphone energy management has been widely adopted by the mobile industry and recognized with multiple test-of-time awards , including from ACM SIGOPS and ACM SIGMOBILE . He has received prestigious honors like the NSF CAREER Award , Honda Initiation Grant , and industry accolades from Google Research and Qualcomm . Notable Funded Projects: NSF's NeTS: Black-box Optimization of White-box Networks (2023-2026) Intel -NSF's SPLICE initiative His research has produced 15+ PhD graduates now in academia (University of Arizona, Virginia Tech) and industry (Google, Apple, Qualcomm). The articles reflect a career-long focus on edge computing , 5G network optimization , and energy-aware systems , with recurring themes in mobile AR/VR , video analytics , and network protocol design . Scientific Awards Honda Initiation Grant NSF CAREER Award Purdue Early Career Research Award Google Research Award Qualcomm Faculty Award ACM SIGOPS EuroSys Best Student Paper Award ACM MobiCom Best Community Paper Award IEEE Fellow ACM Distinguished Scientist Purdue PRF Innovator Hall of Fame
Engin Erzin is a Professor at Koç University's College of Engineering, leading the KUIS AI Lab and Multimedia, Vision and Graphics Lab . His research focuses on AI-driven human-centric systems, affective computing, and multimodal interaction analysis. He has contributed extensively to robotics, speech processing, and human-robot interaction through over 70 peer-reviewed publications since 2008. Research interests include: Affective computing and emotion recognition from speech/gestures Human-robot interaction and socially engaging agents Speech-driven animation and gesture synthesis Multimodal data fusion for interaction analysis Deep learning applications in robotics and biomedical engineering Recent work emphasizes: Developing adaptive pHRI controllers for manufacturing tasks Creating engagement measurement frameworks for human-machine interfaces Advancing Turkish speech recognition through self-supervised learning Designing multimodal databases for interaction studies Labs: KUIS AI Lab : Focuses on AI applications in robotics and human-computer interaction Multimedia Lab : Specializes in vision, graphics, and audiovisual analysis
Prof. Helmut Grabner is a Professor at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), leading the Visual Intelligence and Applications Group and the Entrepreneurship initiatives within the School of Engineering. His work bridges computer science, medical technology, and visual communication, with a focus on Extended Reality (XR), surgical training simulations, and AI-driven decision making. Education: PhD in Computer Science (Graz University of Technology, 2008), Master's in Computer Science (2008), and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Higher Education (ZHAW, 2021). Prior to academia, he held roles including CTO at Logitech and co-founder of upicto, applying computer vision in industry and startups. Research spans augmented reality medical training tools, NMR spectrum analysis via deep learning, and understanding visual engagement in advertising. Awards include the prestigious Koenderink Prize (2018) for contributions to computer vision. Projects include Immersive Education frameworks, bias-mitigation in venture capital algorithms, and surgical proficiency measurement systems. Teaching includes courses on Visual Computing, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning. His work integrates academic research with practical applications in healthcare, education, and entrepreneurship.
Siamak Ravanbakhsh is an Associate Professor at McGill University's School of Computer Science and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Mila. His research focuses on machine learning, particularly representation learning with an emphasis on geometry, symmetry, and probabilistic inference. He has held academic positions at the University of British Columbia and was a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. Education: B.Sc. in Computer Science, Sharif University of Technology M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Alberta (supervised by Russ Greiner) Postdoctoral Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University (with Barnabás Póczos and Jeff Schneider) His research interests span geometric deep learning, equivariant networks, reinforcement learning, and AI for scientific applications. Notable contributions include work on symmetry-aware models, diffusion processes, and equivariant representation learning. Publications highlight advancements in causal abstraction, diffusion-based anomaly detection, and equivariant architectures for crystals and hierarchical structures. His work often bridges theory and application, emphasizing symmetry principles. Advising & Grants: Supervised over 20 graduate students and postdocs, including recent PhD graduates Daniel Levy and Mehran Shakerinava Active in mentoring M.Sc. and internship students He contributes to academic leadership roles at Mila and McGill, fostering interdisciplinary collaborations in AI research.
MICHEL SANNER is a Professor of Molecular Biology at the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Haute Alsace, France (1992). His research focuses on computational methods for molecular interactions, molecular graphics, and component-based software development. Notable contributions include the AutoDock suite (for molecular docking), PMV (a molecular visualization environment), and Vision (a visual programming tool). His research group develops tools like AutoDock CrankPep for peptide docking and F2Dock for protein-protein interactions. These tools are widely used in drug discovery and structural biology. His work emphasizes software engineering principles to create adaptable computational pipelines for analyzing macromolecular structures and simulating interactions. Publications span topics like peptide-docking methodologies, ligand-binding site prediction, and GPU-accelerated docking algorithms. His articles highlight advancements in computational methods for understanding protein-ligand interactions, with applications in anticoagulant research and HIV/FIV protease inhibition. Collaborations include work with Arthur J. Olson and David S. Goodsell on docking methodologies.
