Dr. Soonja Choi is a Research Professor in the Comparative Psycholinguistics Group at the University of Vienna and Director of the Korean Studies Program at San Diego State University (SDSU), where she holds the title of Professor Emerita of Linguistics. She earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Buffalo (1986) and holds advanced degrees from institutions in France and South Korea. Her research focuses on language and thought, semantics, spatial language, and Korean linguistics, with a particular emphasis on cross-linguistic studies of spatial categorization and its cognitive implications. Research Contributions: Her work has explored how language influences spatial perception and cognition, notably through long-term collaborations with the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and the National Science Foundation. Key contributions include studies on spatial term development in Korean/English children and cross-linguistic comparisons of spatial semantics between German, Korean, and English. Grants & Awards: Secured over $1.4M in grants including a EUR 600,000 Vienna Science Fund grant (2016-2020) and multiple NSF awards. Elected to the Academy of Europe (2019) as an Ordinary Member. Professional Roles: Served as Chair of SDSU's Department of Linguistics and Oriental Languages (1997-2000, 2001-2002), Graduate Advisor (multiple terms), and editorial board member for Language, Interaction, and Acquisition . Active in academic governance and international linguistic organizations.
Verena Zimmermann serves as Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) for Security, Privacy and Society at ETH Zurich within the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences. She leads the Security, Privacy and Society research group, focusing on human-centered approaches to safety, IT security, and privacy challenges in emerging technologies. Her academic foundation includes a PhD in Usable Security from TU Darmstadt, where her dissertation From the Quest to Replace Passwords towards Supporting Secure and Usable Password Creation earned dual awards from the German Association for Data Protection and Data Security (GDD) and the Ernst-Ludwigs-Hochschulgesellschaft. Zimmermann's research pioneers the shift from viewing humans as security vulnerabilities to recognizing them as integral solutions. Her work spans password security, phishing interventions, smart home privacy, and cybersecurity education, consistently applying human factors principles to design systems that align with natural user behavior. Current projects explore emotional dimensions of security engagement, quantum governance frameworks, and LLM-related privacy concerns through interdisciplinary lenses combining computer science, psychology, and safety science. Recent publications reveal strong thematic trends toward understanding user motivations in security behavior, developing personalized training through augmented reality and adaptive systems, and translating safety science principles to cybersecurity incident management. Her work increasingly addresses societal implications of emerging technologies like quantum computing and generative AI. Her distinguished recognitions include: GDD Dissertation Award for Usable Security research Ernst-Ludwigs-Hochschulgesellschaft Dissertation Award IANUS Award (2nd place) for Moving from a 'Human-as-Problem' to a 'Human-as-Solution' Cybersecurity Mindset Zimmermann actively mentors through ETH's Human-Centered Security and Privacy Lab while collaborating internationally with institutions including ATHENE (German National Center for Applied Cybersecurity), Abertay University's Cybersecurity Division, and the Safety Science Innovation Lab. Her research receives support from Swiss and European funding bodies focused on privacy-preserving technologies and organizational security behavior. At ETH Zurich, she directs the Security, Privacy and Society group which employs design thinking, LEGO Serious Play, and mixed-methods research to tackle real-world security challenges. The team partners with industry stakeholders to develop practical solutions for phishing resistance, smart home privacy, and cybersecurity education while maintaining strong ties to the Research Training Group 2050 Privacy and Trust for Mobile Users.
