Chuang Gan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, affiliated with the College of Information and Computer Sciences and the Department of Computer Science. His work focuses on advancing artificial intelligence, robotics, computer vision, and embodied agents through interdisciplinary research combining neural networks, physical simulations, and multimodal learning. Research interests include generative models, reinforcement learning, vision-language integration, and scalable autonomous systems. He explores topics like world modeling for robots, adaptive policy learning, and physics-driven AI. His projects often involve creating systems that learn from visual, auditory, and tactile inputs to perform complex tasks such as object manipulation, navigation, and decision-making in dynamic environments. Recent research trends emphasize embodied AI systems capable of long-horizon planning, compositional reasoning, and efficient learning from limited data. His work bridges theory and practice, with applications in robotics, simulation platforms, and multimodal generation. Key contributions include frameworks for 3D scene understanding, adaptive world models, and novel training paradigms for large language models. His research has been applied to robotics platforms like RoboDreamer and UBSoft, focusing on unbounded soft environments. Collaborations involve designing benchmarks for physical scene understanding (e.g., Physion++), and creating tools like DiffTactile for tactile simulation. His work often integrates principles from differential geometry, PDE dynamics, and game theory. Chuang Gan’s research group develops open-source tools and benchmarks, such as the SoftZoo robot co-design platform and the SOK-Bench situated reasoning benchmark. His team emphasizes scalable alignment methods beyond human supervision and explores ethical AI through principles like symmetry-enhanced training.
Alexei A. Efros is the Howard Friesen Professor in the EECS Department at UC Berkeley, affiliated with the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab. Previously, he spent a decade at CMU's Robotics Institute and held a postdoc at the University of Oxford under Andrew Zisserman. He collaborates with INRIA/École Normale Supérieure in Paris. His research focuses on self-supervised learning, generative models, and visual data mining, with applications to robotics, computational photography, and art. Education & Academic Roles: Postdoc at Oxford (with Andrew Zisserman), faculty at CMU (2005–2015), currently at UC Berkeley. Teaches courses like CS 180/280A (Computer Vision) and CS 280 (Graduate Computer Vision). Research Interests: Self-supervised learning, generative models (e.g., diffusion models, inpainting), visual commonsense, and cross-modal reasoning. His work bridges computer vision and graphics, emphasizing data-driven approaches. Recent projects include Visual Jenga, Diffusion Models as Data Mining Tools, and Prioritized Generative Replay. Grants & Labs: Leads the Efros Research Group, advised over 40 PhD students (e.g., Jun-Yan Zhu, Tinghui Zhou). Collaborates with institutions like INRIA and NVIDIA. Active in grants related to AI, vision, and robotics. Labs/Teams: BAIR Lab (UC Berkeley), former affiliations with CMU Robotics Institute and Willow Team (INRIA/ENS Paris). Current lab focuses on generative AI, 3D perception, and visual reasoning.
Joseph Tao-yi Wang is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics at National Taiwan University (NTU). He holds a PhD from UCLA and previously served as a Postdoctoral Scholar and Visiting Associate at Caltech. His research spans experimental economics, neuroeconomics, game theory, and behavioral economics, with a focus on strategic decision-making, market design, and learning in games. Wang directs the Taiwan Social Sciences Experimental Laboratory (TASSEL), which hosts large-scale experimental research and conferences like the 2017 APESA. His work integrates eye-tracking, pupillometry, and machine learning to study cognitive processes in economic decisions. Wang is also active in educational innovation, developing flipped classroom models with experiments for economics courses. His publications consistently explore behavioral deviations from game-theoretic predictions, such as overcommunication in sender-receiver games and learning patterns in auctions. Recent work emphasizes reproducibility in management science and AI applications in education. Wang’s research uses diverse methodologies—from neuroimaging to field experiments—to test economic theories in real-world contexts. Wang mentors through NTU’s Berkeley Economics Student Assistant Program (BESAP) and organizes mini-courses for high school students. He has not received scientific awards per the available data.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sema Alaçam Doğan has been affiliated with Istanbul Technical University since 2014, serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture . She has held administrative roles including Deputy Head of Department and Erasmus Coordinator. Education : PhD in Informatics in Architectural Design (2008-2014), MS in Informatics in Architectural Design (2005-2008), and BS in Architecture (1999-2005) from Istanbul Technical University. Her research explores Computational Design , Artificial Intelligence in Architecture , and Sustainable Material Innovation . She investigates digital tools for heritage preservation, daylight optimization in BIM, and cognitive development in architecture students. Recent publications analyze AI-assisted design literacy , machine learning for Sinan mosques , and environmental comfort in Harran houses . Her work integrates algorithmic frameworks with sustainable practices. Scientific awards include multiple ITU Publication and Performance Awards (2021-2024), FABFEST Prizes , and the 2024 Artemis Educator Award from NASA. Active projects like "Physical Computation in Architectural Drawing" and "Robotic Fabrication with Recycled Wind Turbine Blades" demonstrate her leadership in computational and sustainable research.
