Xuesong Zhou is a Professor of Transportation Systems at the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment , Arizona State University (ASU). He leads the ASU Transportation+AI Lab and develops open-source tools like DTALite, NEXTA, and OSM2GMNS with over 100,000 downloads. His research focuses on multimodal transportation planning , dynamic traffic assignment , and rail scheduling with methodological contributions to traffic flow theory and operations research . Dr. Zhou's research bridges transportation system operations , computer applications for ITS , and logistics optimization . His work on differentiable programming reformulations and state-space-time network modeling has advanced real-time traffic prediction and multi-echelon facility scheduling . Scientific awards include: 2022 Elsevier Multimodal Transportation Best Article Award 2018 Transportation Research Part C Best Associate Editor Award 2012 INFORMS Railway Applications Section Best Paper Award He has advised 9 PhD students and 6 postdoctoral researchers to completion, with mentees now at institutions like Georgia Institute of Technology and Michigan State University. Current projects include NSF CONNECT and DOE Argonne collaborations on multi-scale traffic simulation and smart campus cyberinfrastructure .
Shuhao Fu is a Program Postdoctoral Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) researching the intersection of machine learning and cognitive science. He completed his Ph.D. in Psychology at UCLA under advisors Hongjing Lu and Ying Nian Wu, following a B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research examines human-like relational reasoning in AI systems through cognitive modeling and computational approaches. Research focuses on: Bridging human-machine reasoning gaps via analogical mapping Developing explicit relational representations in vision models Structural cognitive modeling for compositional understanding Multimodal reasoning and scene interpretation Relational knowledge representation in biological and artificial systems Publication trends show concentrated work in computational cognitive science (2021-2025), with evolving focus from visual analogy fundamentals to applications in 3D recognition, social interaction modeling, and mental health diagnostics. Recent work demonstrates increased emphasis on transformer architectures, multimodal integration, and human-AI comparative studies. Professional experience includes research internships at Google X and Mineral.ai, with prior affiliation at Johns Hopkins University's CCVL lab under Alan Yuille. Currently serves as reviewer for ICML, ICCV, and Cognitive Science Society conferences.
Jonathon P. Schuldt is a Professor in the Department of Communication and Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University, serving as Executive Director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. His work bridges social psychology with public opinion on environmental and health issues. BS, Cornell University PhD, Social Psychology, University of Michigan Research explores social identity, communication processes, and public engagement with climate change, health, and U.S. politics. Focus areas include terminology effects, cultural determinants of environmental attitudes, and cross-platform climate discourse analysis. Recent publications analyze moral language in climate communication, citizen science labeling, transnational climate policy influence, and post-pandemic vulnerability frameworks. Articles appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Nature Climate Change , and Journal of Environmental Psychology . NSF Award, Collaborative Midterm Survey (2022) NSF Decision, Risk and Management Sciences RAPID award (2020) AAPOR Student-Faculty Diversity Pipeline Award (2019) Carnegie Junior Fellowship Nominee (2019) Top Faculty Paper Award, ICA Environmental Communication Division (2017) CALS Young Faculty Teaching Excellence Award (2015) Teaching emphasizes real-world application through courses like COMM 2850: Communication, Environment, Science, and Health and COMM 4200: Public Opinion and Social Processes . Outreach involves media engagement to inform public discourse on climate and health issues.