Christopher Kanan is a tenured Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester, leading the AI Initiative within the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences. He holds secondary appointments in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, the Goergen Institute for Data Science and AI (GIDS-AI), and the Center for Visual Science. His research focuses on deep learning systems for artificial general intelligence (AGI), including continual learning, medical computer vision, and visual question answering. Previously, he was an Associate Professor at RIT’s Carlson Center for Imaging Science and a leader at Paige.AI, contributing to the FDA-cleared Paige Prostate system. Kanan earned his PhD from UC San Diego, completed postdoctoral work at Caltech, and worked at NASA JPL. Education: PhD in Computer Science, UC San Diego MS in Computer Science, University of Southern California Bachelor’s in Philosophy and Computer Science, Oklahoma State University Research Interests: Kanan’s work spans foundational AI capabilities like continual learning, medical imaging (pathology and radiology), multi-modal reasoning, and cognitive science-inspired models. His lab develops bias-robust AI systems and applies deep learning to healthcare and fusion research. Articles Trends: His recent work emphasizes out-of-distribution generalization, foundation models in pathology, and stability in continual learning. Key themes include AI applications in healthcare, model robustness, and neuroscience-inspired algorithms. Awards: NSF CAREER Award Senior Member, AAAI and IEEE DoE and NSF grants totaling $5M+ DARPA/ARL awards Advising & Grants: Mentored over 10 PhD students, including Robik Shrestha and Usman Mahmood. Secured grants for AI in nuclear fusion and medical imaging. Led RIT’s Center for Human-aware AI (CHAI) as Associate Director. Labs & Teams: Heads the University of Rochester AI Initiative, collaborates with Paige.AI, and leads teams advancing AI in pathology and robotics. His lab’s KLab (klab.cis.rit.edu) focuses on vision and learning systems.
Jae Eun Chung is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Howard University's School of Communications. Her research focuses on new media technologies, their psychosocial impacts, and health communication, with a particular emphasis on community engagement and digital discourse. Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Southern California M.A. in Telecommunications from Indiana University at Bloomington Dr. Chung's work explores the intersection of social media and health, analyzing how digital platforms influence public health perceptions, patient-doctor interactions, and health equity. She has published extensively in journals like Journal of Communication , Computers in Human Behavior , and Health Communication , often employing community-based participatory research (CBPR) to address disparities in asthma care, maternal health, and HPV-associated cancer awareness. Recent publications highlight trends in leveraging social media for health interventions, examining misinformation dynamics during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, and analyzing digital ecosystems. Her methodological approaches include network analysis, narrative studies, and assessments of digital engagement metrics. Howard University RCMI Grant: Enhancing recruitment of African-Americans and Hispanics in health research NSF HDR Grant: Collaborative research on data analytics for community enrichment PACRI Grant: Improving health outcomes for asthmatic children in public housing Bezos Earth Fund: Indoor environmental quality disparities in underserved communities Dr. Chung collaborates with interdisciplinary teams, including public health experts and data scientists, to advance health communication strategies. She has mentored students and researchers in projects analyzing social media's role in health promotion, digital privacy, and community-academic partnerships.
Pranav Anand is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). He currently serves as the Faculty Director of the Humanities Institute at UCSC since July 2023. His research focuses on the interplay between context, interpretation, and grammatical perspective, particularly in areas like de re/de se contrasts, evaluative predication, and indexical shift. He has contributed to studies on narrative structures, evidential restrictions, and the syntax-semantics interface in sluicing. Dr. Anand has taught a variety of courses including Ling 119: Narratives , Ling 231: Semantics A , and special topics like Invented Languages: From Elvish to Esperanto . His work bridges theoretical linguistics with computational methods, evidenced by collaborations in projects such as the Santa Cruz sluicing dataset and analyses of political discourse in online commentary. His research has been published in journals like Linguistics and Philosophy , Language , and Discourse and Society , with a focus on semantics, pragmatics, and narrative linguistics. He has also contributed to computational linguistics initiatives, including the development of annotated corpora for sentiment analysis and argumentation studies. Dr. Anand's academic contributions span both theoretical exploration and applied computational linguistics, reflecting his interdisciplinary approach to understanding language structure and usage.
