Shweta Yadav is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Prior to this, she was a Bridge to the Faculty (B2F) fellow at UIC and a postdoctoral research fellow at the U.S. National Library of Medicine, NIH. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Patna, India. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, India Research Interests Her research focuses on the intersection of Natural Language Processing (NLP), Healthcare Informatics, Biomedical Text Mining, and Computational Social Science. She develops machine learning algorithms to advance AI applications in healthcare, particularly in medical document summarization , disease progression modeling , and health outcome prediction using electronic health records and social media data. Her work emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration to address real-world healthcare challenges. Recent Publications Her recent publications highlight advancements in Multimodal Mental Health Analysis , Perspective-aware Healthcare Summarization , and Biomedical Relation Extraction . She employs techniques like Transformer models , Contrastive Learning , and Attention Frameworks to tackle low-resource settings and extract insights from complex data sources.
Eric F. Lock is an Associate Professor in the Division of Biostatistics & Health Data Science at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health. He is also a Member of the Masonic Cancer Center (MCC) and has been at the University of Minnesota since 2014, after completing his PhD in Statistics from the University of North Carolina in 2012 and a postdoctoral fellowship in Statistical Genomics at Duke University in 2014. Lock's research focuses on developing methods for the analysis of multi-faceted high-dimensional data, particularly in "omics" fields such as genomics, metabolomics, and proteomics. His work emphasizes the integrated analysis of data from multiple sources (e.g., gene expression, metabolomics, imaging) or measured in multiple dimensions (e.g., multiple tissue types or body regions). He also specializes in exploratory factorization and clustering methods, and Bayesian nonparametric inference. His recent publications demonstrate significant contributions to tensor data imputation (BAMITA), matrix decomposition (EV-BIDIFAC), and methods for handling complex genomic data. His work bridges statistical theory with practical applications in molecular biology, addressing challenges in data integration across multiple biological measurement platforms. Delta Omega, Honorary Society in Public Health (2019) As an active researcher and educator, Lock serves on dissertation committees, including for Mykhaylo M. Malakhov who recently defended his PhD at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. He is involved in organizing and participating in major conferences such as STATGEN 2025, demonstrating his leadership in the biostatistics community.
Tianming Liu serves as a Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Computing at the University of Georgia, with courtesy faculty appointments in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the College of Public Health and the Institute of Bioinformatics. His academic career at UGA spans from Assistant Professor (2008-2013) to Associate Professor (2013-2015) to full Professor (2015-present), culminating in his recognition as a Distinguished Research Professor in 2017. He also serves as Graduate Program Faculty in the School of Computing. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China (2002) Master of Science in Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China (1999) Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China (1998) Dr. Liu's research focuses on the intersection of computer science and neuroscience, with particular expertise in biomedical image analysis, computational neuroscience, and biomedical informatics. His work centers on cortical architecture imaging and discovery, developing advanced computational methods for analyzing brain structure and function. His research spans multiple disciplines including neurosciences, cognitive sciences, biomedical engineering, and clinical sciences, with applications in understanding Alzheimer's disease progression, brain connectomics, and neural architecture. Analysis of Dr. Liu's recent publications reveals a strong trajectory in applying deep learning techniques to neuroimaging data. His work increasingly focuses on developing sophisticated neural network architectures specifically designed for brain connectome analysis, with particular attention to spatiotemporal dynamics and hierarchical organization of brain networks. Recent publications demonstrate his leadership in applying neural architecture search methods to optimize brain network analysis pipelines, with applications spanning from Alzheimer's disease research to fundamental neuroscience questions about cortical folding patterns. Scientific Recognition: Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Georgia (2017) Dr. Liu has secured substantial research funding through multiple competitive grants from NIH and NSF, demonstrating the significance and impact of his work. His most notable projects include the NIH R01 grant "Developing an Individualized Deep Connectome Framework for ADRD Analysis," the NIH R01 grant "Mapping Trajectories of Alzheimer's Progression via Personalized Brain Anchor-nodes," and the NSF CRCNS grant "Exploring the Mechanism of 3-Hinge Gyral Formation and its Role in Brain Networks." These projects highlight his leadership in applying computational methods to address critical challenges in neuroscience and medicine, particularly in the domain of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). Dr. Liu collaborates extensively across disciplines, working with researchers at institutions including University of Virginia, Emory University, UNC Chapel Hill, and UT Arlington. His work has contributed to the development of BiomedGPT, an open-source visual-language foundation model for biomedical applications, demonstrating his commitment to creating accessible tools for the broader research community.
