Wenhu Chen is an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo's Computer Science Department and a CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute. He also holds a part-time role as a Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind (20% allocation). His research focuses on natural language processing, deep learning, and multimodal reasoning, with contributions to models like MAmmoTH, OpenCoderInterpreter, and VISTA. He received awards including the Canada CIFAR AI Chair (2022) and the UCSB CS Outstanding Dissertation Award (2021). Education: PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara (under William Wang and Xifeng Yan). Research interests include complex reasoning, controllable GenAI, and multimodal benchmarks like MEGABench and MMMU. Grants include CIFAR AI Chair Funding (2022-2027), NSERC Discovery Fund (2023-2028), and multiple NRC Canada grants. He directs the TIGER Lab, advancing generative models in text, images, videos, and music. Recent talks include presentations on multimodal reasoning at Apple and NeurIPS workshops.
Howie Choset is a Professor of Robotics at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. He directs the Undergraduate Robotics Minor and leads the Biorobotics Laboratory, where his research focuses on snake robots, motion planning, and medical robotics. He is also affiliated with the Manufacturing Futures Institute. Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology (1996) M.S., Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology (1995) B.S.E., Computer Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania (1990) B.S., Economics, The Wharton School of Business (1990) Choset's research centers on robotics for confined and complex environments, particularly through the development of snake robots. His work integrates mechanism design, path and motion planning, and estimation to enable applications in surgery, manufacturing, infrastructure inspection, and search and rescue. He is a pioneer in medical robotics and has co-founded Medrobotics to commercialize minimally invasive surgical robots. His recent publications highlight a strong focus on ergodic exploration, multi-agent systems, motion planning under uncertainty, and medical robotics. Themes include optimizing robot trajectories for information gathering, solving complex path planning problems with dynamic obstacles, and advancing autonomous systems for disaster response and space exploration (e.g., the EELS robot for Enceladus). MIT Technology Review Top 100 Innovators under 35 (2002) Best Paper Award, RIA (1999) Best Paper Award, ICRA (2003) Best Paper, IEEE Bio Rob (2006) Best Video, ICRA (2011) Nominations for best papers at ICRA, IROS, and CLAWAR Choset has advised numerous students, many of whom have won top awards. His lab has received significant funding for robotics research, including projects in surgical robotics, additive manufacturing, and autonomous exploration. He is the lead author of the textbook Principles of Robot Motion and is actively involved in educational innovation through custom robotics labs. He leads the Biorobotics Laboratory at CMU, which develops advanced robotic systems like snake robots and the EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) robot for NASA missions. The lab collaborates with industry and government agencies on applications ranging from surgery to space exploration.
Chita R. Das is a Professor at Pennsylvania State University, known for extensive contributions in computer architecture, machine learning, and high-performance computing. Their research focuses on optimizing hardware-software co-design for edge computing, cloud infrastructure, and energy-efficient systems. Key areas include FPGA acceleration, GPU optimization, and serverless computing frameworks. Das collaborates frequently with institutions like AMD and Intel, addressing challenges in parallel computing and distributed systems. Their work bridges theoretical advancements with practical applications in recommendation systems, bioinformatics, and real-time video processing. Research interests span across hardware acceleration techniques, cloud resource management, and sustainable computing. Notable projects include adaptive training frameworks for intermittent power environments and neural-augmented game streaming for mobile platforms. Das's publications often address performance bottlenecks in modern architectures and propose novel solutions for latency and energy efficiency. Recent articles highlight innovations in serverless computing cost optimization, low-bandwidth VR streaming, and FPGA-based bioinformatics tools. Their contributions are characterized by interdisciplinary approaches combining computer architecture with machine learning and embedded systems.