Dana S. Nau is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and a member of the Institute for Systems Research at the University of Maryland. He is renowned for his contributions to automated planning and game theory, including landmark algorithms like SHOP and foundational studies on game-tree pathology and strategic planning in computer bridge. With over 500 refereed publications and an H-index of 61, his work bridges theoretical computer science and practical applications in multiagent systems and evolutionary game theory. His research interests include hierarchical task network (HTN) planning, Bayesian network inference techniques, and the evolution of social norms through evolutionary game theory. Recent work focuses on spatial evolutionary games, surrogate Bayesian models, and strategic communication in multiagent environments. Awards: AAAI Fellow (202?), ACM Fellow (202?) Key Collaborations: Co-authored papers with leaders like Malik Ghallab (LAAS-CNRS), Satyandra K. Gupta (USC), and Vincent Hsiao (Bayesian networks research). Grants/Advising: Supervised students including Sunandita Patra (17+ joint papers) and Ruoxi Li, contributing to HTN planning and reinforcement learning advancements. His labs and research teams actively explore AI planning systems, probabilistic reasoning, and the intersection of game theory with social science phenomena like gossip evolution.
Mark Bo Jensen is an Assistant Professor (Tenure track) at the Department of Engineering Technology and Didactics, Energy Technology and Computer Science at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). His work bridges engineering and cognitive sciences through the emerging field of Perception Engineering. His research focuses on Extended Reality (XR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies to model and understand human perception and cognition. With over 10 years of expertise in real-time computer graphics, he develops immersive systems for applications in data visualization, medical testing, and geometric morphometrics. His recent publications highlight a strong trend in leveraging VR for precise human interaction tasks, such as anatomical landmark annotation and visual field testing, as well as advancing rendering techniques using diffusion models and mesh optimization. This reflects a multidisciplinary approach combining computer science, perception, and real-world applications. He has contributed to multiple research projects, including AL-EYE: The Visual Aid and Virtual Reality-Based Visualization of Geometric Data, where he served both as a PhD student and a project participant. These projects emphasize VR-based tools for data understanding and visualization. Assistant Professor (Tenure track), DTU PhD in Virtual Reality-Based Visualization of Geometric Data, completed June 2023 Project participant in AL-EYE: The Visual Aid (2025) While no formal advisees are listed, his role as a faculty member suggests future student supervision. He has collaborated extensively with researchers such as Jeppe R. Frisvad, Jakob Andreas Bærentzen, and Vedrana A. Dahl.
James Stewart is a Professor at Queen's University's School of Computing. His research focuses on biomedical computing and surgical navigation systems. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University (1992) Location: Office Goodwin 732 Contact: Phone 613 533-3156 Research Interests Professor Stewart's work bridges computer graphics, image processing, and medical applications. Key areas include: Computer-assisted surgical navigation 3D medical visualization Geospatial data representation Robust geometric computation Human-computer interaction in clinical settings Medical imaging uncertainty analysis Scientific Awards Best Poster Award (2013) for 'Image-guided Osteochondral Autologous Autografting of the Ankle' Publications His publications span multiple domains including: Computer graphics algorithms Medical imaging techniques Geospatial visualization Biomedical engineering applications Surgical navigation systems Robust geometric computation
Dr. George Fitzmaurice is a Research Fellow at Autodesk, leading the Human Computer Interaction and Visualization Research group. With over 120 publications and 95 patents, his work spans 25 years of innovation in interactive systems, focusing on technology-assisted learning , 3D visualization , and novel input techniques . His notable contributions include the Maya 1.0 UI and SketchBook Pro design, as well as pioneering Graspable UIs and Spatially-Aware Displays . Education : MIT (B.Sc. Math/CS), Brown (M.Sc. CS), Toronto (Ph.D. CS) His research explores immersive visualization and generative AI applications in design workflows, with recent work focusing on VR/AR tools like TimeTunnel for motion editing and WhatIF for AI-assisted narrative design. Current projects examine the intersection of large language models , 3D design systems , and collaborative environments . Key article themes include: Generative AI integration (3DALL-E, WorldSmith) Immersive motion analysis (AvatAR, VideoPoseVR) Creative workflow optimization (MoodCubes, Immersive Sampling) Privacy-aware VR systems (Vice VRsa) Scientific Recognition: 2019 - Inducted into ACM CHI Academy 2024 - Awarded ACM Fellow for computing contributions He has developed foundational interaction techniques like ViewCube™ and SteeringWheels™ , and his work continues to shape modern 3D UI paradigms and spatial computing approaches through projects like DreamSketch and Tesseract.
