Faculty and Staff Directory

Jason Liu is an Endowed in Computer Science Professor at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences, Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida, USA.  Previously, he was a Research Scientist at Dartmouth ISTS in 2003, a Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign during 2003-2004. He held a honorary position as Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, China, and was a Visiting Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC)/Laboratory of Information, Networking and Communication Sciences (LINCS). Jason Liu received a B.S. degree from Beijing University of Technology in China in 1993, an M.S. degree from College of William and Mary in 2000, and a Ph.D. degree from Dartmouth College in 2003.

Jason Liu’s research focuses on modeling and simulation, parallel discrete-event simulation, performance modeling and simulation of computer systems and computer networks. He...

Dr. Trevor Cickovski received his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in 2008. He holds Graduate Faculty status and specializes in teaching hardware and Unix coursework, and is IRB-certified and a member of the Bioinformatics Research Group (BioRG) at FIU. He also is a member of the ACM, IEEE, and the National Learning Assistant Alliance (LAA).

Before coming to FIU Trevor was Discipline Coordinator of Computer Science at Eckerd College, instructing a variety of computer science and cross-disciplinary liberal arts courses. He has received three teaching excellence awards, from the FIU College of Engineering (2019), FIU Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences (2017), and from Notre Dame as a graduate instructor (2006). Trevor was named a Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) fellow in 2019, participating in a University-wide effort to improve teaching evaluation and developing a website for CAT referenced in Panther180. He has received funding...

Dr. Kemal Akkaya is a full professor in the KF School of Computing and Information Sciences with a joint courtesy appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida International University (FIU). He received his PhD in Computer Science from University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2005 and joined the department of Computer Science at Southern Illinois University (SIU) as an assistant professor. Dr. Akkaya was an associate professor at SIU from 2011 to 2014. He was also a visiting professor at The George Washington University in Fall 2013, a Faculty Fellow at Airforce Research Lab in Summer 2020 and visiting faculty at University of Florida Nelms Institute of Connected World in 2021. Dr. Akkaya leads the Advanced Wireless and Security Lab (ADWISE) in the ECE Department. He is also acting as the Research Director for the FIU’s Emerging Preeminent Program in Cybersecurity, which is a university wide interdisciplinary program. His current research...

Dr. He received his BS and MS degrees in computer science from Nanjing University, China in 1982 and 1984 respectively; and his Ph.D. degree in computer science from Virginia Tech in 1989. He has joined FIU in 2000 after spending 10 years on the faculty at North Dakota State University. Dr. He’s research interests are in software engineering, especially formal methods. He is an internationally known expert on Petri nets. He has published 150 papers in international journals and conferences, and served on more than 80 international conference program committees. He serves on the editorial board of the Transactions on Petri Nets and Other Concurrency Models and several other journals. His research has been funded several major federal agencies including NSF, NASA, ONR, AFRL, and DOE. Dr. He has been a major adviser of 14 Ph.D. and 36 MS graduates.

Learn more about Dr. Iyengar research at Research Commercialization and Impact

Dr. S.S. Iyengar is currently the Distinguished University Professor, Ryder Professor of Computer Science and a former Director of the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University (FIU), Miami. He is also the founding director of the Discovery Lab. Prior to joining FIU, Dr. Iyengar was the Roy Paul Daniel’s Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Computer Science department for over 20 years at Lousiana State University. He has also worked as a visiting scientist at Oak Ridge National Lab, Jet Propulsion Lab, Satish Dhawan Professor at IISc and Homi Bhabha Professor at IGCAR, Kalpakkam and University of Paris and visited Tsinghua University, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) etc. His research interests include High-Performance Algorithms, Biomedical Computing,...

Sumit K. Jha is Professor of Computer Science at Florida International University (FIU). Dr. Jha received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. Before joining Carnegie Mellon, he graduated with B.Tech (Honors) in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Dr. Jha has worked on R&D problems at Microsoft Research India, General Motors, INRIA France and the Air Force Research Lab Information Directorate. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), DARPA, the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Royal Bank of Canada, the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). He is a full member of the Sigma Xi and is a recipient of the IEEE Orlando Engineering Educator Excellence Award. Dr. Jha was awarded the...

Dr. Narasimhan is a professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing & Information Sciences at Florida International University (FIU) and is an expert in the area of Algorithms, Bioinformatics, and Data Science. He recently served as the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Engineering and Computing. Dr. Narasimhan received a B.Tech. in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay. In 1989 he was awarded a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. After being on the faculty in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Memphis, he joined Florida International University as an associate professor in 2001 and was promoted to full professor in 2004. Dr. Narasimhan heads the Bioinformatics Research Group (BioRG) in Knight Foundation School of Computing & Information Sciences, and is involved in interdisciplinary research collaborating with diverse groups form different...

Dr. Pissinou has published over two hundred and fifty research papers in peer reviewed journals, conference proceedings and books chapters on networking, telecommunications, distributed systems, mobile computing, security and aspects of nontraditional data management including co-editing over four texts in the area of mobile and wireless networking and systems and over fourteen IEEE and ACM conference volumes. Widely cited in books and research papers, her research has been funded by NSF, DHS, NASA, DOT, DoD, state governments and industry. She has graduated over nineteen Ph.D. students who now hold positions in academia, federal government and industry. Dr. Pissinou has served as the general and technical program chair on a variety of ACM and IEEE conferences. She also served on hundreds of IEEE and ACM program committees, organizing committees, review panels, advisory boards, editorial boards etc. She has served as an editor of many journals including the IEEE Transactions on...