Rita Cucchiara is a Full Professor at the Department of Engineering 'Enzo Ferrari' of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. She leads the AImageLab research laboratory, part of the Artificial Intelligence Research and Innovation Center (AIRI) in Modena. Her research focuses on Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, Machine Learning, and Multimedia, with applications in video surveillance, medical imaging, human-centered AI, and generative models. She is actively involved in interdisciplinary projects like ELIAS (European Lighthouse for AI Sustainability) and ELSA (European Lighthouse on Secure AI). Her recent roles include being elected Rector of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 2025. She has organized and participated in major AI events, including workshops at NeurIPS, CVPR, and ECCV, and has contributed to advancements in multimodal models, deepfake detection, and trustworthy AI. Education details are not explicitly provided, but her extensive academic and research experience at the University of Modena underscores her expertise. She collaborates with institutions like NVIDIA, CINECA, and industry partners such as Digital Design and NVIDIA's AI Technology Center. AImageLab's projects include developing systems for medical imaging, ethical AI, and generative adversarial networks (GANs) for design surfaces. She co-organizes initiatives like the ELLIS Summer School on Large-Scale AI and contributes to policy discussions on AI ethics and societal impact. Her work spans from foundational research (e.g., vision transformers, continual learning) to applied projects (e.g., DDGan system for surface printing). Key grants and collaborations include the FAIR project and PNRR-M4C2 initiatives. She advises students and researchers in AI, with 7 PhD positions funded under national programs. Her leadership roles in AIRI and AImageLab highlight her commitment to bridging academia and industry, fostering innovation in AI-driven solutions for sustainability and healthcare.
Adam Yala is an Assistant Professor of Computational Precision Health, Statistics, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley and UCSF. He is also the Founder & CEO of Voio Inc., a company focused on clinical translation of AI tools. PhD in Computer Science from MIT (2022) His research lies at the intersection of Machine Learning and Precision Medicine, with a focus on robust AI tools for clinical deployment, personalized screening policies, and private data sharing. Current work includes multi-modal imaging analysis, decision guarantees in clinical workflows, and prospective trials in oncology and radiology. Recent publications highlight advancements in AI for cancer risk prediction, vision-language models in healthcare, and data privacy techniques. Tools like Mirai are implemented in 66 hospitals across 30 countries. Bakar Fellows Spark Award (2024) Eppy Award: Investigative Reporting (2022) Falling Walls Finalist: Life Science (2022) NSF Fellowship (2016) He advises PhD students in AI-driven healthcare and collaborates with hospital systems globally. His lab emphasizes clinical translation of machine learning methods in radiology and oncology.
Professor Ping Luo is an Associate Professor and Assistant Director (Outreach and Advancement) at the School of Computing and Data Science, University of Hong Kong. He also serves as Associate Director (Innovation and Outreach) of the Musketers Foundation Institute of Data Science. His research focuses on developing advanced machine learning algorithms, particularly in computer vision and deep learning, emphasizing reinforcement learning, meta-learning, and foundational algorithm understanding. Luo holds a PhD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2014), supervised by Prof. Xiaoou Tang and Prof. Xiaogang Wang. His notable achievements include over 70 peer-reviewed publications in top venues like TPAMI, IJCV, ICML, and CVPR, alongside competition wins such as the 2014 ImageNet ILSVRC Challenge and the 2017 YouTube-8M Video Classification Challenge. His work spans applications in autonomous driving, video segmentation, and facial recognition. Education: PhD in Information Engineering (2014), Chinese University of Hong Kong Awards: 2011 HK PhD Fellow Award, 2013 Microsoft Research Fellow Award Professional Roles: Former Research Director at SenseTime Research Recruiting Postdocs, PhDs, and RAs His research interests include algorithm development for autonomous systems, deep learning foundations, and practical AI applications in computer vision. He maintains an active presence in academic outreach and industry collaboration.