Angel Xuan Chang is an Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University's School of Computing Science, where she leads research at the intersection of natural language processing, computer vision, and 3D scene understanding. She holds the prestigious Canada CIFAR AI Chair position and is affiliated with multiple research groups including 3DLG, GrUVi, SFU NatLang, SFU AI/ML, and VINCI. PhD in Computer Science, Stanford University MSc in Computer Science, Stanford University M.Eng in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT BSc in Computer Science and Engineering, MIT Professor Chang's research primarily focuses on connecting language to 3D representations of shapes and scenes, with particular emphasis on grounding language for embodied agents in indoor environments. Her work spans natural language processing and understanding, linking natural language with visual and 3D representations, multimodal grounding of language, embodied AI, and machine learning applications for biodiversity monitoring through the BIOSCAN project. She has developed methods for synthesizing 3D scenes and shapes from natural language and created various datasets for 3D scene understanding. Her recent publications reveal a strong trend toward integrating language understanding with 3D scene generation and manipulation, with increasing focus on practical applications in embodied AI and biodiversity monitoring. The research shows progression from foundational work on text-to-3D scene generation to more sophisticated approaches for evaluating semantic coherence in generated scenes and developing efficient methods for zero-shot scene modeling. Canada CIFAR AI Chair TUM-IAS Hans Fischer Fellow (2018-2022) Best paper award at 3DV 2025 for 'An Object is Worth 64x64 Pixels: Generating 3D Object via Image Diffusion' Professor Chang actively advises numerous graduate students who appear as first authors on her publications, indicating a strong mentoring program. Her research is supported through multiple channels including the CIFAR AI Chair position and likely various research grants supporting her BIOSCAN-related work and 3D scene understanding projects. She has been involved in organizing multiple workshops at major conferences including ICML, CVPR, and ICLR. Her research is conducted through several interconnected groups: 3DLG (3D Language and Graphics), GrUVi (Graphics, Vision, and Interaction), SFU NatLang (Natural Language Processing), SFU AI/ML, and VINCI. These groups work collaboratively on problems spanning language grounding, 3D scene understanding, embodied AI, and biodiversity applications, creating a rich interdisciplinary research environment.
Professor Alessandra Russo leads the Structured and Probabilistic Knowledge Engineering (SPIKE) research group at Imperial College London's Department of Computing. With expertise spanning computational logic, symbolic machine learning, and neuro-symbolic AI, she develops foundational AI techniques applied to security, network management, healthcare, and adaptive systems. Professor Russo holds a PhD in Computing from Imperial College London and an MSc in Computer Science from Ionian University. Her research pioneers logic-based learning systems for intelligent adaptive technologies, with projects including declarative networking for security management, privacy-preserving federated learning, and hybrid neuro-symbolic approaches for robust reasoning. Her current work focuses on developing interpretable AI systems through neuro-symbolic integration, creating frameworks that combine neural networks with symbolic reasoning for explainable decision-making. Recent publications explore rule learning from knowledge graphs, transformer-based world models, and formal methods for representation learning. Professor Russo teaches courses on Logic-Based Learning and AI Applications, and has received the Google PhD Fellowship for her research contributions. She mentors numerous PhD students in areas spanning theoretical foundations and practical applications of computational logic and machine learning.
