Past Fellows

Congratulations to all our past IDSC Fellows for successful completion of the program (alphabetical by last name). Pictured above, left to right: Mohamed Iskandarani (Steering Committee Chair), with 2022-2023 IDSC Fellows Jeffrey Serville, Sadegh Tale Masoule, Shara Sookhoo, and Kelly Soluri.

	Yeo Jin “Amy” Ahn (2018-2019) Project: Automating and Accelerating the Autism Diagnostic Process Mentors: Mitsunori Ogihara, PhD \| Department of Computer Science and IDSC Daniel S. Messinger, PhD \| Professor of Psychology Amy was a PhD student in Psychology. She graduated with honors from Cornell University with a B.S. in Human Development and a concentration in Social and Personality Development. She joined the Early Play and Development Lab in fall of 2017. She was interested in infants’ and young children’s social interaction and how it relates to typical and atypical social and emotional development. She aimed to better understand children’s social behaviors by implementing objective measurement.
	Steven Anderson (2018-2019) Project: Virtual Reality Simulations of Dyadic Medical Interactions Mentors: Mitsunori Ogihara, PhD \| Dept. of Computer Science and IDSC AI + Machine Learning Elizabeth Reynolds Losin, PhD \| Department of Psychology – Health Division Steven was a PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Losin in the Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Division in the Department of Psychology. He received his Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Psychology from Harvard University Extension School. Prior to joining the Social and Cultural Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Miami, Steven worked on developing behavioral health interventions for patients with chronic medical conditions at a healthcare technology company. His doctoral research centered on identifying sociocultural and contextual influences on pain perception in the self and others, with an applied focus on medical settings and the doctor-patient relationship. His research utilizes behavioral, neuroimaging, psychophysiological, and computational methods.
	Chitra Banarjee (2019-2020) Project: Movement and Social Approach in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Mentors: Gang Ren, PhD \| IDSC AI + Machine Learning Daniel S. Messinger, PhD \| Professor of Psychology Chitra was an undergraduate at UM studying Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Mathematics (Applied Analysis) with a minor in Chemistry. She was currently working under Dr. Daniel Messinger in the Interactive Behavior in Schools (IBIS) project to understand social movement and approach in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) through objective, continuous measurements. As an IDSC Fellow, she hoped to explore the potential of automated behavioral measurement for objectively describing the ASD phenotype through quantification of the social movement deficits characteristic of children with ASD in their interactions with their peers.
	Anthony Mario Bonacolta (2019-2020) Project: Single-cell Transcriptomic Sequencing of a Coral during the Bleaching Process Mentors: Ben Kirtman, PhD \| Deputy Director, IDSC, and, Director, IDSC Earth Systems Javier del Campo, PhD \| Assistant Professor, Department of Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Anthony was a first year PhD student in Dr. Javier del Campo’s Marine Microbial Ecology and Evolution Laboratory in the Marine Biology and Ecology Department at the Rosenstiel School. His research focused on the role of micro-eukaryotes and bacteria in marine organisms.
	Zachary Brooks (2013-2014) Project: Big Data Analysis Methods in Climate Modeling Mentors: Ben Kirtman, PhD \| Department of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Eric Rozier, PhD \| Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Undergraduate IDSC Fellow and Foote Fellow \| Double Major in Marine Science/Computer Science (minor in Math)
	Jin Yop “Stephano” Chang (2018-2019) Project: Development of Closed-Loop Neuromodulation of Gait and Balance Control After Spinal Cord Injury Mentors: Brian R. Noga, PhD and James D. Guest, MD PhD FACS FRCS (C) \| The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis Odelia Schwartz, PhD \| Department of Computer Science Stephano was a Neurosurgery resident pursuing his PhD in Neuroscience with Dr. Brian Noga and Dr. James Guest at the University of Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, combining his clinical background with his scientific interest in neuromodulation for spinal cord injury. During the IDSC Fellows program, he aimed to apply a computational approach to optimize the application of neurostimulation technologies to restore function after injury.
	Ashley Cook (2021-2022) Project: Detection of Rice’s Whale Calls in the Gulf of Mexico Using Passive Acoustic Data and Deep Learning Mentors: Elizabeth Babcock, PhD \| Professor, Department of Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School for Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Gang Ren, PhD \| IDSC AI + Machine Learning \| Research Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science, College of Arts and Science Ashley was a second-year Marine Biology and Ecology PhD student at the Rosenstiel School for Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science at the UM studying cetacean acoustics. She worked under Dr. Elizabeth Babcock and Dr. Melissa Soldevilla using passive acoustic monitoring to investigate spatiotemporal trends in Rice’s whale calls and to estimate Rice’s whale density in their primary habitat in the northeast Gulf of Mexico. As an IDSC Fellow, she utilized machine learning techniques to develop a call detector for Rice’s whales that can be applied to long-term acoustic datasets.