Dr. Yang Zhang is a tenured Professor at the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security . His research focuses on Trustworthy Machine Learning , emphasizing privacy, safety, and security , with additional work on measuring misinformation and unsafe online content like hateful memes. He has published extensively at top conferences (CCS, NDSS, Oakland, USENIX Security) and received multiple awards including the Busy Beaver Award (2022) and NDSS Distinguished Paper Award (2019) . Research Interests : Trustworthy Machine Learning LLM Security, Privacy, and Safety Misinformation and Hate Speech Detection Social Network Analysis Recent Publications examine synthetic data auditing, hate speech detection in LLM-generated content, and privacy risks in curriculum learning, spanning conferences like USENIX Security , IEEE S&P , and ACM CCS . His work often intersects AI security with ethical considerations . Scientific Awards : Busy Beaver Award for “Privacy of Machine Learning” (2022) NDSS Distinguished Paper Award (2019) CCS Best Paper Runner-Up (2022) Best Machine Learning and Security Paper in Cybersecurity Award (2025) Best Paper Finalist at CSAW Europe (2023, 2024) Students in his group include Yixin Wu , Xinyue Shen , and Yiting Qu , the latter recently completing their Ph.D. defense. He actively recruits MSc and PhD students and has contributed to iDRAMA Lab for meme-related research.
Henrikki Tenkanen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Built Environment at Aalto University, specializing in Geoinformatics. His research focuses on geospatial analysis, urban planning, transportation accessibility, and open data applications for sustainable development. His primary research interests include Geospatial Analysis , Urban Planning , Transportation Accessibility , and Population Dynamics . Tenkanen's work integrates mobile phone data, social media, and open geospatial sources to understand urban environments, accessibility patterns, and carbon emissions. His research contributes significantly to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to sustainable cities and communities. Tenkanen's recent publications demonstrate strong trends in high-resolution spatial analysis of urban environments, with particular emphasis on transport equity , carbon emissions mapping , and rural population representation . His work combines advanced geocomputing techniques with practical urban planning applications, often developing open-source tools to enhance reproducibility and accessibility of geospatial research. As an active member of the academic community, Tenkanen serves as a peer reviewer for journals including Big Data & Society and Environment and Planning B, and participates in conference committees such as the International Conference on Location Based Services. His research has garnered significant attention, with multiple publications featured in news outlets and academic platforms. Tenkanen leads several major research projects including Geo-R2LLM (developing geographic large language models), Geoportti (open geospatial infrastructure), MAPICO (mapping commute-related carbon emissions), and LIH: Location Innovation Hub. His work bridges academic research with practical applications for urban planning and sustainable mobility.
Jungeun (Jenny) Won is an Assistant Professor of Research in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University at Buffalo. Her research focuses on optical imaging , biomedical device development , medical image analysis , and artificial intelligence in OCT . She leads the Translational Biophotonics Laboratory , where she develops advanced OCT techniques for medical applications such as diabetic retinopathy , otitis media , and biofilm analysis . Contact: 215J Bonner Hall, Buffalo NY 14260, jungeunw@buffalo.edu Related Links: CV PDF , Google Scholar , Lab Website Her recent work involves high-resolution OCT for longitudinal studies on retinal degeneration, VISTA OCTA for blood flow analysis, and 3D motion correction algorithms to enhance image quality. She also explores multimodal imaging combining OCT with Raman spectroscopy for bacterial differentiation and microplasma-based therapies for ear infections.