Anand Bhojan is an Associate Professor (Educator Track) at the Department of Computer Science, School of Computing, National University of Singapore (NUS). He is a member of the Communication and Internet Research Lab and serves on the Graduate Studies Committee. Dr. Bhojan is also the founder of Anuflora Systems and Virtual and Augmented Reality Labs (www.varlabs.org), and serves as Associate Editor of Computers and Electrical Engineering Journal, Elsevier, and Vice President of International Researchers Club, Singapore. Dr. Bhojan earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering from NUS in 2011, where his thesis was nominated for the Best PhD Thesis Award. He also holds a Professional Master's in Computer Applications from Bharathidasan University (1999), a Bachelor's degree in Computing with Gold Medal (University topper) from Bharathiar University (1994), and a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching Higher Education from University of Sheffield, UK (2003). His research spans multiple domains including Distributed Computing and Wireless Networks (IoT, Security, Blockchain), Artificial Intelligence (Generative AI, FinTech), and Entertainment Computing with focus on Games, VR/AR/Metaverse technologies. Dr. Bhojan leads the Metaverse Foundry research group which focuses on content generation for games & XR simulations across multiple domains including entertainment, healthcare, and architecture, while also experimenting with innovative teaching methods for entertainment media technologies. Dr. Bhojan's recent research has pioneered hybrid rendering techniques that strategically combine ray tracing and rasterization to create more realistic video game graphics without compromising performance. His work addresses critical challenges in real-time rendering, particularly in depth of field and motion blur effects, with the goal of making Hollywood-quality graphics accessible on a wider range of hardware. Earlier work focused on energy efficiency in mobile gaming, including power management techniques and latency optimization for cloud gaming. Among his notable achievements: 2012 Nominated for Best PhD Thesis Award (Wang Gungwu Medal & Prize), NUS 2011 Dean's Graduate Research Achievement Award (PhD), SoC, NUS 2006 Best R&D Project award from TOTE Board, Singapore 1995 Gold medal for first Rank (out of 4000) in Computing, Bharathiar University Dr. Bhojan has served as Organizing Chair and Program Chair for multiple international conferences and has delivered keynote talks at IEEE/ACM International Conferences. He teaches courses including Computer Networks Practice, Game Development, Interaction Design for Virtual and Augmented Reality, and Game Development Project. He leads the Metaverse Foundry research group and the Virtual and Augmented Reality Labs, where undergraduate and graduate students have won multiple research and innovation awards. His research bridges entertainment, education, and emerging technologies with practical applications in making immersive experiences more accessible across different hardware capabilities while maintaining energy efficiency.
Freda Shi is an Assistant Professor at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo and a Faculty Member at the Vector Institute, where she holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair. She joined the University of Waterloo in July 2024 after completing her Ph.D. at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago. Educational Background: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (2024), advised by Professors Karen Livescu and Kevin Gimpel Bachelor's degree in Intelligence Science and Technology (Computer Science Track) with a minor in Sociology, Peking University (2018) Dr. Shi's research focuses on computational linguistics and natural language processing, particularly on deeper understandings of natural language and the human language processing mechanism. She is especially interested in learning language through grounding, computational multilingualism, and related machine learning aspects. Her work aims to inform the design of more efficient, effective, safe, and trustworthy NLP systems. She leads the CompLING Lab at the University of Waterloo, which investigates how language models process spatial relationships and acquire linguistic structures through grounded experiences. Her publication record shows a consistent trajectory of high-impact research, with recent work focusing on spatial reasoning in vision-language models, multilingual chain-of-thought capabilities, and grounded language acquisition. She has published in top-tier conferences including ACL, EMNLP, ICLR, and NAACL, with several papers receiving notable recognition including Best Paper Nominee status at multiple venues. Her research bridges theoretical linguistics with practical NLP applications, demonstrating how linguistic insights can improve AI systems. Scientific Recognition: Canada CIFAR AI Chair (2024) Google Ph.D. Fellowship Thesis of Distinction for her doctoral work Multiple Best Paper Nominee awards at major NLP conferences Dr. Shi teaches CS 784: Computational Linguistics and CS 486/686: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence at the University of Waterloo. She actively contributes to the NLP research community through conference participation, program committee service, and collaborative projects. Her research has significant implications for creating more robust, human-like language understanding systems and advancing the field of grounded language learning in artificial intelligence.