	Hanjing Dai (2017-2018) Project: Image Rectification for Polarimetric Slope Sensing Data Mentors: Brian Haus, PhD\| Department of Ocean Sciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Shahriar Negahdaripour, PhD \| Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering Hanjing was a first-year Ph.D student working under the supervision of Dr. Brian Haus at the Division of Applied Marine Physics, University of Miami. She received her M.Sc. in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2015 from HKUST. Her research interests focused on both fluid dynamics and morphology in coastal regions, by using laboratory and mathematical models she hoped to investigate the realistic evolution of the coastal environment. Hanjing research was in Civil Engineering, Ocean Engineering, and Remote Sensing.
	Katherine Dale (2014-2015) Project: Big Data Analysis in Marine Genomics Mentors: Doug Crawford, PhD \| Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Geoff Sutcliffe, PhD \| Department of Computer Science Foote Fellow \| Marine Science \| Biology \| Computer Science
	Julian Dallmeier (2021-2022) Project: Spatial Clustering Analysis of Corpora Amylacea and Tau in the Hippocampus Mentors: William Scott, PhD \| Professor, and Vice-Chair for Education and Training, Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics \| Professor of Neurology and Public Health Sciences, UM Miller School of Medicine \| Faculty Member, John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics (HIHG) \| Executive Director, UM Brain Endowment Bank Mitsunori Ogihara, PhD \| Professor, Department of Computer Science \| Director, IDSC Workforce Development and Education \| Cooper Fellow, College of Arts and Sciences \| Site Director, NSF University of Miami CARTA Julian was a third-year Neuroscience PhD candidate under the supervision of Dr. William Scott. He researched clearance mechanisms of Alzheimer’s-disease-associated pathology at the Brain Endowment Bank. As an IDSC Fellow, he applied feature extraction and clustering algorithms to neuropathological datasets to potentially unveil novel pathology distribution patterns.
	Kevin Davis (2021-2022) Project: Expanding Functional Control of a Fully Implanted Brain-Computer Interface Mentors: Abhishek Prasad, PhD \| Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering Odelia Schwartz, PhD \| Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences \| Director of Undergraduate Studies, Secondary Faculty in Biology \| Principal Investigator, Brain + Machine Learning Lab Kevin Davis was a second-year graduate student in the medical scientist training program (MD/PhD) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His research centered around neuromodulation and rehabilitation for movement disorders such as spinal cord injury and paralysis. As an IDSC Fellow, he used feature extraction and a series of classification and regression algorithms to improve the functionality of a fully-implanted Brain-Computer Interface in a patient with chronic cervical spinal cord injury for use in their home.
	Matt Danzi (2015-2016) Project: “Identifying the Regulators in RNA-Seq Data” Mentors: Stephan Schuerer, PhD \| Interim Program Director, IDSC Drug Discovery Stefan Wuchty, PhD \| Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science 3rd Year PhD Candidate, Lembix Lab \| The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis \| Dept. of Neurological Surgery
	Phillip L. Davidson (2015-2016) Project: “Comparative RNA-seq Analysis during Embryogenesis” (two development stages of the ctenophore) Mentors: Gary Beecham, PhD \| Director, Division of Research Informatics in the Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics, John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics William E. Browne, PhD \| Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences Senior, Biology Major
	Michael Durante (2016-2017) Project: Michael’s project “Epigenomic Profiling of Uveal Melanoma” focused on utilizing next-generation sequencing techniques to understanding the epigenetic mechanisms of uveal melanoma tumorigenesis. Uveal melanoma is the most common primary adult cancer of the eye, which manifests as aggressive tumors (pictured at right). Most uveal melanoma tumors have one of three driver mutations (BAP1, SF3B1, EIF1AX), as well as distinct copy-number profiles. Michael will use techniques that look at histone modifications and chromatin accessibility to study how the driver mutations change the epigenetic landscape of uveal melanoma. The large-scale datasets that are generated with these techniques were analyzed using the Center for Computational Science’s Pegasus supercomputer. Michael’s IDSC Fellowship helped him use advanced mathematical modeling and novel computational algorithms to analyze these next-generation sequencing datasets. Mentors: J. William Harbour, MD\| Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Stephan Schuerer, PhD \| CCS Drug Discovery Program
