Georgia Gkioxari is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Caltech , with a part-time affiliation at Meta AI . Her work focuses on extending visual perception models through advanced 2D and 3D representation learning, spatial reasoning, and generative models. Education: Not explicitly mentioned in the text Research interests span 3D perception , spatial reasoning , and vision-language integration , with projects like Visual Agentic AI for Spatial Reasoning and Token-by-Token Multimodal Alignment . Her publications emphasize 3D object detection , reconstruction , and generative modeling techniques including diffusion models and transformers . Scientific recognition includes the Meta LLM Evaluation Research Grant , Okawa Research Grant , Google Faculty Scholar Award 2024 , and Amazon Research Award . She teaches courses like Large Language & Vision Models (EE/CS 148) and Learning & 3D (CS 101) at Caltech. Labs & Teams: Leads Glab with members including Ilona Demler, Ziqi Ma, and Damiano Marsili
Massimo Piccardi is a Professor of Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computer Vision, and Machine Learning at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) , where he has been since 2002. He currently serves as the Head of the School of Electrical and Data Engineering and leads the Big Data Analytics program at the Global Big Data Technologies Centre. His research focuses on advancing NLP, machine learning applications in healthcare, and cybersecurity in IoT systems. He has authored over 200 journal papers and conference proceedings, secured significant ARC and CRC grants, and holds the IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Contributor Award (2022). Education & Professional Roles: Joined UTS in 2002, progressing from Associate Professor (2002–2007) to Professor (2008–present). Serves as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Big Data and Editor for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. Active in professional societies including IEEE, ACL, and ALTA (President, 2023–2024). Research Interests: Core areas include NLP (translation, summarization, adversarial attacks), healthcare informatics (clinical NLP, health service analysis), and cybersecurity (IoT security, privacy-preserving systems). Cross-cutting themes include generative models, cross-lingual systems, and ethical AI. Grants & Projects: Principal Investigator on ARC Discovery/Linkage projects and CRC grants. Recent projects include controllable machine translation (Amazon), privacy-preserving digital agriculture, and STEM innovation (ASTRID project with NBN Co). Labs & Collaborations: Leads the UTS Global Big Data Technologies Centre, collaborating on projects like adversarial NLP attacks, medical machine translation, and secure IoT frameworks.
Fei-Fei Li is the Sequoia Capital Professor in Computer Science at Stanford University and Founding Co-Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI). She holds courtesy appointments in the Graduate School of Business and is a Senior Fellow at HAI. Her work bridges AI research with interdisciplinary applications in healthcare, robotics, and policy. Dr. Li pioneered the ImageNet dataset, instrumental in the AI revolution, and co-founded World Labs to advance spatial intelligence and generative AI. Education: B.A. in Physics, Princeton University (1999) Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Caltech (2005) Doctorate (Honorary), Harvey Mudd College (2022) Research Interests: AI ethics, computer vision, robotic learning, healthcare applications, and human-AI collaboration. Her teams developed frameworks like MOMA for activity recognition and BEHAVIOR for embodied AI benchmarks. She advocates for diversity in tech and co-founded AI4All to mentor underrepresented students. Key Contributions: ImageNet and ImageNet Challenge Stanford Vision and Learning Lab (SVL) Policy advisory roles for U.S. Senate, UN Secretary-General, and California Governor Labs & Initiatives: Leads the People, AI & Robots Group (PAIR), Partnership in AI-Assisted Care (PAC), and the Human-Centered AI Institute. Her work emphasizes ethical AI deployment and societal impact. Awards: VinFuture Prize (2024), IEEE Fellow, National Academy memberships (Engineering, Medicine, Arts & Sciences), and recognition as one of Time’s AI100 Influencers.