Hanbyul Joo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Seoul National University (SNU). Prior to joining SNU, he was a Research Scientist at Facebook AI Research (FAIR) in Menlo Park. He completed his Ph.D. in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, working with Yaser Sheikh, and received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering and B.S. in Computer Science from KAIST, Korea. Dr. Joo's educational journey began at KAIST, where he earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees. He then pursued his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, completing his dissertation titled "Sensing, Measuring, and Modeling Social Signals in Nonverbal Communication." His doctoral work focused on developing the Panoptic Studio, a unique sensing system with over 500 synchronized cameras for capturing social interactions. Dr. Joo's research primarily focuses on endowing machines and robots with the ability to perceive and understand human behaviors in 3D . His goal is to build "social Artificial Intelligence" that can interact with humans using social signals (body languages). He pursues this direction using data-driven methods where data is collected by measuring the wide spectrum of social signals transmitted during interpersonal social interaction. His research spans computer vision, machine learning, computer graphics, and robotics , with particular emphasis on 3D human pose estimation, human-object interaction, and social signal processing. His recent publications demonstrate a clear trend toward leveraging diffusion models for 3D reconstruction and generation tasks, with a focus on human-centric applications. His work bridges the gap between 2D image understanding and 3D scene reconstruction, often utilizing pre-trained models to overcome data limitations. The research consistently addresses fundamental challenges in understanding human behavior, interaction with objects, and social dynamics in 3D space. Dr. Joo is a recipient of several prestigious awards including the Samsung Scholarship and the CVPR Best Student Paper Award in 2018 . His paper "Total Capture: A 3D Deformation Model for Tracking Faces, Hands, and Bodies" received this honor at CVPR 2018. His research has been widely recognized in top computer vision and AI conferences, with multiple oral presentations at venues like CVPR, ICCV, and ECCV. Dr. Joo actively mentors a large group of students, with approximately 15 current students working toward MS/PhD degrees under his supervision. His lab, the SNU VCLab, focuses on cutting-edge research in computer vision and graphics. He has secured significant research funding through his work, though specific grant details aren't provided on his website. Dr. Joo frequently serves as an area chair for major conferences including CVPR, ICCV, and NeurIPS, demonstrating his standing in the academic community. Dr. Joo leads the SNU VCLab, which has developed several notable datasets and tools including SNU ParaHome, FrankMocap, and the CMU Panoptic Studio Dataset. His lab maintains strong industry connections, with students interning at leading companies like Meta. The lab's research focuses on building the infrastructure and algorithms needed for social AI, with an emphasis on practical applications that can be deployed in real-world settings.
Paul Taele is an Instructional Assistant Professor and Deputy Lab Director in the Sketch Recognition Lab at Texas A&M University's Department of Computer Science & Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. (2019), M.S. (2010), and dual B.S. degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin (2006). His research focuses on sketch recognition, haptics, and intelligent interfaces for education and accessibility, with notable work in mid-air gesture recognition, educational sketching tools, and assistive technologies for disabilities. He has contributed to projects like Kanji Workbook , Hashigo , and HaptiMoto , and has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles across venues like CHI, IUI, and AAAI. Taele has received awards including the NSF Student Travel Grant (2014) and Ford Foundation Honorable Mention (2015). He teaches courses in capstone design, programming, and sketch recognition, and mentors students across all academic levels through strict eligibility criteria for research collaborations. Education : Ph.D. Computer Science, Texas A&M University (2019) M.S. Computer Science, Texas A&M University (2010) B.S. Computer Science & Mathematics, University of Texas at Austin (2006) Concentration in Mandarin Chinese, National Chengchi University (2007) Research Interests : Taele's work bridges HCI and AI to create accessible educational interfaces. His projects emphasize: Sketch Recognition : Developing algorithms for mid-air gestures, children's developmental assessments, and language learning Accessibility : Haptic systems for visually impaired learners and algebra education Educational Tech : Intelligent tutoring systems for music, math, and East Asian languages Awards & Grants : EAAI-20 Travel Grant (2020) Ford Foundation Dissertation Honorable Mention (2015) NSF East Asia-Pacific Summer Institutes (2013, 2012) Royce E. Wisenbaker Fellowship (2009) Lab & Teams : Director of the Sketch Recognition Lab (SRL) and collaborator with global institutions like Singapore Management University and National Taiwan University. Active in organizing workshops like SketchRec at IUI conferences.