	Michael Fernandez (2016-2017) Project: 3D Vortex Visualization Mentors: GeCheng Zha, PhD \| Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Mahsa Mirzargar, PhD \| Computer Science
	Matthew Field (2014-2015) Project: Retinoblastoma Genomics Analysis for Variant Discovery Mentors: J. William Harbour, MD\| Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Nick Tsinoremas, PhD \| IDSC Founding Director Cancer Biology Program \| Miller School of Medicine
	Jia Geng (2019-2020) Project: Developing Deep Learning Models for Rotifer (Bachionus spp.) Detection and Classification Mentors: Amin Sarafraz, PhD \| Research Assistant Professor, College of Engineering and IDSC Systems and Data Engineering Daniel Benetti, PhD \| Director of Aquaculture and Professor, Department of Marine Ecosystems and Society, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Jia was a PhD student in Marine Ecosystem and Society under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Benetti. He received his BS in Aquaculture from the Ocean University of China in 2015 and Graduate Certification in Data Science Foundations from North Carolina State University in 2019. His doctoral research centered on developing AI systems to automated live feed cultivation for fish hatcheries. During the IDSC Fellows program, he applied deep learning models to achieve high accuracy rotifer detection and classification. His project website can be reached via GitHub: gengjia0214/AIRoti. Congratulations Jia! Jia was selected for an “AI for Earth Microsoft Azure Compute” Grant. Through this award, Jia received a sponsored Microsoft Azure account for his project. Microsoft’s AI for Earth program awards grants to support projects that change the way people and organizations monitor, model, and ultimately manage, Earth’s natural systems. Depending on project need, the grants can award Microsoft Azure cloud computing resources (including AI tools) and/or data labeling services.
	Lyssa Goldberg (2014-2015) Project: Media Coverage Biases in Reporting on the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict Mentors: Joseph Uscinski, PhD \| Department of Political Science Mitsunori Ogihara, PhD \| Department. of Computer Science, and Director, IDSC AI + Machine Learning Alberto Cairo, PhD \| Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the School of Communication and Director, IDSC Visualization Foote Fellow \| Journalism \| Political Science \| Computer Science
	Matt Grossi (2017-2018) Project: Predicting Ocean Dispersion Using Neural Networks Mentors: Tamay Özgökmen, PhD \| Department of Ocean Sciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Miroslav Kubat, PhD \| Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering Matt Grossi was a PhD student in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Rosenstiel School. He was working with Dr. Tamay Özgökmen and the Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment (CARTHE) towards understanding and predicting how spilled oil gets transported in the ocean using field observations, hydrodynamic models, and, as an IDSC Fellow, neural networks. Matt holds a B.S. in Physical Oceanography with a minor in Meteorology from Florida Institute of Technology and a M.S. in Oceanography from the University of Delaware. Before coming to the University of Miami, he worked in the Ocean Observation Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) where he oversaw underwater glider operations and maintained a regional network of high-frequency (HF) radar sites for monitoring coastal ocean surface currents in near real time.
	Zhi Liu (2013-2014) Project: Gene Network Organization in Disease Mentors: Gary Beecham, PhD \| Dr. John T. Foundation Dept. of Human Genetics, Miller School of Medicine Xiaodong Cai, PhD \| Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering Graduate IDSC Fellow
	Joseph Masterjohn (2013-2014) Project: Elucidating Novel Genetic Interactions in Yeast Mentors: Stefan Wuchty, PhD \| Department of Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences Gennaro D’Urso, PhD \| Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, Miller School of Medicine Undergraduate IDSC Fellow \| Double Major in Computer Science/ Math
	Thomas McCauley (2017-2018) Project: Properties of Network Models in Social Psychology Mentors: Michael McCullough, PhD \| Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences Kamal Premaratne, PhD \| Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering Thomas graduated with a B.S. in psychology from the University of Delaware in 2014, and an M.A. in experimental psychology from the College of William & Mary in 2017. He joined the EHB lab in fall of 2017, with the aim of pursuing questions pertaining to the evolved psychological mechanisms underlying cooperation, punishment, emotion, and morality. His goal was to understand how these mechanisms interact with enduring ecological features by identifying points of variance and invariance in their function across diverse societies. He’s also interested in statistics, experimental methodology, reproducibility in psychological science, and meta-science.