Henriëtte Hendriks is a Professor in Language Acquisition and Cognition at the University of Cambridge, affiliated with the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics and the Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (TAL) department. She leads the Cambridge Processing and Acquisition of Language lab (CAMPAL) and serves as Deputy Director of the Centre for Lifelong Learning and Individualised Cognition (CLIC). Education: Sinology at Leiden University Early Career: Coordinator at Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (DFG/ESF projects) Her research explores how languages encode concepts (person, time, space, causality) and their impact on language acquisition. Key themes include: Cognitive Linguistics and Language-Cognition Interfaces First and Second Language Acquisition Mechanisms Multilingualism and Cognitive Flexibility Typological Variation in Semantic Structures Deictic Terms and Dynamic Space Representation Recent publications focus on motion event typology across English, German, French, and Uyghur, examining cross-linguistic influences in acquisition processes. Her work combines experimental methods with syntactic analysis to study semantic mapping and grammaticalization in multilingual contexts. Current projects include: Centre for Lifelong Learning and Individualised Cognition (CLIC) - Principal Investigator MEITS Project (Strand 5) - Co-Investigator Cambridge Language Sciences Incubator projects on cognitive pacing and parental linguistic contributions International DeicTeS project on deictic meaning processes Labs & Teams: Cambridge Processing and Acquisition of Language lab (CAMPAL) Collaborations with Zoe Kourtzi, Vicky Leong, and Clare Hughes
Prof. Bernt Schiele is a Max Planck Director at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and holds a Professorship at Saarland University. His research focuses on understanding multimodal sensor data, with key areas in computer vision, 3D object recognition, and machine learning. He leads the Computer Vision and Machine Learning group, addressing challenges in sensor fusion, scene understanding, and human activity recognition. Schiele has held academic roles at TU Darmstadt, ETH Zurich, and MIT, and contributes to top journals like IEEE Transactions on PAMI and conferences like ECCV. His work emphasizes robust models, interpretability, and domain adaptation for real-world applications. Education: PhD (1997, Grenoble), MSc (1994 Karlsruhe/1993 Grenoble) Key Positions: MIT (1997-2000), ETH Zurich (1999-2004), TU Darmstadt (2004-2010) Research interests span 3D scene understanding, multimodal sensor processing, and machine learning techniques for large-scale data. His recent work advances robust object detection, explainable AI, and domain-invariant training methods. He also chairs major conferences like ECCV 2018 and co-chairs ICCV 2011. Publications highlight innovations in interpretable vision transformers, certified explanations, and test-time adaptation. Despite no listed awards, his contributions shape foundational areas of computer vision and multimodal AI.
Emma Pierson is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, affiliated with the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (BAIR) , Computational Precision Health , and the Center for Human-Compatible AI . She focuses on developing data science and machine learning methods to address issues in healthcare equity and social inequality . Her work includes studies on race adjustments in clinical algorithms, migration patterns, and leveraging LLMs for health equity. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University (2020), Master’s in Statistics from the University of Oxford. Prior roles include Assistant Professor at Cornell Tech, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research, and data scientist at 23andMe and Coursera. Research Interests: Her research spans fair clinical prediction , sparse autoencoders , health disparities , and algorithmic fairness . Notable projects include the MIGRATE dataset for granular migration analysis and studies on policing disparities. Awards: NSF CAREER Award, Rhodes Scholarship, Hertz Fellowship, MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, and Samsung AI Researcher of the Year. She writes a statistics blog ( Obsession with Regression ) and contributes to media outlets like The New York Times and FiveThirtyEight . Labs/Teams: Leads the MIGRATE project, a collaboration to analyze fine-grained migration data. Engages in interdisciplinary work across AI, healthcare, and social science.
Prof. dr. Nico Van de Weghe is a full Professor of GIScience at the University of Ghent (UGent), affiliated with the CartoGIS research unit. His work bridges computer science, social science, and natural science through geospatial information studies, focusing on enabling machines to reason spatially (GeoAI). Since 2004, he has specialized in knowledge-based AI, particularly spatiotemporal reasoning and moving object analysis, with applications in animal behavior, criminology, healthcare, mobility, and sports. Van de Weghe's research emphasizes hybrid GeoAI systems combining knowledge-driven and data-driven approaches. Keywords include GeoAI, GIScience, Spatiotemporal Analysis, Moving Objects, and Data Mining. Recent publications highlight urban road network analysis, hybrid trajectory modeling, BIM semantic enrichment, and cycling safety studies using virtual reality.