Dr. Christian Poellabauer is a Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University. He received his Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2004 and worked as Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Notre Dame from 2004 to 2021. At Notre Dame, he also served as Associate Director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society and Founding Director of the Applied Analytics and Emerging Technologies Lab. At FIU, he directs the MOSAIC (Mobile Sensing and Analytics) Lab, which focuses on developing novel personal, social, and crowdsensing solutions in a variety of application domains, primarily in the healthcare field. Notable outcomes of his lab’s research include the development of various solutions using mobile devices, wearables, and virtual assistants for the diagnosis of concussions, the rehabilitation progress of amputees and...

Dr. Raju Rangaswami is a Professor of Computer Science at Florida International University where he directs the Systems Research Laboratory. His work has focused on computer systems and software, including operating systems, distributed systems, storage systems, computer security, and real-time systems as well as application domains such as web services, databases, cloud computing, and mobile computing. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, the Department of Energy Early CAREER Principal Investigator (ECPI) award, an Intel University Research Office (URO) Award, the IBM Faculty Award, Seagate Technology research award, and Faculty Fellowship awards from NetApp. 

Dr. Rishe has authored 6 books and edited 7 books on database management, location-based data, health informatics, and high performance computing. He is the inventor of 8 U.S. patents on database querying, semantic database performance, Internet data extraction, and computer medicine. Rishe has authored 300 papers in journals and proceedings on databases, software engineering, Geographic Information Systems, Internet, and life sciences. He was awarded over $55 million in research grants by Government and Industry, including NSF, NASA, IBM, DoI, DHS, USGS. Rishe is the Founder and Director of the High Performance Database Research Center at FIU (HPDRC) and of the NSF International FIU-FAU-Dubna-Greenwich Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement (I/UCRC). Rishe is the inaugural FIU Outstanding University Professor and Eminent Chair Professor in Computer Science.

Rishe’s principal projects are TerraFly (a 100 TB database of aerial...

Dr. Selcuk Uluagac is currently an Eminent Scholar Chaired Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Science at Florida International University, leading the Cyber-Physical Systems Security Lab with an additional courtesy appointment in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Before, he was a Senior Researcher at Georgia Tech and Symantec. He holds a PhD from Georgia Tech and MS from Carnegie Mellon University in cybersecurity.  He is an expert in the areas of cybersecurity and privacy with an emphasis on their practical aspects (focusing on systems security topics, malware, ransomware, forensics, IoT, CPS, smart systems) and teaches classes in these areas. He has hundreds of papers/studies/publications in the most reputable venues such as NDSS, USENIX Security, IEEE TIFS.  He received US National Science Foundation (NSF)...

Mark Allen Weiss is Distinguished University Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education of the College of Engineering and Computing at Florida International University. He served as Interim Founding Director of the School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering EDucation (SUCCEED) having previously served for nine years as Associate Director of the School of Computing and Information Sciences. His interests include data structures, algorithms, and education. He is most well-known for his highly-acclaimed Data Structures textbooks, which have been used by a generation of students. Per opensyllabus.org, he ranks among the top book authors in the entire field of computer science.

Professor Weiss is the author of numerous publications in top-rated journals and was recipient of the University’s Excellence in Research Award in 1994. From 1997-2004 he served as a member of the...

Dr. Leonardo Bobadilla (FIU) is currently an Assistant Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University. He is interested in understanding the information requirements for solving fundamental robotics tasks such as navigation, patrolling, tracking, and motion safety and has deployed test-beds that can track and control a large number of mobile units that require minimal sensing, actuation, and computation. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has received several awards and has published 37 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers. His research articles have appeared in prestigious journals such as IEEE Journal of Automation Science and Engineering, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, and ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks. His research has been sponsored by the Army Research Office, Department of Homeland Security, NSF, and the Ware...

Bogdan Carbunar is an Associate Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at FIU, and directs the Cyber Security and Privacy Research (CaSPR) Lab, where he develops secure and usable systems.  His research interests are at the intersection of security, privacy and distributed systems, where he derives novel insights through the use of machine learning, applied cryptography and user studies. His recent interests include fraud and abuse detection in online systems (e.g., Google, Facebook, Yelp), mobile authentication and cryptocurrency-based censorship resistance. He has published papers in top tier conferences and journals (see link above for details) some of which have received best paper awards. He holds a PhD in computer science from Purdue University and a BS from Politehnica University Bucharest.

Peter J. Clarke received his BSc. degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill) in 1987, MS degree from SUNY Binghamton University in 1996 and PhD in Computer Science from Clemson University in 2003. His research interests are in the areas of software testing, software metrics, model-driven software development, domain-specific modeling languages and computer science education. He has published over 75 research papers and is the PI on several NSF grants. He is a member of: ACM (SIGSOFT, SIGCSE, and SIGAPP); IEEE Computer Society; and the Association for Software Testing (AST).