Vibhav Gogate is a Professor and Associate Head of Research at University of Texas at Dallas, specializing in machine learning and artificial intelligence. His research focuses on probabilistic graphical models, statistical relational learning, and integrating deep learning with graphical models. Professor Gogate has received numerous awards including the NSF CAREER Award (2017), Outstanding Researcher Award (2022, 2017), and Best Paper awards at top AI conferences. His research funding includes projects from NSF and DARPA. Education: PhD, University of California, Irvine MS, University of Maine BS, University of Mumbai Recent Publications: His research spans probabilistic inference, tractable models, and neural network approaches for efficient reasoning, with publications in NeurIPS, AAAI, UAI, and AISTATS. Recent work focuses on scalable inference methods and explainable AI systems for complex domains. Research Funding: Secured over $8M in grants from DARPA and NSF for projects in explainable AI and probabilistic reasoning. Teaching: Regularly teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Advanced Statistical Methods.
Dr A. I. Shihab is a Senior Lecturer at Kingston University's Faculty of Engineering, Computing and the Environment, Department of Networks and Digital Media. He teaches programming languages (C++/Java), data structures, web development, and AI/machine learning. His research focuses on affective computing and machine learning applications including: Acoustic event detection in sports environments Audio signal analysis for tennis match modeling Multi-camera visual surveillance systems Medical imaging analysis using fuzzy clustering techniques Publications demonstrate expertise in combining audio/video modalities for sports analytics (tennis rallies, court-shots) and developing Markov models for sound event sequence analysis. Contact: a.shihab@kingston.ac.uk
Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman is a Full Professor of Computer Science at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington and Director of the UW Reality Lab. She also serves as a Principal Scientist at Google, where she leads the Shopping Gen AI visuals teams focusing on Virtual Try-On, 3D, and product videos. Her research spans computer vision, computer graphics, and Generative AI, with particular contributions to virtual try-on technology, 3D modeling, and augmented reality applications. Professor Kemelmacher-Shlizerman's research interests focus on Generative AI applications in visual computing. Her work bridges the gap between theoretical computer vision and practical applications, particularly in e-commerce and virtual reality. She has made significant contributions to virtual try-on technology, 3D editing with generative models, and AI applications for shopping experiences. Her research combines deep learning with traditional computer vision techniques to solve challenging problems in image and video synthesis. Her recent publications demonstrate a strong trend toward Generative AI applications for visual shopping experiences, virtual try-on technology, and 3D content creation. The work spans multiple top conferences including CVPR, SIGGRAPH, and ICCV, with a focus on practical applications of computer vision and graphics. Her research has evolved from foundational work in face reconstruction and aging to current applications in virtual shopping and 3D content generation. Google faculty award Madrona prize GeekWire Innovation of the Year Award Covers of CACM and SIGGRAPH Best student paper honorable mention at CVPR'21 Best demo runner up MobiSys'22 Senior member of IEEE Distinguished Member of ACM Professor Kemelmacher-Shlizerman has successfully tech-transferred multiple research projects to industry. She founded Dreambit, a startup acquired by Meta, and previously built and launched the Face Movies feature at Google. She currently leads Google's Shopping Gen AI visuals teams, focusing on 10x improvements to shopping journeys. Her UW Reality Lab serves as a hub for AR/VR research with industry partnerships. She has mentored numerous PhD students who have become researchers in both academia and industry, with several publications featuring student co-authors receiving recognition at top conferences. Professor Kemelmacher-Shlizerman leads the Graphics and Imaging Laboratory (GRAIL) and the UW Reality Lab, which focuses on augmented and virtual reality research with industry partnerships including Google. The labs work on cutting-edge projects in virtual try-on, 3D modeling, and immersive experiences, bridging academic research with real-world applications.
Michael J. Black is a Professor and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany, where he leads the Perceiving Systems department and serves as Managing Director . He is also an Honorarprofessor at the University of Tübingen 's Faculty of Science . His career spans roles at Brown University (2000-2010), Xerox PARC, and academic-industry collaborations with Amazon and Meshcapade.