Dr. Armin Mustafa is an Associate Professor in Computer Vision and AI at the University of Surrey, where he holds a prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow position. He is affiliated with the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP), the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, and the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence (PAI). His research focuses on developing AI systems for visual understanding of complex dynamic scenes, with applications in entertainment, autonomous systems, and augmented/virtual reality. Dr. Mustafa completed his PhD in general dynamic scene reconstruction from multi-view videos in 2016 from the University of Surrey under the supervision of Prof. Adrian Hilton. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked for three years (2010-2013) at Samsung Research Institute in Bangalore, India, in the field of Computer Vision. His research expertise spans Computer Vision, Scene Understanding, 3D/4D Vision, Virtual Reality, Light Fields, Machine Learning, Video Captioning, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and Audio-visual Video Understanding. Dr. Mustafa has pioneered advances in 4D vision, NLP, and Scene Understanding over the past decade, with a particular focus on enabling machines to model and interpret real-world environments for socially beneficial applications. His work bridges theoretical advances in computer vision with practical applications in media production, virtual reality, and autonomous systems. Analysis of Dr. Mustafa's recent publications reveals a strong focus on multimodal learning, particularly the integration of audio and visual information for scene understanding. His work spans diverse areas including shadow detection and removal, audio event classification, video captioning, person image generation, and dynamic scene reconstruction. A notable trend is his exploration of transformer architectures for both vision and audio tasks, as well as the application of self-supervised learning techniques to reduce dependency on labeled data. Dr. Mustafa has received numerous prestigious awards: 2018 - Research Fellowship, The Royal Academy of Engineering, UK 2017 - Young Researcher award, CVPR 2016 - Doctoral Consortium grant, CVPR 2015 - BMVA travel grant for ICCV 2014 - Set-Squared Research to Innovator grant 2013 - Overseas Research Scholarship, FEPS, The University of Surrey 2010 - Cadence Silver Medal, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur As a dedicated mentor, Dr. Mustafa supervises several PhD students working on cutting-edge topics including multi-person reconstruction, audio-visual scene understanding, and automatic storyboard generation. His research is supported by significant grants including a £15 million UKRI Prosperity Partnership with the BBC (AI4ME), a 5-year Royal Academy of Engineering fellowship (4D Vision for Perceptive Machines), and multiple projects with industry partners such as Figment Productions and Foundry. Dr. Mustafa is an active member of the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP), one of the world's leading research centers in vision, speech, and signal processing. He also contributes to the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence (PAI), where he serves as a Surrey AI Fellow. His work often involves collaboration with industry partners and other academic institutions across Europe.
Narges Mahyar is an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) . She is currently on sabbatical with the Aviz team at the Inria Center, University of Paris-Saclay . Her research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) , Information Visualization , and Digital Civics , aiming to empower communities through technology. Education: She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Victoria, an MS in Information Technology from the University of Malaya, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Tehran Azad University. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of British Columbia (2014–2016) and the University of California San Diego (2016–2018). Research Interests: Her work addresses complex societal challenges like climate change, urban planning, and healthcare by designing inclusive technologies. Key areas include civic engagement, data visualization for equity, and integrating AR/VR for public participation. Notable projects include CommunityClick and RisingEMOTIONS , which enhance public input in decision-making. Publications & Awards: With over 50 publications, her work has received prestigious awards including Best Paper Awards at CHI 2023 , Eurovis 2022 , and CSCW 2020 . Her research emphasizes ethical design and inclusivity, particularly involving marginalized communities. Grants & Advising: She has secured grants totaling over $1.4 million, including NSF funding for projects like "Mapping Instability" . Advises PhD student Mahmood Jasim and collaborates with Ali Sarvghad and Pari Riahi on interdisciplinary research. Labs & Teams: Leads the HCI-VIS Lab at UMass, focusing on social computing and visualization. Collaborates internationally with teams like Aviz and Inria on civic tech initiatives.
Zahraa Abdallah is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol. She holds a PhD and BSc in relevant fields. Her research focuses on Machine Learning, Data Science, Time Series Analysis, and their applications in Health Informatics, Neuroscience, and Bioinformatics. She leads projects on wearable technology integration for diabetes management and EEG-based disease classification. Her work emphasizes explainable AI and multimodal approaches. Zahraa is affiliated with the Bristol Doctoral College Initiative (BDFI) as an Academic Co-Director and collaborates with experts like Prof. Raul Santos-Rodriguez. Contact: zahraa.abdallah@bristol.ac.uk | Website: zahraa-abdallah.com Research Interests: Time Series Clustering & Forecasting EEG-based Disease Detection (Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s) Smartwatch-Driven Healthcare Systems Explainable AI in Biomedical Applications Key Projects: Development of the CSTS benchmark for time series clustering Investigating insulin needs using automated delivery data Gene essentiality classification via graph neural networks Collaborations: Professor Raul Santos-Rodriguez (BDFI) Lucia Marucci (Systems & Engineering Biology)
Dr. Yizi Chen is a Researcher affiliated with the Professorship for Cartography at ETH Zurich's Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering. Their work focuses on advancing cartographic techniques through AI-driven methods, historical map analysis, and geospatial technologies. Key contributions include automated map vectorization, semantic segmentation of historical maps, and integrating multimodal data for robotic systems. They have published extensively in top-tier journals and conferences, addressing challenges in deep learning applications for geomatic engineering. Education details are not explicitly provided in the text. Research interests include semantic segmentation, generative AI for cartography, and steganography in image translation. Notable publications span topics from eye-tracking segmentation to urban land use mapping, reflecting a strong interdisciplinary approach. Dr. Chen collaborates on projects involving historical map digitization and benchmarking datasets for computer vision tasks. No awards or grants are mentioned. Their work contributes to advancing geomatic engineering through innovative solutions in digital mapping and spatial data analysis.