Teruko Mitamura is a prominent researcher at Carnegie Mellon University with over three decades of contributions to natural language processing, computational linguistics, and artificial intelligence. Her work spans from foundational research in event representation to advanced applications in multimodal systems and question answering. Her research interests focus on event detection and understanding, question answering systems, information retrieval, and multimodal processing. She has made significant contributions to event coreference resolution, timeline construction, and cross-document event analysis, developing methodologies that have become standard in the field. Her work often bridges theoretical advances with practical applications, particularly in complex information environments requiring deep semantic understanding. Natural Language Processing : Specializing in event extraction, coreference resolution, and narrative understanding with over 179 publications Question Answering Systems : Developing advanced techniques for complex question answering, particularly through NTCIR QA Lab and PoliInfo tasks Multimodal Processing : Integrating textual, visual, and temporal information for richer understanding in systems like ProMQA Evaluation Methodologies : Creating robust frameworks for assessing NLP systems through TAC KBP Event Tracks Her recent publication trends show a strong focus on leveraging large language models for event understanding, multimodal question answering, and timeline construction. She has expanded her research into specialized domains including patent analysis and novelty examination, demonstrating the breadth of her research impact across academic and practical applications. Active participant in major NLP conferences including ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, and AAAI with consistent publications Long-standing collaborator with researchers at CMU's Language Technologies Institute including Eduard H. Hovy and Eric Nyberg Contributor to shared tasks that have shaped research directions in event processing and question answering Organizer of multiple NTCIR QA Lab tasks focused on political information question answering Dr. Mitamura has mentored numerous researchers who have gone on to make their own contributions to the field, as evidenced by her extensive co-authorship network and the progression of her former students and collaborators into faculty and research positions. Her work continues to evolve with the field while maintaining her focus on deep semantic understanding of events and narratives.
Bryan A. Plummer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Boston University, affiliated with the IVC Group and the Artificial Intelligence Research (AIR) initiative at the Rafik B. Hariri Institute. He holds a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in computer vision. His research focuses on multimodal machine learning, efficient neural architectures, explainable AI, and robust ML systems. Plummer's work bridges vision and language, addressing challenges in domain generalization, synthetic data utilization, and model efficiency. Notable contributions include the Flickr30K Entities dataset and advancements in vision-language model robustness against web artifacts. He has advised over 20 students, with several securing roles at top institutions like NVIDIA and Google. His recent awards include the 3M Foundation Fellowship and NSF GRFP honorable mention. Plummer actively serves on conference committees (NeurIPS, CVPR, ICCV) and leads initiatives like the 1st Findings Workshop at ICCV'25.