Christian Desrosiers is a Research Professor at the Department of Software Engineering and IT, École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), with a Ph.D. from Polytechnique Montréal. His research focuses on data mining, machine learning, and computer vision, particularly in medical imaging and optical network analysis. Research Units: Zebra Research Chair in Computer Vision for Industrial Applications, LIVE – Interventional Imaging Laboratory, LIVIA – Imaging, Vision and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Research Axes: Intelligent and autonomous systems, Health technologies His expertise spans medical image analysis, domain adaptation, and computer vision. Recent publications highlight advancements in 3D point cloud learning, MRI harmonization, domain generalization, and real-time segmentation networks. Scientific awards include the prestigious Zebra Research Chair. He has co-supervised over 30 graduate students in topics ranging from optical network diagnostics to brain imaging and machine learning applications.
Patrick Desrosiers serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physics, Physical Engineering and Optics within Université Laval's Faculty of Science and Engineering, while conducting neuroscience research at the CERVO Brain Research Center. He co-directs Dynamica, a multidisciplinary complex systems research group, and participates in UNIQUE (neuroscience-AI integration) and CIMMUL (mathematical modeling applications). His academic training spans physics and mathematics at Université Laval, the University of Melbourne, and CEA-Saclay. Dr. Desrosiers' research centers on mathematical and computational neuroscience , with signature contributions in dimensionality reduction and network resilience analysis . His work bridges biological and artificial neural networks , zebrafish brain mapping , and neurovascular coupling using advanced techniques from spectral graph theory , random matrix theory , and dynamical systems . Current investigations focus on neural decoding under chronic stress and structural-functional relationships in brain networks. Analysis of his 2023-2025 publications reveals three dominant trajectories: (1) Low-dimensional representations for predicting cognitive decline and neural dynamics, (2) Network reconstruction methodologies applied to neuroscience and biodiversity, and (3) Development of computational tools like NeuroTorch for neural data analysis. His work consistently integrates mathematical rigor with biological relevance across species and scales. His recognition includes: Professeur étoile prize for exceptional teaching (Faculty of Science and Engineering, Université Laval, 2018) As Dynamica co-director, he mentors a research team comprising Antoine Légaré, Arthur Légaré, Benjamin Claveau, Jordan Charest, Marziyeh Pourmousavi, Pierre-Luc Larouche, Vincent Savard, Vincent Thibeault, and Zahra Yazdani. His collaborative framework connects physics, mathematics, and neuroscience to address fundamental questions in neural network organization, with funding evident through sustained publication output and lab operations. Dynamica Lab ( https://dynamicalab.github.io/ ) serves as the operational hub for his interdisciplinary research, maintaining active collaboration with CERVO Brain Research Center and international institutions.