Ryan M Hebert, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the Yale School of Medicine, affiliated with the Neurosurgery department. He specializes in neurovascular disorders, including open and endovascular treatments for intracranial aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, carotid disease, and dural arteriovenous fistulas. He also focuses on interventions for ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. His practice locations include Yale New Haven Hospital and Lawrence and Memorial Hospitals in Connecticut. Education & Training: Bachelor’s in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado – Boulder (Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Grant recipient) MD from Yale School of Medicine (NIH-funded thesis on CCM3 in cerebral cavernous malformations) 7-year Neurosurgery Residency at Yale New Haven Hospital, including enfolded neuro-interventional training CAST-accredited fellowship in Endovascular Neurosurgery and Neurovascular Critical Care at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (2016) Research Interests: Dr. Hebert’s work centers on emerging surgical and endovascular techniques for neurovascular disorders, risk stratification in carotid disease, vasospasm prediction/post-subarachnoid hemorrhage treatment, and outcomes of minimally invasive spine surgery. His studies often integrate clinical practice with translational research, emphasizing patient outcomes and procedural optimization. Key topics include flow diverters, cranial nerve palsies, hospital frailty risk scores, and immune mechanisms driving aneurysm rupture. Publications Trends: His recent articles emphasize clinical outcomes of endovascular procedures, stroke interventions, and immune mechanisms in aneurysm rupture. He frequently collaborates on meta-analyses and systematic reviews to evaluate treatment efficacy and complication rates, particularly involving cranial nerve recovery and thrombectomy volumes. Awards & Grants: He secured an NIH-funded thesis and a Howard Hughes Undergraduate research grant. No explicit scientific awards are listed, but his work has been recognized via peer-reviewed publications and contributions to clinical guidelines. Advising & Grants: While no students are listed, he collaborates with prominent researchers like Charles Matouk, Kevin Sheth, and Joseph Antonios on NIH-funded projects. His research addresses healthcare resource utilization and procedural volume impacts on mortality, indicating a focus on translational and clinical studies. Labs & Teams: Active in interdisciplinary teams at Yale School of Medicine, particularly in neurovascular critical care and endovascular surgery. Collaborates with the Stroke Center and Janeway Society for physician-scientist development.
Shih-Fu Chang is the Dean of Columbia Engineering and holds the Morris A. and Alma Schapiro Professorship at Columbia University. His research focuses on computer vision, machine learning, and multimedia information retrieval. He is recognized as a foundational figure in the field of content-based visual search and has pioneered innovations in image/video search engines, crime prevention systems, and brain-machine interfaces. His leadership roles include Chair of Columbia's Electrical Engineering Department (2007-2010), Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine (2006-2008), and Senior Executive Vice Dean at Columbia Engineering, where he drives strategic planning and international collaboration. Dr. Chang has received prestigious awards including the ACM Multimedia Technical Achievement Award, IEEE Signal Processing Technical Achievement Award, and IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award. He is a Fellow of AAAS, ACM, and IEEE, and an Academician of Academia Sinica. His recent work emphasizes multimodal reasoning, few-shot learning, and vision-language systems, with applications in healthcare diagnostics and multimedia benchmarking. His research spans cross-modal understanding, event extraction, and adaptive AI systems. Key contributions include systems like Ferret-v2 for multimodal grounding and RESIN for schema-guided event tracking. He has advised multiple startups and actively contributes to curriculum development in AI and engineering education.