Dr. Mark A. Finlayson is an Eminent Scholar Chaired Associate Professor of Computer Science in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University (FIU). He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from MIT in 2012 under the supervision of Patrick H. Winston. He also received his M.S. from MIT in 2001 and his B.S. from the University of Michigan in 1998, both in Electrical Engineering. Before joining SCIS he was a Research Scientist in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) for 2½ years. His research focuses on representing, extracting, and using higher-order semantic patterns in natural language, especially focusing on narrative. His work intersects artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, and cognitive science. He directs the Cognac Laboratory (The Cognition, Language, and Culture lab), whose members focus on investigating the science of narrative from a...

Dr. Christine Lætitia Lisetti is an Associate Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University, and the director of the Affective Social Computing Laboratory (ascl.cs.fiu.edu). She received her Ph.D. in computer science from Florida International University in 1995, and in 1996 she was awarded the Individual Research Award from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to conduct her Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Stanford University, jointly in computer science and psychology. She joined FIU from ENST/Sophia, France where she was a professor, and was previously an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Central Florida.

Dr. Lisetti’s work on affective social computing aims at creating digital and engaging socially intelligent agents that can interact naturally with humans via expressive multi-modalities in a variety of contexts involving socio-emotional content. Her...

Dr. Deng Pan received his Ph.D. degree in computer science from State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2007. His research interests are generally in high performance switch design and high speed networking. His current research focuses on network function virtualization, data center networking, and energy efficient networking. He has published over fifty peer-reviewed papers in leading refereed journals and conferences, including the IEEE Transactions on Computers, IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE INFOCOM, and IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium. He has served as local arrangement co-chair or technical program committee member in many international conferences, including IEEE INFOCOM, IEEE GLOBECOM, and ICPP.

Dr. Prabakar developed a scheme to access vast amount of spatial data from a semantic database and flyover the data in real-time – this emerged as TerraFly software from High Performance Database Research Center, FIU. He has also designed dynamic mosaicking algorithms for spatial images and integrated vector GIS data with spatial data sets. Towards external funding, eight grant proposals were funded for a total amount of $13.7M with Dr. Prabakar’s role in these proposals as Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, or Senior Investigator. Currently, Dr. Prabakar is working with a team of his colleagues on a fault-tolerant distributed computing grid with large number of sensors.

See Dr. Prabakar’s CV here.

Masoud Sadjadi received the B.S. degree in Hardware Engineering in 1995, the M.S. degree in Software Engineering in 1999, and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Michigan State University in 2004. Dr. Sadjadi is currently an Associate Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University, where he has been on the faculty since 2004. He is the Director of the Center of Partnership for International Research & Education (PIRE) funded by the National Science Foundation for $2.3 million. He is also the Director of the Autonomic Cloud Research Laboratory (ACRL) and leads several projects under the Latin American Grid initiative. He has extensive experience in software development and leading large scale software engineering projects both in industry and in academia. Currently, he is collaborating...

Dr. Fahad Saeed is an Award-winning Scientist, Entrepreneur, and Tenured Associate Professor in the School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University (FIU), Miami FL and is the director of Saeed Lab at FIU. Dr. Saeed’s research interests are at the intersection of machine-learning, high performance computing and real-world applications, especially in computational biology.

Dr. Saeed has published 90+ peer-reviewed research papers in leading proceedings, and journals, and 1 Book Chapter, edited 4 Conference Proceedings, 3 special issue journals, and 1 Book. His research is supported by highly competitive grants mainly from National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has been awarded over US$ 3.9 million in external research funds – with...

Dr. Mo Sha is an Associate Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University (FIU). Before joining FIU, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Binghamton University – State University of New York. His research interests include wireless networking, Internet of Things, applied machine learning, network security, and cyber-physical systems. He published more than 50 research papers, served on the technical program committees of 16 premier conferences, and reviewed paper for 21 journals. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2021, the NSF CRII award in 2017, and the Educator of the Year in Computer Science award and the Career Champion award at Binghamton University in 2018. He is a senior member of IEEE, a senior and lifetime member of ACM, and a member of Sigma Xi.

Ning Xie received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2012 from MIT. His research interests are in many aspects of algorithmic and complexity theory, including property testing, local computation algorithms, Fourier analysis of Boolean functions, circuit complexity and coding theory. His research has been supported by NSF and U.S. Air Force Research Lab Summer Faculty Fellowship Program.

Dr. Afanasyev is currently an Assistant Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University. Prior joining FIU, he was an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and before that a postdoctoral scholar in UCLA. His main research focus is on the next generation Internet architecture as part of the Named Data Networking (NDN) project; and his research interests include a variety of topics that are vital for the success of NDN, including scalability of name-based routing, auto-configuration, distributed data synchronization, application and network security. Dr. Afanasyev’s postdoctoral achievements have been recognized by the UCLA Chancellor’s Award for Postdoctoral Research. He is also leading the development effort of the overall NDN codebase.

Dr. Afanasyev’s particular interest currently is application of Information-Centric...