	Sadegh Tale Masole (2022-2023) Project: Identification and Segmentation of Micro-Cracks in Micro-CT Images of Air-Entrained Cement Paste Specimens Mentor: David Chapman, PhD \| IDSC AI + Machine Learning Sadegh was a second-year PhD student doing research in the advanced infrastructure materials lab in the college of engineering. His research included measuring physiochemical properties of polymers in fluids and in cast construction materials, and then analyzing the results with different methods, one of them being machine learning. He hoped that with access to the IDSC’s expertise and resources, he could achieve good progress on his project.
	Samantha Mitsven (2018-2019) Project: Objective Measurement of Language Development: An Investigation of Preschoolers’ Networked Social Interactions Mentor: Daniel S. Messinger, PhD \| Professor of Psychology Samantha received her B.A. in Psychology from San Diego State University in 2013 and worked as a Research Assistant and Lab Manager in cognitive and neuroimaging labs at UC Davis and Stanford University following graduation. She was a second year PhD student in Developmental Psychology working under the supervision of Daniel Messinger. In her work, Samantha utilized objective, continuous measurements of children’s movement and vocalizations within preschool classrooms to understand the mechanisms by which social interactions with teachers and peers promote language development. As an IDSC Fellow, she hoped to further examine how peer social networks shape, and are shaped by, developing language capacities and how language is transmitted through the classroom through the formation and dissolution of network ties.
	Karna Nagalla (2019-2020) Project: Computational Approaches to Microbiome Alterations and Disease States Mentors: Sylvia Daunert, PhD Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Lucille P. Markey Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Director, Dr. JT Macdonald Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute; Director of Research, Center for Integrative and Complementary Medicine Gregory O’Connor, PhD \| Post Doctoral Associate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Karna was an undergraduate at the University of Miami studying Microbiology/Immunology and Applied Math with a minor in Chemistry and Electrical Engineering. He worked under Dr. Sylvia Daunert and Dr. Gregory O’Connor to analyze human microbiome changes caused by various diseases and their progression. Through the IDSC Fellows program, he hoped to continue learning different analyses programs to analyze massive amounts of data as well as gain a further understanding of the human microbiome and its potential role in disease treatments.
	Sathvik Palakurty (2017-2018) Project: Modeling Relationships Between Taxa Using Microbiome Networks Mentors: Michelle Afkhami, PhD \| Department of Biology Neil Johnson, PhD \| Department of Physics Sathvik was an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Biology and Mathematics (Applied). He was interested in emerging systems biology approaches to complex problems and is currently using coexpression network analyses of RNAseq data to ask about the molecular basis of Multiple Mutualist Effects.
	Emily Prince (2015-2016) Project: Measurement of Behavior During the Strange Situation Mentors: Daniel S. Messinger, PhD \| Professor of Psychology Juhong Park, PhD \| Assistant Professor, School of Architecture Developmental/Clinical Psychology Doctoral Candidate
	Tatiana Espindola Schnitman (2015-2016) aka Catalina von Wrangell Project: “Com’ and shift: a sound play” an audio-visual installation created to raise awareness about the loss of musical tradition and knowledge in a cross-cultural context. Mentors: Juraj Kojs, PhD \| Asst. Professor Prof. Practice, Dept. of Theory and Composition, Frost School of Music Alberto Cairo, PhD \| Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the School of Communication and Director, IDSC Visualization Juhong Park, PhD \| Assistant Professor, School of Architecture MTC Department Student \| MM in Digital Arts and Sound Design
	Anchen Sun (2016-2017) Project: Anchen’s project revolved around the numerical solution of the shallow-water equations on high-performance computers. He focused on identifying the bottlenecks in the code’s performance—whether in CPU-bound or memory-bandwidth bound—and suggesting improvements. Mentors: Mohamed Iskandarani, PhD \| Department of Ocean Sciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science William M. Drennan, PhD \| Department of Ocean Sciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Burton Rosenburg, PhD \| Department of Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences
	Jeffrey Serville (2022-2023) Project: Orientation-selective Deep Brain Stimulation of Midbrain Circuits in the Yucatan Micropig for Improving Gait After Spinal Cord Injury Mentor: Ravi Vadapalli, PhD \| Director, IDSC Advanced Computing Jeffrey Serville was a 2^nd-year PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His research focused on neuromodulation and rehabilitation for movement disorders, specifically spinal cord injury. As an IDSC Fellow, he aspired to utilize the University’s Triton supercomputer to accelerate preprocessing algorithms designed for diffusion-weighted images (including eddy-current, susceptibility, and motion distortions) and automate MRI-based segmentation of the pig brain that is used for generating anatomically-constrained-tractograms (3D reconstructed fiber pathways) to predict neural activation patterns resulting from deep brain stimulation of the mesencephalic locomotor region (midbrain/brainstem) in pigs. The purpose of his research project was to optimize stimulation programming, as it relates to generating locomotion while minimizing unwanted side-effects, by implementing the finite-element method to solve the associated bioelectric field problem on a subject-by-subject basis.