Ranjay Krishna is an Assistant Professor at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where he co-directs the RAIVN lab and leads the computer vision team at the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2). His research intersects computer vision , natural language processing , robotics , and human-computer interaction . PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University (2021) Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Stanford and Cornell His work has received best paper , outstanding paper , and orals at top conferences like CVPR, ACL, CSCW, NeurIPS, UIST, and ECCV. Media outlets including Science , Forbes , and PBS NOVA have covered his research. He has been supported by grants from Google , Apple , NFS , and others. Ranjay advises a diverse group of 15 PhD and postdoctoral researchers , including Jieyu Zhang, Benlin Liu, and Cheng-Yu Hsieh. His teams have developed benchmarks like MemoryBench and The Colosseum , and his PathFinder framework achieved 74% accuracy in skin melanoma diagnosis—surpassing human experts by 9%. Notable contributions include: Perception Tokens for visual reasoning in MLMs SAM2Act for robotic manipulation with memory Synthetic Visual Genome dataset with 5.6M relationships
Dr. Farha Sattar is a Lecturer in Education (Mathematics) at the Faculty of Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University. With over thirty years of teaching experience in Mathematics, Science education, GIS, Remote Sensing, and e-Learning technologies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, Dr. Sattar brings extensive expertise to her academic role. She holds a PhD in Geospatial Science from Charles Darwin University, focusing on Spatial Mathematical Modelling for 3D Gully Mapping and Erosion Quantification. Her educational background includes: PhD in Geospatial Science (Three Dimensional Gully Mapping and Erosion Quantification within a Geoinformatics Framework), Charles Darwin University (2012) Prior academic experience at several Asian and European universities Dr. Sattar's research spans multiple interdisciplinary fields with a strong focus on the intersection of education and technology. Her primary research interests include Mathematics Education, STEM Education, Geoscience Education, Spatial Mathematical Modelling, Drone Technology, Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems, and Innovative Pedagogies such as experiential learning and inquiry-based approaches. She has developed expertise in cognitive development, particularly in fostering critical and creative thinking skills through iSTEM approaches. An analysis of Dr. Sattar's recent publications reveals a consistent trajectory toward integrating emerging technologies like drones, augmented reality, and geospatial artificial intelligence into educational contexts. Her work demonstrates a progression from foundational geospatial research on erosion mapping to innovative applications in STEM education. Recent publications increasingly focus on drone technology for educational purposes, spatial data infrastructure for policy development, and computational thinking development through technology-enhanced learning. Dr. Sattar has received numerous accolades for her contributions to education and research: NT Science Week Awards – Inspired NT STEM Hero of the Year award (2021) Long Service Recognition Award (2023) Finalist, CDU Alumni Award (2023) Multiple Best Presentation Awards (2008, 2010, 2017) Australian College of Educators - 2021 College Medal Nominee As a supervisor, Dr. Sattar mentors postgraduate research students including Ayesha Farhan, who is working on "A Framework for Cognitive Development: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking Skills, Using iSTEM Approach." She actively secures research funding through various projects such as "DBELaSTEM: Drone-Based Experiential Learning and STEM Education," "STEM_D & VR: Youth STEM Learning and Empowerment with Drones and VR," and "CodProg Drone Lab." Her research is supported by grants from NT Government projects and other external funding sources. Dr. Sattar leads the CodProg Drone Lab, an innovative research space exploring drone technology applications in education. She is a certified drone pilot and aeronautical radio operator, which enables her to bridge theoretical knowledge with practical applications. Her work with the "Flying Forward: Drones, STEM Equity, and Indigenous Empowerment" initiative demonstrates her commitment to community engagement and addressing educational disparities through technology.
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.
Professor Heather Ferguson is a distinguished cognitive psychologist at the University of Kent's School of Psychology, where she has built an impressive academic career since her appointment as Lecturer in 2009. Promoted to Professor in 2018, she leads groundbreaking research examining the cognitive basis of social communication across the lifespan. Her work bridges cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and social cognition, with particular expertise in perspective-taking, theory of mind, and the interface between cognitive processes and social interaction. Her research primarily investigates how we access and represent other people's perspectives during communication, using methodologies including eye-tracking, EEG, and reaction time measurements. Key questions driving her work include: How do people understand and predict events based on others' mental states? What happens when these conflict with our own knowledge? How do social abilities relate to cognitive skills like memory and inhibitory control? How does aging affect social cognition? Her work has significant implications for understanding autism spectrum disorder, social development, and cognitive aging. Professor Ferguson's recent publications reveal a strong focus on perspective-taking across the lifespan, social cognition in autism, the cognitive effects of fiction reading, and the neural mechanisms underlying empathy. Her research demonstrates consistent methodological rigor through pre-registered studies and meta-analyses, with particular attention to developmental trajectories from adolescence through older adulthood. Psychonomic Society Early Career Award (2019) Open Science Framework Pre-registration Challenge award (2018) Cognitive Neuroscience Society Postdoctoral Fellow Award (2018) University of Kent Prize for Research (2016) Kent Union Teaching Award for 'Best Teacher' (2012) Professor Ferguson actively supervises multiple PhD students and has secured substantial research funding, including a €1.5 million ERC Starting Grant and multiple Leverhulme Trust grants. Her work with the Cognitive basis of Social Communication and Ageing (COGSOCOAGE) research group has produced influential findings on social cognition across the lifespan. She serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition and on the editorial board of Cognition, while also mentoring early-career researchers through the Eastern Arc Mentoring Scheme.