Jo Wood is Professor of Visual Analytics in the Department of Computer Science at City, University of London, where she has been employed since January 14, 2000. Her work bridges computer science, geographic information science, and human-computer interaction, focusing on innovative methods for visualizing complex spatial and behavioral data. Her research interests center on visual analytics , information visualization , and geovisualization , with applications in transportation, public health, crisis response, and citizen science. She investigates how interactive visual interfaces can support exploratory data analysis, decision-making, and storytelling, particularly through small multiples, faceted views, and sketch-based rendering techniques. The trends in her recent publications reflect a consistent focus on user-centered design , spatial data abstraction , and interactive exploration of multivariate datasets. Her work often integrates real-world behavioral data such as GPS tracks, cycling patterns, and crowd-sourced information to build meaningful visual narratives and support analytical reasoning. Throughout her career, Jo Wood has contributed significantly to the advancement of visual analytics through high-impact publications in top-tier venues such as IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics and Computer Graphics Forum. Her collaborations with researchers like Jason Dykes and Aidan Slingsby highlight her role in a vibrant research community. She has supervised numerous research projects and mentored students in visualization and geospatial analytics, though specific names are not listed in the provided text. Her work has been supported by various research grants, particularly in domains involving urban mobility, energy modeling, and crisis informatics, though grant details are not specified here. Jo Wood has also contributed to the design of visual analytics systems for applications including disease spread modeling, bicycle-hire scheme monitoring, and persuasive technology for health and leisure, demonstrating a strong commitment to impactful, interdisciplinary research.
Aleksandar Kostic is a Lecturer in the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at South East Technological University (SETU), where he also serves as Lead Researcher. He holds a PhD from University College Dublin, awarded in 2022, and is actively contributing to the academic and professional architecture community. PhD in Design Theory, University College Dublin (2022) His research lies at the intersection of philosophy and architectural design, with a strong focus on design theory, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics. He explores fundamental questions such as aporia (intellectual impasses) in design, the influence of Platonic philosophy, and the ethical responsibilities of architects. His work emphasizes critical thinking and philosophical inquiry in architectural practice and education. The trends in his publications reveal a consistent engagement with philosophical concepts applied to architectural problems. From examining 'aporetic' design challenges to analyzing Plato’s views on expertise, his research bridges abstract thought and practical design. Recent works continue this trajectory, addressing ethical values, non-material aspects of design, and the role of contradiction in innovation. Nomination for MIES EU Award for Architecture (2009) Aleksandar Kostic advises PhD students and is actively involved in research dissemination through publications, peer-review, and conference organization. He serves on the steering committee of the All Ireland Architecture Research Group and is a member of the Centre for Platonic Studies at Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. His peer-review activities include journals such as She JI and Building Material . He is a key member of the Architecture Research Group at SETU and collaborates across disciplines, particularly with philosophy. His upcoming activity includes organizing the 'Ethics in Architecture' conference in 2025, highlighting his leadership in integrating ethical discourse into architectural research.