	Kelly Soluri (2022-2023) Project: Forecasting Bycatch Hotspots using Multivariate Random Forest Machine Learning Mentors: -Dr. Elizabeth Babcock, quantitative fisheries scientist and professor at the University of Miami with a specialty in fisheries stock assessments. – Dr. Gang Ren, data and computer scientist and professor at the University of Miami with expertise in artificial intelligence – Dr. Mitsunori Ogihara, Director of Workforce Development and Education at IDSC and Editor-in-Chief of the Theory of Computer Systems Journal with research interests in data mining – Cooperative Institute for Marine And Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Kelly was an M.S. Candidate for Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School for Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science with strong interests in ecological processes in oceanic and coastal systems as well as learning novel technologies and methods to better understand how these processes function as a response to climate change or anthropogenic pressure. As a native South Floridian, she wished to support coastal communities that deal with sea level rise, resource insecurity, and intensifying natural disasters. She was also passionate about science literacy for all and the uplifting of minority communities in STEM.
	Shara Sookhoo (2022-2023) Project: Co-Occurrence Patterns in the Microbiomes of Six Species of Coral Mentor: Manohar Murthi, PhD, Associate Professor \| Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering Shara was a Junior majoring in Marine Biology and Ecology with minors in Computer Science and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. After learning to SCUBA dive at 14, she became passionate about coral conservation. Through her work with University of Miami’s Marine Genomics lab and Mote’s Coral Health and Disease lab, she was learning the skills to find and develop corals that are more resilient to climate change and disease. In the last year, these interests led her to jump off a bridge in the Florida Keys and climb a volcano in the Galapagos. Both in and out of the lab, Shara was always looking for the next adventure.
	Nicolas Velasquez (2016-2017) Project: Evolution of the Infrastructural Power of the State: Magdalena Medio, 1982-2002 Mentors: Elvira Restrepo, PhD [now at George Washington] \| Geography & Regional Studies and International Studies Shouraseni Sen Roy, PhD \| Geography & Regional Studies, College of Arts and Sciences
	Chun Wu (2014-2015) Project: Brain Insulin Regulation in Cocaine Addiction and Obesity Mentors: Deborah Mash, PhD \| Miller School of Medicine Stefan Wuchty, PhD \| Department of Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology \| Miller School of Medicine
	Mingyue Wu (2021-2022) Project: The Role of Cement Nanostructure on the Creep Behavior of Concrete Mentors: Luis Ruiz Pestana, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering Melvin Ayala, PhD \| IDSC Systems and Data Engineering, and Advanced Computing Mingyue was a first-year PhD student in the Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering Department following Dr. Luis Ruiz Pestana. Her doctoral research focused on predicting the aging behavior of colloidal glasses based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and machine learning (ML) techniques. As an IDSC Fellow, she trained deep-learning networks using data from MD simulations to identify the complex patterns of behavior underlying glass relaxation.
	Wei Wu (2013-2014) Project: Protein Networks Within the Wnt Signaling Pathway Mentors: Athula Wikramanayake, PhD \| Department of Biology Enrico Capobianco, PhD \| IDSC Senior Lead Bioinformatics Scientist Graduate Student

	Yeo Jin “Amy” Ahn (2018-2019) Project: Automating and Accelerating the Autism Diagnostic Process Mentors: Mitsunori Ogihara, PhD \| Department of Computer Science and IDSC Daniel S. Messinger, PhD \| Professor of Psychology Amy was a PhD student in Psychology. She graduated with honors from Cornell University with a B.S. in Human Development and a concentration in Social and Personality Development. She joined the Early Play and Development Lab in fall of 2017. She was interested in infants’ and young children’s social interaction and how it relates to typical and atypical social and emotional development. She aimed to better understand children’s social behaviors by implementing objective measurement.