Yao Qin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), with dual affiliation in the Department of Computer Science. She concurrently serves as Co-Director of the REAL AI Initiative at UCSB and holds a Senior Research Scientist position at Google DeepMind, where she contributes to the Gemini Multimodal project. Her academic credentials include a PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of California, San Diego (advised by Prof. Garrison W. Cottrell) and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Dalian University of Technology. During her doctoral studies, she completed internships with pioneering researchers Geoffrey Hinton and Ian Goodfellow. Dr. Qin's research program centers on machine learning robustness, with emphasis on adversarial robustness, out-of-distribution generalization, and fairness. She develops reliable AI systems specifically for healthcare applications, with diabetes management as a primary focus. Her lab explores critical themes including AI safety in multimodal models and diabetes-specific AI solutions, particularly exercise metabolism modeling and glycemic effect prediction. Recent publications reveal a strong trajectory in robust machine learning with cross-domain applications. Her work consistently bridges theoretical robustness concepts with practical healthcare implementations, particularly in diabetes care. Key publication venues include CVPR, ICML, NeurIPS, and ICLR, with notable contributions to out-of-distribution detection, adversarial transfer learning, and multimodal AI safety. Her distinguished recognition includes: EECS Rising Star at MIT (2021) UCSB Regents' Junior Faculty Fellowship Award Helmsley Charitable Trust award for Type 1 diabetes research UCSB Faculty Research Grant American Diabetes Association Abstract Award (ADA-2025) Dr. Qin actively mentors four PhD students—Mehak Dhaliwal, Andong Hua, Kenan Tang, and Youngseok Yoon—on projects spanning LLMs for diabetes, multimodal robustness, and generative time-series modeling. Her research is funded by the Helmsley Charitable Trust and UCSB, with recent grants supporting exercise-specific AID algorithms for diabetes management. As Co-Director of the REAL AI Initiative, she leads a research ecosystem focused on developing reliable artificial intelligence. Current lab activities include organizing workshops at NeurIPS-2024 (AdvML-Frontiers and AIM-FM) and developing next-generation diabetes management tools through collaborations with medical institutions.
Stefanie Mueller is the TIBCO Career Development Associate Professor at MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, with joint affiliation in Mechanical Engineering. She leads the HCI Engineering Group at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), focusing on advancing fabrication techniques through hardware/software innovations that enable novel object interactions. Develops computational fabrication methods combining photochromic dyes, lenticular lenses, birefringent materials, and optical illusions Co-chaired ACM CHI 2023 and ACM UIST 2020 program committees Recipients of 9 MIT EECS Best Undergraduate Researcher Awards among mentees Her research spans four key directions: Appearance-changing Objects: Photo-Chromeleon (ACM UIST 2019), Lenticular Objects (ACM UIST 2021), and Polagons (ACM CHI 2023) demonstrate reprogrammable surfaces through advanced materials and optical engineering. Tracking Systems: InfraredTags (ACM CHI 2022) and G-ID (ACM CHI 2020) enable passive object tracking via infrared markers and slicing artifacts. Embedded Sensing: MechSense (ACM CHI 2023) and Sprayable User Interfaces (ACM CHI 2020) integrate sensing capabilities into complex geometries. Curved Surface Prototyping: FlexBoard (ACM CHI 2023) and CurveBoard (ACM CHI 2020) develop specialized tools for non-planar electronics. Her recent publications focus on functionality segmentation (UIST 2023), fluorescent markers (UIST 2023), and machine-knitted haptics (UIST 2023). These works combine machine learning, material science, and interactive design principles to push fabrication boundaries. Scientific recognition includes: 2022 MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 2020 Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship 2020 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship 2019 ACM UIST Best Paper Award 2019 NSF CAREER Award 2018 MIT EECS Outstanding Educator Award 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science Mentoring 9 PhD students and over 20 master's students, her lab has produced 20+ publications at top HCI conferences. She redesigned MIT's 6.810 Engineering Interactive Technologies course during the pandemic, maintaining hands-on learning through home electronics kits and Slack-based collaboration.