M. Hadi Amini is an Assistant Professor at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at FIU. He is the founding director of Sustainability, Optimization, and Learning for InterDependent networks laboratory (www.solidlab.network). He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2019, where he received his M.Sc. degree in 2015. He also holds a doctoral degree in Computer Science and Technology. Since founding solid lab, his research on advanced machine learning algorithms/optimization and their applications has been extensively funded by various federal and state agencies, with a total funding of $3.6M ($1.82M as PI and $1.78M as Co-PI).

His research interests include distributed machine learning/optimization algorithms, federated learning, interdependent networks, and cyber-physical-social resilience and cybersecurity. Application domains include smart cities, transportation networks, healthcare, and...

Janki Bhimani’s primary research focus revolves around Flash-Based Storage Systems, Big Data Processing, Cloud Computing, High-Performance Computing, and Parallel and Distributed Computing. Her research interest also includes Performance Modeling, Resource Management, and Capacity Planning for various emerging inter-disciplinary research domains. With her extraordinary expertise and extensive experience in the field of new emerging flash-based storage systems and devices, she has made significant contributions to the data storage management community. She is the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Research Award of 2019 from Northeastern University. She also received Best Paper Awards from flagship conferences. Her work is published in highly selective conferences and journals. She is also the main inventor of top graded patents. Hand-in-hand with her research, she is very passionate about teaching and mentoring. Prior to joining at Florida International University, she...

Wenqian Dong is an assistant professor of KFSICS department of Florida International University. She studied her Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, Merced. Her research focuses on high performance computing system (HPC). She is particularly interested in using machine learning techniques to improve performance of scientific applications. During her Ph.D., she has published a set of papers in various top HPC conferences, including two published in the prestigious Supercomputing Conference (SC), the flagship conference in the HPC field. She also received the UCM Bobcat Fellowship in 2018 and 2020. Wenqian was a research intern in the HP labs and is a research intern in the Pacific Northwest National Lab. Her work on power grid simulation was highlighted at the DOE science news and PNNL media.

Dr. Kharraz is an Assistant Professor at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at FIU. Dr. Kharraz is the director of systems security lab (https://theseclab.org) where he conducts research on advanced malware attacks, web and browser security. Dr. Kharraz received his Ph.D. from Northeastern University in Systems Security. He was a postdoctoral researcher for two years in Coordinated Science Lab (CSL) at the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign. Dr. Kharraz’s research has been funded by Microsoft AI Security, CITES NSF/IUCRC center, National Security Agency.

Dr. Kharraz’s research revolves around empirical systems security and privacy. An overarching theme of his research has been to enable evaluating implications of emerging technologies and their associated threats at scale. His research focuses on applying data-driven techniques to build research tools that can assist discovering those threats in...

Dr. Dongsheng Luo is currently an Assistant Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University. He obtained his doctoral degree from the College of Information Science and Technology, Pennsylvania State University in 2022. Before that, he received B.Eng. degree from Beihang University in 2017. His research focuses on data mining, deep learning, and natural language processing. He is particularly interested in developing robust, integrative, and explainable tools that extract clean and human-understandable knowledge from noisy and heterogeneous network data, with applications in neuroscience, system management, and biomedicine.

Dr. Ananda Mohan Mondal is currently an Assistant Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University (FIU). His research interests include Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning with Special Interest in Deep Learning, and Bioinformatics.

Prior to joining FIU, Dr. Mondal was an Assistant Professor (2012-2018) of Computer Science in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Claflin University, South Carolina. At Claflin University, a liberal arts and primarily undergraduate teaching institute, Dr. Mondal was a strong proponent of bringing research to undergraduate classes he taught. He developed four courses to introduce his research in Big Data and Bioinformatics to undergraduate students at Claflin University. Students mentored by Dr. Mondal graduated with refereed publications in IEEE BIBE, IEEE BIBM, and BIOCOMP. As the culmination of his career at Claflin, Dr. Mondal received the prestigious NSF...

Cuong Nguyen is an Assistant Professor of the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences, Florida International University. Before joining FIU, he was an Applied Scientist at Amazon Web Services (AWS) from 2018-2021, working on machine learning with applications to computer vision and natural language processing. Before AWS, he was a postdoc at the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering, National University of Singapore from 2015-2016 and then at the Department of Engineering, Cambridge University from 2016-2018. He received Bachelor and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the School of Computing, National University of Singapore in 2010 and 2015 respectively. His research interests include probabilistic machine learning and artificial intelligence, with applications to real-world problems in computer vision and natural language processing. He has regularly published at top conferences and journals in machine learning and artificial intelligence,...

Dr. Agoritsa Polyzou is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University (FIU). Before joining FIU, she was a postdoctoral Fritz family fellow in the Massive Data Institute (MDI) of McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2020, and her Bachelor in Computer Engineering and Informatics from the University of Patras, Greece. She is engaging in projects at the intersection of big data, machine learning, ethics, and fairness. Her research interests include data mining, recommender systems, the application of machine learning techniques within educational contexts, and the fairness concerns that arise from their use. Her goal is to help students succeed using data and machine learning models. At the same time, she is interested in ensuring that such models will be fair and...

Dr. Farhad Shirani received his Ph.D. from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2016. He was a Research Assistant Professor at New York University in 2016-2020. His research focuses in the areas of privacy and security, wireless communications, and machine learning.