Ilker Yildirim is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University, where he leads the Cognitive and Neural Computation Lab (CNCL). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in 2014. His research focuses on understanding how perception transforms raw sensory signals into meaningful representations of objects and scenes through computational modeling approaches. His research interests include: Computational modeling of visual perception and cognition Intuitive physics and physical reasoning Bayesian inference and probabilistic models in cognition Integration of graphics and physics engines in cognitive modeling Neural mechanisms of object representation Attention and resource allocation in dynamic scenes Yildirim's lab develops computational frameworks that bridge cognitive processes with neural mechanisms, using tools including probabilistic models, simulation engines, and deep learning. His work often involves testing these models through behavioral and neural experiments to create unified accounts of perception and cognition. His recent publications reveal a strong focus on how humans perceive physical properties of objects, particularly soft materials and liquids, and how attention dynamically allocates resources during scene perception. Among his notable achievements is receiving an NSF CAREER award for his project "CAREER: CompCog: Reverse-engineering neural mechanisms of object cognition with multilevel computational modeling," which will run from 2025 to 2030. His Nature Human Behaviour paper by Qi Lin was featured on CBS News, Germany's NZZ, and Wired Italy. Yildirim mentors a diverse group of graduate students and postdocs working on various aspects of perception, cognition, and computational modeling. His students have received prestigious awards including the Jane Olejarczyk Award and the Leonard J. Savage Prize.
Xiaoxiao Long is a Tenure-Track Associate Professor at the School of Intelligence Science and Technology, Nanjing University. He joined NJU as an associate professor in February 2024. Previously, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) under the supervision of Prof. Wenping Wang (IEEE & ACM Fellow) and Prof. Taku Komura. His educational background includes: Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Hong Kong Bachelor's degree in Control Science & Engineering from Zhejiang University Dr. Long's research focuses on computer graphics and 3D computer vision, with particular emphasis on 3D Vision, Physical AI, and World Models. His long-term goal is to develop General-Purpose AI with spatial capabilities. His work bridges theoretical understanding of 3D spaces with practical implementations of spatial AI systems, with applications spanning robotics, virtual reality, and augmented environments. He employs innovative neural network approaches and geometric constraints to advance 3D scene understanding and reconstruction. His publication record shows strong momentum with multiple papers accepted to top-tier conferences including CVPR (5 papers in 2025 alone), ICML, ICLR, ECCV, and TPAMI. His research demonstrates a clear progression from foundational geometric estimation techniques (ASN++) toward more comprehensive spatial AI systems. His scientific recognition includes: Excellent Young Scholars Fund (Overseas) from NSFC Dr. Long has successfully mentored numerous students who have published at major venues and gone on to pursue advanced degrees at prestigious institutions including USTC, Beihang University, HKU, UCAS, Virginia Tech, and HKUST. He is currently recruiting Ph.D. and master's students for Fall 2026, seeking candidates interested in pushing the boundaries of 3D computer vision and spatial AI. His laboratory focuses on developing advanced techniques for 3D scene understanding, neural rendering, and physical AI. Current projects span Gaussian-based representations, neural radiance fields, and geometric estimation, with applications in robotics, virtual environments, and spatial reasoning systems.