Professor Dorit Abusch is a faculty member in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at Cornell University's College of Arts & Sciences. Her research focuses on semantics, pragmatics, and their applications to visual narratives. She explores topics like tense semantics, presupposition triggering, modal logic, and the interplay between language and visual media. Current work extends linguistic methodologies to analyze art forms such as comics, cave paintings, and temple sculptures. Her research interests include formal semantics applied to visual narratives, dynamic semantics, possible world theory, and multimodal discourse representation. She investigates how visual elements like sequential art and pictorial sequences convey temporal progression, aspectual distinctions, and free perception constructions through semiotic frameworks. Recent presentations include talks on applying semantics to film and picturebooks at institutions like MIT and the University of Padua. Her publications emphasize cross-media analysis, with key works published in Linguistics & Philosophy and Sinn und Bedeutung . Abusch has received grants for projects studying visual narratives in Indian art and wall paintings of Rajasthan. These include a 2012-2013 Humanities Research Grant and a Cornell Institute for Social Sciences award. Her work bridges linguistics with philosophy and visual studies, offering innovative frameworks for understanding non-linguistic communication through formal semantic tools.
Professor Andrew Chadwick is a leading scholar in political communication and digital media studies at Loughborough University, where he directs the Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C). He holds a BSocSc from Birmingham, MSc and PhD from the London School of Economics. His research focuses on hybrid media systems, disinformation dynamics, and digital politics. Key contributions include conceptualizing hybrid media events and analyzing misinformation in personal messaging platforms. His work has been recognized with prestigious awards, including the APSA Best Book Award. He supervises numerous PhD students exploring topics like social media influence, public opinion, and digital disinformation. Current projects include the Leverhulme-funded Everyday Misinformation Project examining numerical disinformation on messaging apps. His media engagements span BBC Radio 4 to The Washington Post. Research highlights include studies on misinformation warnings' ineffectiveness, vaccine hesitancy, and the role of celebrities in political representation. O3C serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research on digital civic culture. Chadwick’s academic leadership includes roles in editorial boards for top journals and international conference keynotes.
Clio Andris is an Associate Professor at Georgia Tech, jointly appointed in the School of City and Regional Planning and the School of Interactive Computing. She directs the Friendly Cities Lab, focusing on mathematical models of social networks applied to urban planning, transportation, and geography. Her work integrates spatial analysis with visualization, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration. Education and Career: Andris earned a PhD in Urban Information Systems from MIT (2011), where she was an NDSEG Fellow. She held postdoctoral positions at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology and the Santa Fe Institute. Prior to Georgia Tech, she was a faculty member at Penn State’s Department of Geography, affiliated with the GeoVISTA Center. Research Focus: Her research bridges social networks, geovisualization, and urban informatics. Key areas include spatial social network analysis, GIS applications for urban policy, and the impact of digital tools on civic engagement. She has developed innovative visual analytics tools like SNoMaN and ROBIN to democratize spatial data exploration. Awards: She received the NSF CAREER Award (2021) and NDSEG Fellowship (2011). Her lab is affiliated with the Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization (CSPAV) and the Information Visualization Lab. Labs and Collaborations: The Friendly Cities Lab focuses on socially just urban design through computational methods. Her work addresses issues like food security networks, pandemic impacts on biodiversity, and community mapping for activism. Grants and Outreach: Her NSF-funded projects emphasize public good applications, such as real-time pandemic risk communication and educational tools for migration data. She actively collaborates with non-profits and policymakers to translate research into actionable urban strategies.
Prof. Mark Heitmann is a Professor of Marketing & Customer Insight at the University of Hamburg Business School. He holds a visiting appointment at Nova School of Business and Economics. His research focuses on AI-driven marketing strategies, social media analytics, brand equity, and consumer decision-making. He has held academic roles at institutions including the University of St. Gallen and Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel before joining Hamburg in 2011. Academic Career: Holds a PhD (2004) and post-doctoral Habilitation (2007) from the University of St. Gallen. Visiting researcher at Columbia University and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Research Interests: Applications of artificial intelligence in marketing Social media and digital transformation Ethical consumer behavior Brand self-expression and visual design Marketing technology (MarTech) innovations Key Achievements: Over 20 peer-reviewed publications in top journals like Journal of Marketing Research and Harvard Business Review . Award-winning research includes the MSI/H. Paul Root Award and IJRM-EMAC Best Article Award. Active in translating research into scalable commercial solutions through software-as-a-service ventures. Team & Collaborations: Leads a research team including M.Sc. candidates Sammar Rath, Julia Rosada, Maximilian Witte, Tijmen Jansen, Claus Hegmann-Napp, and Magdalena Heynicke. Engages in interdisciplinary projects with industry partners.