Professor Merje Kuus is a distinguished political geographer at the Department of Geography , Faculty of Arts , University of British Columbia . Her work bridges political geography , international relations , and sociology to examine knowledge production in policy-making contexts. PhD from Syracuse University (1999) WSET Level 3 Award in Wine holder Active in Arctic Circle's Mission Council on the GlobalArctic Research focuses on expertise in diplomatic practices , with empirical specializations in European Union and Arctic governance . She also explores geographical imaginaries in wine production , connecting policy analysis to cultural geography. Key publications include: Geopolitics and Expertise: Knowledge and Authority in European Diplomacy (Wiley Blackwell, 2014) Geopolitics Reframed: Security and Identity in Europe’s Eastern Enlargement (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) Ashgate Research Companion to Critical Geopolitics (co-edited, 2013) Recent scientific awards include: Fulbright Fellowship Killam Fellowship SSHRC Canada grants Her supervision portfolio spans climate governance, disaster response expertise, and transnational policy networks, with completed PhD theses on topics ranging from Vancouver's climate governance to Arctic resource governance .
Yang Song is an ARC Future Fellow and Scientia Associate Professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering , University of New South Wales (UNSW) . She serves as Associate Head of School (Research) and Co-Director of iCinema , focusing on AI and Computer Vision applications for social good. Education: BEng in Computer Engineering (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), PhD in Computer Science (UNSW, 2013) Research Areas: Biomedical image analysis, human-centred AI, graph data modeling, neuro-symbolic learning, and AI trustworthiness. Her work develops domain-specific deep learning models for radiological segmentation, histopathology cancer analysis, and 3D reconstruction. Recent projects address explainability in LLMs, fairness in AI, and human-robot interaction frameworks. With over 200 peer-reviewed publications in top venues like CVPR , MICCAI , and NeurIPS , her research spans biomedical imaging, robotics, and general multimodal AI. Scientific Awards include: 2024: ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Human-Robot Teaming 2023: Google Inclusion Research Award 2022: NHMRC Ideas Grant for computational brain imaging 2021: UNSW Engineering Research Excellence Award 2020: Scientia Fellowship (UNSW) 2019: ARC Future Fellowship She supervises 24 current PhD/MPhil students and has graduated 15 advisees, including placements at Harvard University and Siemens Healthineers. Her grants include collaborations with Surf Life Saving Australia and industry partnerships for AI-driven solutions.
Daniela Goya-Tocchetto is an Assistant Professor of Organization and Human Resources at the School of Management, University at Buffalo. Her research focuses on inequality perceptions, meritocracy beliefs, social class/racial biases, and moral/political decision-making. She holds a PhD from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and multiple advanced degrees from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and the London School of Economics. Her work bridges social psychology and organizational behavior, addressing topics like system justification theory, partisan polarization, and interventions to reduce antidemocratic attitudes. Recent studies include analyzing income inequality perceptions and the Andrew Carnegie effect on wealth allocation. She has been recognized with the NTR-IACM Early Career Scholars Program (2022–24) and a Best Paper award at the 2022 Academy of Management Meeting. Professionally, she advises CLOO Behavioral Insights Unit on organizational behavior projects in Brazil and Portugal. Her research is published in journals like Science , Nature Communications , and Journal of Experimental Social Psychology .