Dr. Ruimin Sun graduated from University of Florida in 2019 (under Dr. Daniela Oliveira) and worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences (working with Dr. Long Lu) at Northeastern University. Her research aims at securing ubiquitous systems (desktop, mobile, IoT/CPS) and protect end users from cyber-attacks through enhanced security mechanisms with intelligent defense strategies. Her research focuses on cyber physical system security, mobile device information privacy, real-time anomaly detection, and system security and reliability.

Dr. Xuyu Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University. Before joining FIU, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at California State University, Sacramento. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Auburn University in 2018. His research interests include wireless sensing, Internet of Things, wireless localization, smart health, wireless networks, and AI security. He received the NSF CRII Award in 2021. He was a co-recipient of the Second Prize of the Natural Scientific Award of the Ministry of Education, China, in 2013, the IEEE INFOCOM 2022 Best Demo Award, the IEEE ICC 2022 Best Paper Award, the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society 2020 Jack Neubauer Memorial Award, the IEEE GLOBECOM 2019 Best Paper Award, the IEEE ComSoc MMTC Best Journal Paper Award in 2018, the IEEE PIMRC 2017 Best Student Paper Award, and the IEEE...

Dr. Yanzhao Wu is an Assistant Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from University of Science and Technology of China in 2017 and then received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2022. His research interests are primarily centered on the intersection of machine learning and computing systems, including machine learning algorithm and system optimizations, deep learning, edge AI, and big data analytics. His work has been published in top venues, including CVPR, ICSE, IEEE ICDCS, IEEE ICDM, IEEE TSC, and ACM TOIS, and won the IEEE CIC 2021 best paper award. He also serves as a reviewer for top conferences and journals, such as ICDE, WWW, CVPR, ECCV, AAAI, IEEE ICDCS, IEEE TKDE, and ACM TOIT.

Wenbin Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing & Information Sciences at Florida International University, and an Associate Member at the Te Ipu o te Mahara Artificial Intelligence Institute. His research investigates the theoretical foundations of machine learning with a focus on societal impact and welfare. In addition, he has worked in a number of application areas, highlighted by work on healthcare, geophysics, transportation, forestry, and finance. He is a recipient of the NSF CRII Award, and best paper awards at FAccT’23, ICDM’23 (best paper candidate), DAMI (top 10 articles in 2022) and ICDM’21 (best paper candidate). He also regularly serves in the organizing committees across computer science and interdisciplinary venues, most recently Travel Award Chair at AAAI’24, Volunteer Chair at WSDM’24 and Student Program Chair at AIES’23.

Professor Weiss received her M.S. in Computer Science Education from Barry University in 1992, and has worked in the computer industry since 1985 in different capacities, mostly in computer education. She has been involved in all facets of the computer industry, including hardware/software installation, repair, troubleshooting, consulting, programming, and (multi-unit) managing training centers for a major Fortune 100 retailer. Professor Weiss worked as a computer consultant/trainer for several large companies and has trained users from various county and government agencies.

Professor Weiss has been teaching in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences since 1989 as an adjunct, and since 1999 as a full-time faculty member, and was promoted to Senior Instructor in 2012, and University Instructor in 2018. She primarily teaches the School’s service courses and since 2000, she has provided World’s Ahead instruction to over 25,000 FIU...

Kiavash Bahreini is a computer scientist with a background in software engineering, databases, and artificial intelligence. He received his BSc. diploma in software engineering and databases in Tehran, Iran, in 2001. He received the MSc. diploma in computer engineering and knowledge management from the Eastern Mediterranean University, Turkey (North Cyprus), in 2008. He received his Ph.D. in computer science and computer vision from the Open University of the Netherlands in 2015.

Between 2002 and 2005, he was a lecturer and curriculum designer at the Tehran Institute of Technology in Tehran, Iran. In 2004, he joined the University of Applied Science and Technology in Tehran, Iran, where he taught operating systems, data structures and algorithms, and file systems and structures. From 2006 to 2008, he was a research and teaching assistant at the Eastern Mediterranean University in Turkey (North Cyprus). Since 2009, he has been a researcher, developer, and faculty...

Kianoosh Ghoami Boroojeni received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Florida International University in 2017. He received his B.Sc degree from the University of Tehran in 2012. Dr. Boroojeni is the author/co-author of five books published by MIT Press and Springer Publication. He has also published tens of peer-reviewed journal papers and conference proceedings. He received a conference Best Paper Award and has been granted the 2016 Best Graduate Student Research Award by the School of Computing and Information Sciences, Florida International University. His research interests include network optimization and cybersecurity.

As an instructor for SCIS,  Ms. Charters enjoys teaching the courses that start students off in their IT or CS major: COP 1000, COP 2250, COP 3804, and COP 3337. She is passionate about spreading Computer Science education to all children, starting in kindergarten, through elementary, middle, and high school. She also believes that all students at FIU should get a chance to learn how Computer Science impacts their lives, and to dabble in a little bit of coding in languages such as Python and tools like MIT App Inventor. That is why she helped develop a new online course, IDC 1000 – Computer Science for Everyone, which is designed for students who are non-CS and non-IT majors. She would like all students at FIU to consider taking IDC 1000.