Demetris Christodoulou is an Associate Professor in Accounting, Governance and Regulation at the University of Sydney. He holds a BEcon from Piraeus University, an MSc(Fin) from the University of York (UK), and a PhD from Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB). His research focuses on applying data analytics, econometrics, and visualization techniques to financial analysis, equity valuation, life insurance, and financial advice. He co-directs the PEMA research group, specializing in productivity and performance measurement analytics, and previously led the MEAFA research group (2007–2022). He has collaborated extensively with industry partners including Deloitte and Australian insurers, and developed training programs for over 1,000 executives. His work includes open-source contributions to Stata software and the Graph Workflow platform, alongside $662k in workshop-generated funds supporting academic programs. He has advised multiple PhD students and taught at leading universities globally. Education: BEcon in Economics (Econometrics), Piraeus University MSc in Finance, University of York (UK) PhD in Accounting and Financial Analysis, Athens University of Economics and Business His research interests span financial reporting models, life insurance underwriting strategies, and behavioral finance. Recent projects address dishonesty mitigation in insurance disclosures and the adviser effect on customer disclosures. He has published widely in top journals like the Review of Accounting Studies and Stata Journal , and his work was featured in The Australian for insights on insurance fraud reduction. He maintains international collaborations, including visiting roles at Columbia Business School and the University of Cyprus, and serves on advisory boards for organizations like Behaviour.ai. Publications highlight methodological innovations in econometrics and visualization, with 2025's upcoming Stata Journal paper advancing time-series analysis techniques. His grants include partnerships with industry on longitudinal studies of insured lives, aiming to improve risk modeling and public policy insights.
Wim Gevers is a faculty member at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and leads the CS4S – Cognitive Control & Sleep laboratory within the CRCN research centre. His work bridges cognitive psychology, neuroscience and sleep research to understand how the brain exerts control over thoughts and actions and how sleep contributes to these processes. Research Interests Cognitive Control & Metacognition: Investigating how subjective experiences such as confidence and the "urge-to-err" guide strategic adjustments in behaviour. Working Memory & Ordinal Cognition: Examining how order information is maintained and manipulated, and how these processes relate to mathematical competence. Sleep, Memory & Decision Making: Exploring how sleep-dependent consolidation influences motor learning and decision strategies. Across his 2022–2025 publications a clear trend emerges: a focus on metacognitive monitoring —how humans evaluate their own cognitive states—and the role of emotional and temporal context in shaping those evaluations. Studies range from reaction-time introspection and confidence judgements in perceptual tasks to the impact of aging and depression on metacognitive accuracy. Doctoral Supervision & Mentoring Whitney Stee (PhD 2024) – Sleep-dependent structural brain reorganization & motor learning Gaia Corlazzoli (PhD 2024) – Subjective experience in decision-making Myrtille Dewulf (PhD 2023) – Ordinal coding mechanisms in working memory Rebeca Sifuentes-Ortega (PhD 2023) – REM sleep and memory reactivation All dissertations were defended at ULB, Faculté des Sciences psychologiques et de l’éducation, with Wim Gevers formally listed as Promotor . Laboratory & Collaborative Networks As head of CS4S, Gevers coordinates a multidisciplinary team that combines behavioural experimentation, EEG/MEG, computational modelling and sleep polysomnography. The lab is embedded in the larger CRCN ecosystem, fostering collaborations with groups such as CO3 (consciousness), LCLD (language & deafness), and UR2NF (neurofunctional imaging).