James Mitchell is a Professor of Public Policy at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science . He holds a MA (Political Studies) from the University of Aberdeen and a D.Phil. (Oxford). His research focuses on British politics, devolution, public policy, territorial politics, and Scottish nationalism. He has supervised over 30 years of PhDs and Masters in public policy, devolution, and constitutional politics. Key research themes include fiscal accountability in Scotland, party membership surges post-referendum, and multi-level governance. Research Projects: ESRC-funded study on SNP and Scottish Greens’ post-referendum membership growth Investigation of fiscal devolution’s accountability gaps Analysis of Scotland’s constitutional questions and local governance Research Interests: Mitchell explores territorial politics, public service reform, and political behavior in sub-state governments. He has contributed to debates on Scottish independence, EU referendum impacts, and intergovernmental relations. Recent work includes studies on the SNP leadership contest (2023) and Holyrood’s fiscal structures. Grants & Awards: He has secured grants from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for projects on party membership and constitutional dynamics. No specific scientific awards are listed, but his work is widely cited in political science and public policy. Labs & Teams: He is part of the Territorial Politics Research Group and has collaborated on regional economic forecasting and governance studies. His work often bridges academia and policy, influencing debates on devolution and public finance.
Dr. Rafeef Garbi is a Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia, and the Founder/Director of the Biomedical Signal and Image Computing Laboratory (BiSICL). Her multidisciplinary research integrates artificial intelligence, computer vision, and medical imaging for clinical applications in pediatric orthopedics, oncology, and neurology. PhD (Chalmers University, Sweden), MSc (with distinction), Technical Licentiate Research Focus: Specializing in Medical Image Computing and Visual Computing , her lab develops AI-driven solutions for: Automated segmentation and analysis of multi-dimensional biomedical data Clinically-translatable biomarkers for disease assessment Computer-aided intervention systems in surgical contexts Scientific Leadership: UBC Killam Faculty Research Fellow Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Early Career Scholar Senior IEEE Member & Founding IEEE EMBS Vancouver Section Member Key Collaborations: Active in the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Society and CAIDA: UBC ICICS Centre for Artificial Intelligence Decision-making and Action. Her team bridges engineering, medicine, and computational biology through translational research.
Cristobal Pagan Canovas is a Permanent Professor (tenure-track) at the Department of English Philology, University of Murcia, where he co-directs the Daedalus Lab and the Murcia Center for Cognition, Communication, and Creativity. He is also a member of the international consortium Red Hen Lab, focusing on multimodal communication research. Education includes: PhD in Ancient and Modern Greek Literature from University of Murcia BA+MA in Classics and BA+MA in English from University of Murcia MA in Classics from University College London His research explores human cognition and communication through interdisciplinary approaches combining humanities and sciences. Primary interests include: Conceptual integration networks in emotional expression Multimodal communication patterns across language, gesture, and prosody Temporal representation in creative artifacts Cognitive foundations of poetic metaphor and verbal art Cultural evolution of integrative patterns in social interactions Recent publications demonstrate consistent focus on temporal cognition, multimodal communication, and creativity across domains including poetry, music, and gesture. Research employs corpus analysis, big data approaches, and cognitive modeling to examine how humans integrate perceptions into meaningful wholes. Scientific awards and fellowships: Ramón y Cajal Grant (elite national scheme) Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship in Quantitative Linguistics EURIAS Fellowship at Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies FBBVA Leonardo Fellowship Marie Curie Fellowship ENSAYA'10 Award for scientific essay He leads multiple research grants including ERASMUS PLUS KA220-HED (MULTIDATA) and national grants MULTIFLOW and CREATIME. Supervised trainees include postdoctoral researchers (Marie Curie, Juan de la Cierva), MA students, undergraduates, and data scientists. The Daedalus Lab develops interdisciplinary methods to study cognition and communication, while Red Hen Lab enables large-scale multimodal dataset analysis through international collaboration.