Prior to teaching at FIU, Ms. Charters had 2 other careers.  Most recently, she was an educator and teacher-trainer within the Miami-Dade County Public School District.   Her first career was as a Computer Programmer/Analyst for FPL,...

Dr. Hernandez is a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Mathematics with Master’s thesis and Doctoral dissertation in the area of Computer Science. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Hiroshima in 1997 and was a postdoctoral researcher in the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology from 1997 to 1999 under the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Foreign Researchers. He has a career of more than 20 years in higher education, encompassing interdisciplinary areas of Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics.

Dr. Hernandez research interests include computational geometry and its applications, data structures, algorithms, robotics, optimization, and computer science education and has published papers in leading journals and conferences. In the classroom, Dr. Hernandez favors the use of innovative teaching and learning strategies that emphasize an active learning approach.

Over 45 years as a professional software developer and system software specialist, from mainframes to PCs. Now sharing my passion for technology to help launch the next generation of experts.

Caryl Rahn received her Bachelors degree in Computer Science from the State University of New York College at Potsdam in 1978, and Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1989. She spent over 20 years working in industry and taught for about 18 years. She is an author on two United States patents written while working at IBM.

Joslyn Smith, an instructor, joined the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences, Florida International University in 1997. Joslyn came to FIU with fourteen years of teaching experience from the University of the West Indies, as a lecturer in computer science, in the undergraduate program. Mr. Smith holds an M.S and a B.S in mathematics both from Central Connecticut State University, CT. He earned an M.S degree in computer science from the University of New Brunswick Canada, and a non-degree Certificate in computer science from Clarke University, Massachusetts. Mr. Smith also holds a professional certificate in teacher education from the Mico University College, Jamaica. At FIU, Mr. Smith’s major focus in programming language is the object oriented paradigm. Over the years he has attended many conferences on computer science education. He has served as reviewer for the SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education and has reviewed several...

Dr. Kaoutar Ben Ahmed has over 6 years of experience in education and over 11 years of experience in research on the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve real world problems. Dr. Ben Ahmed received her first Ph.D. degree in information science from Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Morocco in 2016. She received her second Ph.D. degree in computer science and engineering from the University of South Florida, USA in Dec, 2022. Her main research concerns addressing automatic medical image analysis problems using novel deep learning methods. Dr. Ben Ahmed’s research interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining, and deep learning. She is a recipient of the 2018 American Association of University Women Fellowship and the 2015 Fulbright Joint-Supervision Scholarship.

A determined academician with a Ph.D. degree and sound knowledge in computer science. Possesses more than 12years of multinational teaching experience at international/national universities/institutions.Published solo and co-authored research articles (35+) having 590+ citations (Google Scholar, h-index 15& i10-index16). Serving some international journals as editor-in-chief and editorial board member of several others. Possessed gold and silver medals in some research poster competitions (national/international). Received best paper awards in two international conferences. Chaired international conferences and provided volunteer services as conference secretary, reviewer, technical committee,and program committee member of numerous conferences. Keynote and invited speakers at conferences and seminars/workshops. A ‘Senior Fellow Advance HE (SFHEA)’, UK. Being a member of IEEE, I have served the IEEE Bahrain chapter as Vice-Chair for Students Activities.Worked as an external...

Dr. Juan F. Mancilla-Caceres received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has experience in research both in academia as well as industry, having worked as an Applied Research at Microsoft and as the Director of Data Science and AI for Parknav, a start up in Smart Cities. His teaching and research interests lie in the intersection of AI and Human Computer Interaction, including topics like Ethics in AI, Modelling Human Behavior, and Multidisciplinary Research in general.

Dr. Mustafa Ocal is a distinguished researcher and academic in the field of Computer Science. He holds both a PhD and an MS degree from Florida International University, with a focus on Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing. Throughout his doctoral studies, Dr. Ocal’s research has centered on addressing core challenges in these domains, particularly in the realm of data science. His contributions have been recognized through the publication of numerous scientific articles at prestigious conferences and publishers, reflecting his expertise and scholarly impact. Moreover, Dr. Ocal has co-authored a book published by Cambridge University Press. Notably, he also holds a US-Patent for an Artificial Intelligence model of his own creation, demonstrating his innovative approach to problem-solving in the field.

In addition to his research contributions, Dr. Ocal is passionate about teaching and mentoring the next generation of computer scientists. With a...

Dr. Sergio Pisano is an engineer with a passion for teaching and technology.  He received his Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering at Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela, Master of Science in Telecommunications and Networking at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, and Doctor of Education at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He has worked in a variety of information technology positions and has been teaching since 2011. His academic interests include Game-Based Learning and novel teaching methodologies.

Dr. Gregory Murad Reis is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences, an Environmental Finance Fellow at FIU’s Environmental Finance & Risk Management (EFRM), and an Affiliated Faculty in the FIU Institute of Environment. With over 20 years of experience teaching Mathematics and Computer Science courses, Dr. Reis is a highly respected educator with expertise in early, elderly, and special education.