David P. Helmbold is a Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1987, where he specialized in parallel algorithms and debugging of parallel programs. He has been a faculty member at UC Santa Cruz for over 25 years. Research Focus Helmbold's research centers on theoretical machine learning and computational learning theory. His primary interests include: Boosting methods and ensemble learning Online learning algorithms and regret minimization Theoretical foundations of semi-supervised learning Applications in computer vision, game AI, and power optimization Analysis of irrelevant variables in learning systems Publication Trends Helmbold's recent work (2009-2012) focuses on advancing theoretical machine learning, particularly in semi-supervised learning, Monte Carlo methods for game AI, and feature relevance analysis. His publications demonstrate a consistent bridge between theoretical frameworks and practical applications, spanning computer vision, geospatial analysis, and algorithmic game theory. Professional Recognition Helmbold is a long-standing member of the computational learning theory community, having hosted the COLT conference and served on its steering committee. No specific awards are mentioned in the source material.
Sanmi (Oluwasanmi) Koyejo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University and an adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He leads Stanford Trustworthy AI Research (STAIR), working to develop the principles and practice of trustworthy machine learning with applications to neuroscience and healthcare. Koyejo holds affiliations with multiple Stanford institutes including SAIL, HAI, CRFM, AIMI, AI Safety, Machine Learning Group, and Bio-X. Koyejo completed his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin followed by postdoctoral research at Stanford University. His research bridges theoretical machine learning with practical healthcare applications, focusing on developing robust and fair AI systems that can be trusted in critical domains. His work spans algorithmic fairness, robust distributed learning, metric elicitation, and applications to medical imaging and neuroscience. His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on emerging challenges in AI including emergent abilities in large language models, fairness in medical AI, federated learning, and robustness against adversarial attacks. His work has increasingly addressed real-world healthcare challenges through deep learning applications to medical imaging, particularly chest radiographs for disease detection. Scientific Awards: NSF CAREER Award 2021 Skip Ellis Early Career Award Sloan Research Fellowship Frederick E. Terman Faculty Fellow (2022) Best Paper Award from UAI Kavli Fellowship IJCAI Early Career Spotlight Koyejo actively mentors a large research group with numerous PhD students and postdocs. His research has been supported by significant grants including NSF funding for projects like 'Fair Federated Representation Learning for Breast Cancer Risk Scoring.' He serves in leadership roles including as General Co-chair for NeurIPS 2022 and President of the Black in AI organization. His STAIR research group focuses on developing trustworthy AI principles and practices, with applications to healthcare and neuroimaging. The group collaborates extensively with healthcare institutions including OSF Healthcare and participates in major initiatives like the NIH-funded MIDRC and the NSF AI research institute AIFARMS.
Bert de Vries is a Professor at the Signal Processing Systems Group at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), where he has been employed since January 2012. He maintains a dual career, also working at GN Hearing in the hearing aids industry since April 1999, where he holds both research and managerial roles. His academic journey began at TU/e, where he earned his MSc in Electrical Engineering in 1986, followed by a PhD from the University of Florida in 1991. Between 1992 and 1999, he worked at Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, NJ, contributing to diverse signal and image processing projects. Professor de Vries's research centers on Bayesian Machine Learning, with particular focus on the Free Energy Principle and its applications to engineering problems. His work bridges theoretical neuroscience with practical signal processing systems, especially in biomedical applications. He directs the BIASlab research team at TU/e, which develops probabilistic programming tools including RxInfer.jl, ForneyLab.jl, GraphPPL.jl, ReactiveMP.jl, and Rocket.jl. His research spans active inference, variational message passing, probabilistic programming, and Bayesian neural networks, with applications ranging from hearing aids to multi-agent systems. Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong trend toward practical implementations of Bayesian inference frameworks, particularly through Julia-based probabilistic programming tools. His work shows increasing focus on active inference applications, message passing algorithms, and the intersection of Riemannian geometry with probabilistic modeling. The research demonstrates consistent progression from theoretical foundations toward real-world engineering applications, particularly in biomedical signal processing and autonomous systems. Professor de Vries teaches a graduate-level course on Bayesian Machine Learning at TU/e and actively contributes to open-source software development through his GitHub profile (bertdv), with recent activity as recent as August 2025. His research team has developed several influential probabilistic programming libraries that have gained significant attention in the machine learning community. The BIASlab research group continues to advance the state of the art in Bayesian inference methods with applications in hearing technology, robotics, and signal processing.