Sathyanarayanan N. Aakur is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Auburn University's College of Engineering. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Oklahoma State University. He is an IEEE Senior Member and has received the prestigious NSF CAREER award for his research on multi-modal event understanding. Dr. Aakur received his PhD from the University of South Florida, where he worked with Dr. Sudeep Sarkar in the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Group. He also holds a Master's degree in Management Information Systems from the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida and an undergraduate degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Velammal Engineering College, Anna University, India. His research focuses on the intersection of computer vision, natural language processing, and psychology, with the goal of building intelligent agents that understand the visual world beyond simple recognition or captioning. His work encompasses self-supervised predictive learning for video event segmentation, commonsense reasoning to ground perception and prior knowledge, and generative modeling for building knowledge systems. Much of his group's current work focuses on analyzing, modeling, and synthesizing complex video scenes, with applications in agriculture and animal diagnostics. His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on open-world visual understanding, neurosymbolic reasoning, and multimodal learning. His work spans from fundamental computer vision problems like egocentric action recognition and scene graph generation to applied research in agricultural technology and biomedical informatics. He has successfully published at top-tier conferences including CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, and WACV, as well as in high-impact journals like IEEE TPAMI. NSF CAREER Award (2022) IEEE Senior Member (2024) Dr. Aakur serves as Area Chair for major conferences including CVPR, WACV, ICML, and NeurIPS, and as Associate Editor for Pattern Recognition journal. He has successfully mentored numerous students who have published at top venues in computer vision and machine learning. His research group has received funding from sources including the NSF and USDA for projects related to multimodal time series classification and stress detection in precision agriculture. The lab maintains active collaborations with institutions including the University of South Florida and Florida State University.
Andrea Di Falco serves as Professor and Director of Impact at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews. He leads the Centre for Biophotonics and maintains an active research group focused on cutting-edge photonics research. His institutional affiliations include editorial work for Photonics and Nanostructures: Fundamentals and Applications journal since 2013. University of St Andrews - School of Physics and Astronomy (Current) Centre for Biophotonics (Current) Photonics and Nanostructures: Fundamentals and Applications (Editor since 2013) Professor Di Falco's research spans multiple photonics domains with particular expertise in nano-photonics, metamaterials, plasmonics, and biophotonics. His work bridges fundamental optical physics with practical applications, especially in metasurface technology and flexible photonics. The research demonstrates strong interdisciplinary connections between physics, materials science, and biomedical applications, contributing to multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals. His recent publication portfolio shows a clear trend toward increasingly sophisticated metasurface applications, with growing integration of machine learning techniques for photonic design. The research spans fundamental optical physics, novel material development, and practical biomedical applications, demonstrating remarkable breadth while maintaining technical depth in photonics. EPSRC Fellowship (2010) for flexible metamaterials and plasmonics research ERC Consolidator Grant (2019) for biophotonic applications of optically trapped photonic membranes Professor Di Falco actively supervises postgraduate research students and has led numerous significant research projects, including the current Holographic Integrated Photonic Platform project (2024-2025). His research program has secured substantial funding from EPSRC, European Research Council, and Medical Research Council, demonstrating strong recognition of his work's significance and potential impact. His group maintains the SynthOpt research website as a hub for their collaborative work. The SynthOpt research group operates within the School of Physics and Astronomy at St Andrews, maintaining strong connections with both theoretical and experimental photonics researchers. The team focuses on developing novel photonic structures with applications ranging from fundamental optics to biomedical sensing and human-computer interaction technologies.
Lynford L Goddard is a Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , affiliated with the Grainger College of Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering . He serves as Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and previously directed the Institute for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access. His work bridges photonics, semiconductor devices, and nanofabrication with applications in sensing, metrology, and data processing. Education: PhD in Physics with minor in Mathematics, Stanford University (2005) His research interests focus on photonic systems for sensing and computation. The Photonic Systems Laboratory develops advanced fabrication techniques for lithium niobate modulators , 3D photonic integrated circuits , and gradient index optics , with applications in hydrogen detection , CO2 sensing , and optical metrology . Recent work explores volumetric photonic integration and machine learning applications in nanophotonics. Key publication trends span photonics-based sensing , high-precision metrology , and novel fabrication methods , emphasizing thin-film lithium niobate and 3D photonic structures . His awards include Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE) NSF CAREER Award OSA and SPIE Fellowships IEEE Senior Member As an educator , he has received multiple teaching recognitions and leads courses like ECE 329: Fields and Waves I . His patents cover innovations in photochemical etching , photonic nanojets , and 3D optical integration . Current projects include SCRIBE technology for micro-printing and DEI initiatives through the IDEA Institute.