Claudia Álvares is an Associate Professor (with Habilitation) in the Department of Sociology at ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon, where she researches Media Studies, Gender Studies, and Cultural Politics. She serves as an Integrated Researcher at CIES-Iscte (Center for Research and Studies in Sociology), focusing on Communication and Culture. Her academic credentials include a PhD in Media & Communication Studies from Goldsmith's College, University of London (2001), a Master's in Journalism from the same institution (1996), and a Bachelor's in Social Communication from New University of Lisbon (1992). She completed her Aggregation in Communication Sciences at ISCTE in 2023. Álvares leads groundbreaking research in media platformization , disinformation ecosystems , and gendered media representations . Her projects analyze how digital platforms reshape European identity, civic engagement, and journalistic practices. She employs critical theory frameworks to examine power dynamics in algorithmic systems and identity politics. Current international collaborations include coordinating EUMEPLAT (European Media Platforms) and researching for IBERIFIER Plus (Iberian Digital Media Observatory). Her scholarly output demonstrates consistent focus on digital democracy , gender asymmetry in media , and discursive polarization . Recent articles explore AI's societal impact, fiscal citizenship, and toxic online debates, often using comparative methodologies across European contexts. Works consistently intersect technology studies with critical cultural analysis. Honors and Evaluations Member, European Science Foundation College of Experts President, European Communication Research and Education Association (2012-2016) Editor, Routledge Studies in European Communication Research Senior Editor, Cogent Social Sciences Evaluator for European Research Council, British Academy, and national research agencies Academic Leadership Supervises 23 doctoral candidates and 81 Master's students researching media populism, digital activism, and gender representation. Coordinates courses including: Media and Sociocultural Mediations (PhD) Research Design (Master's) Media Geopolitics Discursive Practices Leads research groups at CIES-Iscte investigating platform governance and cross-cultural communication. Secured multiple EU grants for projects combating disinformation and analyzing media externalities.
M. Hadi Amini is an Assistant Professor at Florida International University's Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences. He founded and directs the Sustainability, Optimization, and Learning for InterDependent networks (SOLID) laboratory, focusing on cyber-physical-social systems and distributed AI applications. Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering (2019), Carnegie Mellon University M.Sc., Electrical and Computer Engineering (2015), Carnegie Mellon University M.Sc. (2013), Tarbiat Modares University B.Sc. (2011), Sharif University of Technology His research spans federated learning, interdependent network optimization, and AI applications in smart cities , energy systems , and healthcare . Recent work emphasizes privacy-preserving techniques, quantum encryption, and blockchain integration for secure distributed learning. The 15 most recent publications highlight trends in large language models , edge computing , medical imaging security , and infrastructure resilience , with interdisciplinary emphasis across computer science, systems engineering, and urban planning. Best Paper Award, IEEE Conference on Computational Science & Computational Intelligence (2019) Best Journal Paper Award, Springer Nature Operations Research Forum (2021) Excellence in Teaching Award, FIU (2020) Multiple Best Reviewer Awards, IEEE Transactions NSF Travel Awards (2019) As Associate Editor for Frontiers in Communications and Networks and book series editor for Sustainable Interdependent Networks , he actively shapes research discourse. His lab has secured $3.6M in federal/state funding for AI-driven infrastructure projects.