Dr. Abdullah Bal is a researcher at Georgia State University's College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Computer Science, with over 25 years of academic experience. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Yildiz Technical University (2002) and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in algorithms, machine learning, and optical pattern recognition. B.Sc., Electronics and Communication Engineering, Istanbul Technical University (1993) M.Sc., Electrical Engineering, Yildiz Technical University (1997) Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Yildiz Technical University (2002) His research focuses on data science, machine learning, and hyperspectral imaging applications in fields ranging from forensic analysis to historical structure preservation. He has led projects funded by the U.S. Army Research Office and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, including real-time target detection systems and digital imaging for historical structures. Recent publications demonstrate his expertise in kernel-based transforms, ensemble learning, and hyperspectral data analysis. His work spans food safety inspection, infrared target tracking, and biometric verification systems. Faculty Outstanding Research Publication Award (2006) Turkish Air Force Academy Science Competition Winner (2009) Best Paper Award at ICFCT (2016) Previously, he chaired YTU's Informatics Department (2009-2016) and participated in academic governance through the Electrical and Electronics College Executive Committee (2012-2015). You can contact him at abal@gsu.edu in room 739, 25 Park Place.
John F. Canny is the Paul and Stacy Jacobs Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). He joined the faculty in 1987 and is affiliated with the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (BAIR), Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM), and other research institutes. His research focuses on artificial intelligence, robotics, human-computer interaction, and computational geometry. Canny is renowned for developing the Canny edge detector and contributions to motion planning, privacy-preserving algorithms, and real-time simulation. Education: B.Sc. in Computer Science and Theoretical Physics (Adelaide University, 1979), B.E. (Hons) in Electrical Engineering (Adelaide University, 1980), M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (MIT, 1983 and 1987). Research Interests: His work spans AI, robotics (including universal planar manipulation), HCI (e.g., MultiView video conferencing), and security (privacy in collaborative filtering). He has pioneered algorithms for edge detection, non-linear FEM simulation, and computational algebra. Awards: ACM Fellow (2020), Okawa Research Grant (2003), AAAI Classic Paper Award (2002), NSF PYI (1989), Packard Fellowship (1988), and ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award (1987). Advising & Grants: Advised over 30 Ph.D. students, many of whom hold prominent roles in academia and industry. His grants include NSF and Packard funding for foundational research in robotics and computational methods. He currently teaches CS188: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. Labs/Teams: Leads research at the Berkeley Institute of Design (BiD), focusing on RISC robotics, activity-based computing, and privacy-enhanced telepresence systems.
Professor Kay O'Halloran serves as Chair Professor and Head of Department of Communication and Media within the School of the Arts at the University of Liverpool since August 2019. She concurrently holds the position of Co-Director for the Digital Media and Society Institute (DMSI), demonstrating significant leadership across academic and research domains. Her career spans prestigious institutions including Curtin University (2013-2019) and National University of Singapore (1998-2013), where she directed the Multimodal Analysis Lab and served as Deputy Director of the Interactive & Digital Media Institute. PhD from Murdoch University (1996) Postdoctoral position at Martin Luther University (1997-1998) Visiting Distinguished Professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University (2017-2020) Professor O'Halloran's research focuses on multimodal discourse analysis, particularly the interaction of language with visual and mathematical resources. Her pioneering work in systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) has significantly impacted mathematics education and digital communication studies. Current research emphasizes digital tools for multimodal analysis and mixed methods approaches to big data analytics, addressing contemporary challenges in misinformation and public health communication. Her recent publications reveal strong thematic concentration in pandemic-related communication analysis, misinformation resistance mechanisms, and multimodal argumentation across social and cultural contexts. The 15 most recent articles demonstrate consistent application of multimodal frameworks to urgent societal issues including public health crises, political discourse, and digital literacy challenges. Founding editor of Routledge Studies in Multimodality book series (57+ volumes) Over 150 publications in leading international journals 50+ plenary/keynote presentations globally Competitive funding from National Research Foundation, MOE Singapore, US Air Force, ARC, NHMRC, and others Professor O'Halloran has directed interdisciplinary research teams comprising social scientists, computer scientists, and designers. Her leadership extends to developing commercial multimodal analysis software (Multimodal Analysis Image and Video) adopted internationally. Current projects include Eurovision 2023 wellbeing evaluation and COVID-19 misinformation immunity development, demonstrating continued relevance to contemporary societal challenges.