Dr. Reis is also an accomplished researcher with a focus on Marine Robotics, Environmental Monitoring, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and STEM Education. He has mentored over fifty students, including undergraduate, master’s and PhD students in several programs, such as the Science without Borders’s Summer Research Program, NSF’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), and NSF’s Research Experience for Teachers (RET). Dr. Reis has published several papers in conferences and journals on...

Tiana Solis has been teaching at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences for over 20 years. She received her Bachelor and Master degrees in Computer Science from the State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome in 1992 & 1994. Ms. Solis was a programmer analyst at the Department of The Attorney General in Hawaii in 2008-2010, a member of the team revamping the State Juvenile Justice Information System. Her research and instructional interests include student success and retention, distance learning, software development, and programming languages.

Dr. Walker has a passion for helping students explore science and technology. She has taught a wide range of technology  and technology related courses at the secondary and post secondary levels. Her teaching interests include programming, web building and cyber security. In addition, she has taught courses exploring the underrepresentation of traditionally underserved populations in science and technology as well as the contributions of women to science and technology. She is passionate about broadening the participation in computer science. Her research interests include the causes of underrepresentation of traditionally underrepresented populations in science and technology and the influence of technology on our perceptions of gender and identity.

Dr. Ahmad Waqas is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences, Florida International University (FIU). Before joining FIU, he was working as an Associate Professor and Head of Department in the Department of Computer Science, Sukkur IBA University Pakistan. He has been involved in research and teaching for more than fourteen years.

Dr. Waqas received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Department of Computer Science, International Islamic University Malaysia. He received his MS in Computer Communication and Networks from Sukkur IBA Pakistan, and MCS (Master’s in Computer Science) from University of Karachi with merit positions. His teaching and research interests include Blockchain, Distributed Computing, Computing architectures, Compilers, theoretical computer science, Operating Systems, Data structure and algorithms. He has published quality research papers in renowned international journals and conference...

Richard’s interests are both computer science and economics and he holds Ph.Ds in both fields. His research specializes in the dynamics of complex systems to analyze global financial arbitrage. He has been involved in the development and deployment of algorithmic trading systems and has specialized in Global structural components, with a focus on manufacturing processes. He has over 20 years of hands-on experience in the metal fabrication trade.

Dr. Samira Zad is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences. She was an instructor at the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Florida Atlantic University. She received her Ph.D. degree from FIU in 2022 (supervised by Dr. Mark Finlayson). During her Ph.D., she received a scholarship from the Department of Homeland Security to support her Ph.D. She also received her M.S. from Northeastern Illinois University in computer science in 2016. Her area of expertise is in natural language processing, machine learning, text mining, semantic analysis, and emotion detection.

Stephanie J. Lunn is an Assistant Professor in the School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education and the STEM Transformation Institute at Florida International University (FIU). She also has a secondary appointment in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences (KFSCIS). Her research interests span the fields of computing and engineering education, human-computer interaction, data science, and machine learning.

Previously, Dr. Lunn earned her doctorate in computer science from the KFSCIS at FIU. She also holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from FIU and B.S. and M.S. degrees in neuroscience from the University of Miami. In addition, she served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr. Mohammad Ashiqur Rahman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida International University (FIU). He also has a secondary appointment in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences. Dr. Rahman joined FIU as an Assistant Professor in Spring 2019. Before joining FIU, he was with the Department of Computer Science at Tennessee Tech University. He obtained a Ph.D. in computing and information systems from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2015. Previously, He received BS and MS degrees in computer science and engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, in 2004 and 2007, respectively. Dr. Rahman lead the Analytics of Cyber Defense (ACyD) Lab at FIU. He is a senior member of IEEE and a member of ACM.

Immediately after his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering and Information Sciences from Case Western Reserve University in December 1977, Dr. Jai Navlakha joined Florida International University, where he was promoted to the position of Full Professor in September 1987. He served as the Director of the School of Computer Science in three stints: 1988-1992, 1999-2002, and 2009-2011. From 2006 to 2009, he was the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and the Director of Corporate & Global Programs in the College of Engineering & Computing.

Since 2011, he is the coordinator for internal assessment and ABET accreditation of the BS in CS Program. Under his guidance, the School received its last ABET accreditation in Summer 2017. This Self-Study Report was selected for display of “Well-Prepared Self-Study Reports” at the 2017 ABET Symposium held in April 2017.

His research; in the areas of Program Verification, Analysis of Algorithms, Expert Systems, Neural...

Mr. Luis serves as Executive Director for Technology in FIU’s College of Engineering and Computing. Over the last thirty years he has successfully lead higher education IT research and instructional enterprise services for one of the state’s largest Engineering and Computing programs. He manages cluster computing/networking platform and professional IT support services. Mr. Luis collaborates with FIU faculty, industry research staff, and government agencies on computing-related R&D, via the acquisition and execution of millions of dollars in state, local, and federal funded projects, industry contracts. He conducts business development and outreach for the South Florida IT industry and created with management the SCIS Executive Industry Advisory Board. He has overseen dozens of in-house software development projects, establishing business requirements, designing software frameworks, implementing, and deploying them for administrative or R&D purposes.