Saurabh Amin is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he also serves as the Edmund K. Turner Professor and Undergraduate Officer. He is a Principal Investigator at the Laboratory of Information and Decision Systems and holds affiliations with the Operations Research Center and the Center for Computational Science and Engineering. His educational background includes: B.Tech. 2002, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee M.S. 2004, University of Texas (UT) Austin Ph.D. 2011, University of California (UC) Berkeley Saurabh Amin's research focuses on the design and control of infrastructure systems using game theory and optimization in networks. His work spans three main areas: resilient network control, information systems and incentive design, and optimal resource allocation in large-scale infrastructure systems. By concentrating on critical infrastructure domains including highway transportation, electric power distribution, and urban water networks, his research develops innovative theory and tools to enhance system performance against both stochastic and adversarial disruptions. His approach involves modeling cyber-physical interactions in infrastructures to assess vulnerabilities, developing detection and response tools for failures at various scales, and designing economic incentive schemes that improve aggregate public good while accounting for dependencies and private information among strategic entities. Amin's work bridges mathematical systems theory with practical civil engineering applications, creating a rigorous theoretical foundation for infrastructure resilience that addresses diverse failure mechanisms from natural disasters to deliberate malicious actions. His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on decarbonization of energy systems, resilient infrastructure planning under climate uncertainty, optimization methods for complex networked systems, and game-theoretic approaches to sustainable infrastructure management. His work increasingly integrates artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques with traditional control theory to address contemporary challenges in infrastructure resilience and sustainability. The research shows a clear trajectory toward addressing climate change impacts on infrastructure systems while maintaining economic efficiency and operational reliability. Professor Amin has received numerous prestigious awards and honors: Common Ground Excellence in Teaching Award, 2025 HSCC Test-of-Time Award, 2024 MIT CEE, Distinguished Service and Leadership Award, 2023 Samuel M. Seegal Prize (SoE) – inspiring students in pursuing and achieving excellence, 2022 Earll M. Murman for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising, 2022 C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute Research Award, 2020 MIT, Ole Madsen Mentoring Award, 2020 MIT, Energy Initiative Research Award, 2020 National Academy of Engineering, China-America Frontiers of Engineering Symposium speaker, 2019 MIT, Robert N. Noyce Career Development Professor, 2015-2018 Google Faculty Research Award, 2015 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2015 Siebel Energy Institute Research Award, 2015 MIT, Solomon Buchsbaum AT&T Research Fund Award, 2012 Professor Amin has been actively involved in significant research projects including the C3.ai DTI project on Causal Reasoning for Real-Time Attack Identification in Cyber-Physical Systems and another on Learning in Routing Games for Sustainable Electromobility. He serves as the chief scientist on multi-institutional NSF grants, including the $9 million Foundations of Resilient Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) project. His teaching portfolio includes courses such as 1.008 Engineering for a Sustainable World, 1.104 Sensing and Intelligent Systems, 1.020 Engineering Sustainability: Analysis and Design, and 1.208 Resilient Networks. As Undergraduate Officer, he plays a key role in shaping the educational experience for civil and environmental engineering students at MIT. Professor Amin leads the Resilient Infrastructure Networks Lab at MIT, where his team develops theoretical foundations and practical tools for infrastructure resilience. The lab focuses on the intersection of control theory, game theory, and optimization applied to cyber-physical infrastructure systems. Current research directions include pandemic-resilient urban mobility and hurricane-resilient smart grid operations, reflecting the lab's commitment to addressing pressing societal challenges through rigorous systems engineering approaches.
Dhruv Shah is an Incoming Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University starting January 2026 and currently serves as a Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. He is also an Associated Faculty member in Princeton's Center for Statistics and Machine Learning, focusing on the convergence of machine learning and robotics for real-world deployment. His academic credentials include a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley (2024) and a B.Tech. (Honors) in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (2019). Shah's research pioneers foundation models for robotics, emphasizing large-scale robot learning, out-of-distribution generalization, and long-horizon reasoning. His group adopts a full-stack methodology spanning algorithmic innovation to system design, drawing from cognitive science to develop physical AI systems at the perception-learning-control interface. Key focus areas include reinforcement learning, human-robot interaction, and continual learning for challenging environments. Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals dominant trends in foundation models for visual navigation, language-conditioned policies, and multi-agent systems. His work increasingly integrates multimodal inputs (vision, language) while addressing generalization gaps in real-world settings, with strong emphasis on efficient data curation and scalable robot learning frameworks. His accolades feature the Microsoft Future Leaders in Robotics & AI Fellowship (2024), two IEEE ICRA Best Conference Paper Awards (2024), multiple ICRA finalist awards across cognitive robotics and manipulation categories, and the Berkeley Fellowship (2019-2024). Shah will recruit PhD students for Princeton's upcoming admissions cycle, establishing a research group dedicated to full-stack robotics development. While specific grant details aren't provided, his trajectory indicates significant funding for AI-robotics convergence projects, particularly in foundation model development and real-world deployment challenges. His laboratory at Princeton will integrate algorithmic innovation with system design, focusing on physical AI systems that bridge perception, learning, and control while maintaining strong ties to cognitive science principles for human-aligned robotic intelligence.