Dr. Shabnam Sadeghi Esfahlani is an Associate Professor in Robotics at the School of Engineering and the Built Environment, Anglia Ruskin University , where she serves as Deputy Leader of the BORI research group and leads the Automation & Robotics MSc program. Her interdisciplinary expertise spans mechatronics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and serious games , with a focus on applications for rehabilitation, medical training, and autonomous systems . As a Chartered Engineer and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy , she has secured significant funding from Innovate UK, Horizon 2020, and GCRF , with grants exceeding £3 million. Education PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Anglia Ruskin University BSc (First Class) in Statistics & Mathematical Science, Shahid Beheshty University Her research integrates AI with robotics for societal impact, exemplified by the open-source SROBO ground robot and projects like Rehabgame and the Assistive Feeding Robot . She has published over 45 peer-reviewed articles and contributes to academic communities as a journal guest editor and conference organizer . Key collaborations include IET, IMechE, and the Nuffield Foundation as a mentor for young students. Scientific Awards & Recognitions: Chartered Engineer (CEng), Engineering Council UK Senior Fellow (SFHEA), Higher Education Academy Student-Voted 'Made a Difference Award' (2018) Post-Graduate Certificate in Higher Education
Professor Jordan Taylor is affiliated with Princeton University as a faculty member in the Department of Biomedical Engineering within the School of Engineering and Applied Science. His research focuses on unraveling computational processes in motor control and learning, with particular emphasis on interactions between explicit cognitive strategies and implicit motor adaptation during skill acquisition. Taylor leads the Intelligent Performance and Adaptation Laboratory , aiming to develop optimal training protocols for motor rehabilitation post-stroke or disease. Research Interests : Taylor investigates how humans learn motor skills through dual mechanisms of declarative strategy formation and implicit neural adaptation. His work explores the neural systems underlying these processes and their functional consequences, especially in pathological conditions like cerebellar degeneration. Current studies examine working memory constraints, reward modulation of implicit adaptation, and plan-based generalization of motor learning. Publication Trends : Recent articles analyze dual mechanisms in sensorimotor learning, reward-driven adaptation, and contextual influences on motor memory. His computational neuroscience approach combines behavioral experiments, neural imaging, and theoretical modeling to study cognitive-motor interactions across various tasks.
Xin Li is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University and serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor at Duke Kunshan University. He holds a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University (2005) and has held leadership roles in research consortia like the FCRP Focus Research Center and the Center for Silicon System Implementation (CSSI). His research bridges integrated circuits , machine learning , and cyber-physical systems , with applications in autonomous driving, battery lifetime prediction, and smart buildings. Education : Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University (2005); M.S., Fudan University (2001); B.S., Fudan University (1998) His work emphasizes robust design methodologies for analog/RF circuits, data-driven predictive modeling , and Bayesian inference for high-dimensional variation spaces. Recent publications focus on generative adversarial networks for circuit design, multi-view imputation for incomplete data, and knowledge-driven autonomous systems . He has received numerous accolades, including the NSF CAREER Award (2012) , IEEE Donald O. Pederson Best Paper Awards (2013, 2016) , and IEEE Fellow (2017) . He has served as Editor for journals like IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering and as Chair for conferences including ISVLSI and CAD/Graphics.