Jerry Miller is an Associate Director, Administrative Support Services, and an adjunct faculty member. He joined FIU in 2006 as Associate Director and Principal Investigator for renewable energy, international security, and technology research at the Applied Research Center where he handled a $4 million dollar research portfolio. He joined the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences in 2015. He assists the KFSCIS Director with personnel issues, strategic planning, letters of support or recommendation, and research grant writing for large grants. His position is also responsible for media, marketing, and communication for the School.

Bernadette Chung serves as the Assistant Director, Academic Support Services for the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences. Bernadette has been working at Florida International University for over 15 years with her career starting at the MOSS School of Construction for 8 years holding different capacities. She then joined FIU Online as a Senior Instructional Designer for four years and in July 2018 as Assistant Director, Academic Support Services at the College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts. She earned both her degrees at FIU, BS in Hospitality Management and MS in Higher Education Administration.

Dr. Graham is the Assistant Director, Research, for FIU’s Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences (SCIS), Managing Co-Director of FIU’s NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement (I/UCRC CAKE), and Associate Director, Coordination & Strategy, of FIU’s NSF Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) Center for Aquatic Chemistry and Environment (CAChE). He has also served as Program Coordinator for FIU SCIS’s NSF PIRE and CREST awards. As Assistant Director for Government Relations of FIU’s High Performance Database Research Center and Managing Co-Director of I/UCRC CAKE, he has assisted in overseeing projects totaling over $55 million. His areas of interest include program management, computer ethics, broadening participation, database modeling, Internet applications, and computer architecture. Dr. Graham received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from FIU and his BSE in...

Joselyn Naranjo earned both her Bachelor’s degree in History in 2013 and a Master’s degree in History in 2014 from Florida International University. Before coming to the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences in 2019, she first joined FIU in 2015 as an undergraduate academic advisor for the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs. As of now, she is working on a doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on language, literacy, and culture. Her current interests in academic advising lie in higher education policies and their effects on student engagement, success, and access.

Alina M. Perez is the Program Director of Community Outreach for Break Through Tech Miami at KFSCIS. Alina has been continuously involved with the FIU Panther community since 2010. She is an FIU alumna with a BS in Communications with a focus on broadcast journalism and is currently on track to finish her MS in Global Strategic Communications from FIU as well. She holds a CQEP (Certified Quality Event Planner) credential as her communications career has been primarily focused on event marketing and planning. Before returning to FIU in 2022 to bring her passions and skill set to Break Through Tech Miami, Alina worked at QuickNode, Addigy, Royal Caribbean, and Ross University School of Medicine, all in a communications and project capacity. During the pandemic, however, she taught elementary school for two years which broadened her skill set and views even further on how early education is power for future success in tech. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with her husband...

Rebeca Arocha has been working with FIU for 10 years. She is a two time FIU alumna, having earned her bachelors in Criminal Justice in 2012 and her Masters in Criminal Justice in 2014. Currently, Rebeca is a doctoral student in the International Crime and Justice program.

Ava is a FIU alumnus, earning her Bachelor of Arts in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She joined the KFSCIS team in August 2023. Previously, Ava worked with FIU’s Talent Acquisition & Management Department and with the University of Miami as a Research Assessor. Ava desires to help every student she reaches accomplish their goals and have profound academic success.

Before working for the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences (KFSCIS), she was an International/Academic Advisor in Houston, TX. She traveled nationwide and overseas during her tenure, mentoring, guiding, and advising international college students.

After joining the KFSCIS advising team in 2014,  Myrian began running a pilot program to assist students with academic warnings and probation status. In 2015, she founded the Academic Success Initiative (ASI), a tutoring and mentoring program to help students succeed in computer science and IT courses. The program’s success led to an award from NACADA, the National Academic Advising Association, in 2016. ASI also offers professional development and leadership opportunities to tutors to train them with duties and technical projects for the workplace.

Myrian is a two-time alumna of FIU. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration....

Lauren Morency is an FIU alumna where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Criminal Justice in 2023. Through her time as a student, Lauren was a Vice-President and later on, a President within her Greek Organization dedicated to the service of musical programs across Miami Dade and Broward County. Prior to joining the Knights Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences, Lauren worked as an 8-12 Substitute teacher in Miami-Dade County.

Carla Pagan earned both a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice in 2018 and a Master of Arts in Global Affairs in 2020 from FIU. Before joining the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences (KFSCIS) as an Academic Advisor, she worked for the College of Engineering & Computing’s Advancement Team and for FIU Online as a College Recruiter since 2018. Carla is passionate about student success and engagement within academic advising.

Ms. Ruth Suarez joined FIU in 2013 as an academic undergraduate advisor for the College of Engineering and Computing at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences. She received in 1988 her BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and her MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1996.

Prior to working at FIU Ms. Suarez worked at the Polytechnic University of PR as an adjunct faculty teaching Freshman Engineering Design, Calculus 1 and Engineering Mechanics Statics courses. She also worked for AT&T/Lucent Technologies for the Core Software Unit as a Testing Engineer. In addition, she worked at the American Heritage School teaching Physics and Engineering courses and at MDC as the Accelerated Programs advisor. Her passions are to raise her children to be positive contributors to society, serve God and help students reach their educational goals.

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