Michael Black is a leading researcher in computer vision and human body modeling. He is a founding director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany, where he leads the Perceiving Systems department. He holds concurrent academic appointments as Honorarprofessor at the University of Tübingen, Adjunct Professor (Research) in Computer Science at Brown University, and Visiting Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. B.Sc., University of British Columbia (1985) M.S., Stanford University (1989) Ph.D., Yale University (1992) His research centers on the mathematical representation of human body shape, with applications in computer vision, graphics, and neuroscience. He has pioneered methods for analyzing body shape variation using statistical models derived from 3D body scans and has developed techniques for estimating body shape from commodity sensors. His work bridges geometry, perception, and machine learning to enable machines to understand human form and behavior. His publications and research have significantly influenced the field of computer vision, particularly in shape modeling and pose estimation, with long-standing contributions to both theoretical and applied aspects. His work integrates broad disciplines such as machine learning, imaging, and human-computer interaction. IEEE Computer Society Outstanding Paper Award (1991) Honorable Mention for the Marr Prize (1999) Honorable Mention for the Marr Prize (2005) 2010 Koenderink Prize for Fundamental Contributions in Computer Vision Michael Black has advised numerous students and researchers through his roles at Brown University and the Max Planck Institute, though specific names are not listed. He has led major research initiatives and secured significant funding through his leadership in the Perceiving Systems department. His work continues to drive innovation in intelligent systems that perceive and interpret human behavior. He leads the Perceiving Systems department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, a multidisciplinary team focused on vision, learning, and human-centered computing. The group integrates computer vision, machine learning, and 3D modeling to develop systems that understand human shape, motion, and behavior.
Dr. Sahani Pathiraja is a Lecturer (tenure track assistant professor) at UNSW Sydney , specializing in Data Science . Her research bridges mathematical and statistical foundations with practical applications in environmental and biomedical sciences. Research Focus : Sequential Bayesian inference, Monte Carlo methods, stochastic analysis of non-linear filtering, uncertainty quantification, and real-time parameter estimation. Current Projects : Co-investigator in the ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre: Data Analytics for Resources and Environment (DARE) and the Next Generation Graduate Program (NGGP) in Sports Data Science and AI . Research Supervision : Dr. Pathiraja supervises PhD students in areas including: Bayesian inference Stochastic differential equations Data assimilation Non-linear filtering Scientific Collaborations : Her work intersects with environmental science, biomedical applications, and machine learning. Projects include stochastic hydrology, SDEs, and operator learning for environmental systems. Contact Information : Email: s.pathiraja@unsw.edu.au Phone: +61 2 8065 0836 Office: Room 2070, Level 2, The Red Centre, UNSW Sydney
Owais Khan serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University, where he leads research in cardiovascular biomechanics to improve heart disease diagnosis and treatment through engineering-driven approaches combining computational simulations, medical imaging, and biomechanics. His research program focuses on three interconnected pillars: developing physics-based computational models for blood flow simulation in patient-specific anatomies; advancing medical imaging techniques like dynamic CT myocardial perfusion and vessel wall MRI for quantitative physiological assessment; and conducting fundamental biomechanics studies to optimize prosthetic valve designs. This work directly addresses critical clinical challenges including heart surgery complications, aneurysm rupture prediction, and vein graft failure in coronary bypass patients. Khan's publication record demonstrates consistent innovation in cardiovascular computational modeling, with recent work emphasizing personalized medicine through physics-informed neural networks, multi-fidelity uncertainty quantification, and integration of CT perfusion imaging for coronary hemodynamics. His research bridges engineering principles with clinical cardiology to enable virtual treatment planning and risk stratification without additional patient risk. His scientific contributions have been recognized with prestigious awards including the American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship, NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Baxter Young Investigator Award, and MITACS Globalink Research Award. As director of the Cardiovascular Imaging and Modeling Biomechanics Lab (CIMBL), Khan maintains active collaborations with clinicians and radiologists at major hospitals, facilitating direct translation of engineering solutions to clinical cardiovascular medicine through a multi-disciplinary approach focused on personalized treatment strategies.
Chenxu Li is an active researcher in Biomedical Engineering, focusing on biomedical imaging and blood flow monitoring technologies. Their work integrates machine learning with optical sensing systems using SPAD cameras for improved temporal resolution in deep tissue analysis. Research output highlights include: Development of a fiber-based ultra-high speed diffuse speckle contrast analysis system for deep blood flow sensing (2025) Implementation of deep learning in two-layer DCS analytical models with SPAD arrays for cerebral blood flow monitoring (2025) Contributions align with UN Sustainable Development Goals related to health and technological innovation. Collaborations include Li, D. and Wu, J. on machine learning approaches for biomedical imaging.