	Steven Anderson (2018-2019) Project: Virtual Reality Simulations of Dyadic Medical Interactions Mentors: Mitsunori Ogihara, PhD \| Dept. of Computer Science and IDSC AI + Machine Learning Elizabeth Reynolds Losin, PhD \| Department of Psychology – Health Division Steven was a PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Losin in the Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Division in the Department of Psychology. He received his Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Psychology from Harvard University Extension School. Prior to joining the Social and Cultural Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Miami, Steven worked on developing behavioral health interventions for patients with chronic medical conditions at a healthcare technology company. His doctoral research centered on identifying sociocultural and contextual influences on pain perception in the self and others, with an applied focus on medical settings and the doctor-patient relationship. His research utilizes behavioral, neuroimaging, psychophysiological, and computational methods.
	Chitra Banarjee (2019-2020) Project: Movement and Social Approach in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Mentors: Gang Ren, PhD \| IDSC AI + Machine Learning Daniel S. Messinger, PhD \| Professor of Psychology Chitra was an undergraduate at UM studying Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Mathematics (Applied Analysis) with a minor in Chemistry. She was currently working under Dr. Daniel Messinger in the Interactive Behavior in Schools (IBIS) project to understand social movement and approach in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) through objective, continuous measurements. As an IDSC Fellow, she hoped to explore the potential of automated behavioral measurement for objectively describing the ASD phenotype through quantification of the social movement deficits characteristic of children with ASD in their interactions with their peers.
	Anthony Mario Bonacolta (2019-2020) Project: Single-cell Transcriptomic Sequencing of a Coral during the Bleaching Process Mentors: Ben Kirtman, PhD \| Deputy Director, IDSC, and, Director, IDSC Earth Systems Javier del Campo, PhD \| Assistant Professor, Department of Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Anthony was a first year PhD student in Dr. Javier del Campo’s Marine Microbial Ecology and Evolution Laboratory in the Marine Biology and Ecology Department at the Rosenstiel School. His research focused on the role of micro-eukaryotes and bacteria in marine organisms.
	Zachary Brooks (2013-2014) Project: Big Data Analysis Methods in Climate Modeling Mentors: Ben Kirtman, PhD \| Department of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Eric Rozier, PhD \| Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Undergraduate IDSC Fellow and Foote Fellow \| Double Major in Marine Science/Computer Science (minor in Math)
	Jin Yop “Stephano” Chang (2018-2019) Project: Development of Closed-Loop Neuromodulation of Gait and Balance Control After Spinal Cord Injury Mentors: Brian R. Noga, PhD and James D. Guest, MD PhD FACS FRCS (C) \| The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis Odelia Schwartz, PhD \| Department of Computer Science Stephano was a Neurosurgery resident pursuing his PhD in Neuroscience with Dr. Brian Noga and Dr. James Guest at the University of Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, combining his clinical background with his scientific interest in neuromodulation for spinal cord injury. During the IDSC Fellows program, he aimed to apply a computational approach to optimize the application of neurostimulation technologies to restore function after injury.
	Ashley Cook (2021-2022) Project: Detection of Rice’s Whale Calls in the Gulf of Mexico Using Passive Acoustic Data and Deep Learning Mentors: Elizabeth Babcock, PhD \| Professor, Department of Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School for Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Gang Ren, PhD \| IDSC AI + Machine Learning \| Research Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science, College of Arts and Science Ashley was a second-year Marine Biology and Ecology PhD student at the Rosenstiel School for Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science at the UM studying cetacean acoustics. She worked under Dr. Elizabeth Babcock and Dr. Melissa Soldevilla using passive acoustic monitoring to investigate spatiotemporal trends in Rice’s whale calls and to estimate Rice’s whale density in their primary habitat in the northeast Gulf of Mexico. As an IDSC Fellow, she utilized machine learning techniques to develop a call detector for Rice’s whales that can be applied to long-term acoustic datasets.
	Hanjing Dai (2017-2018) Project: Image Rectification for Polarimetric Slope Sensing Data Mentors: Brian Haus, PhD\| Department of Ocean Sciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Shahriar Negahdaripour, PhD \| Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering Hanjing was a first-year Ph.D student working under the supervision of Dr. Brian Haus at the Division of Applied Marine Physics, University of Miami. She received her M.Sc. in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2015 from HKUST. Her research interests focused on both fluid dynamics and morphology in coastal regions, by using laboratory and mathematical models she hoped to investigate the realistic evolution of the coastal environment. Hanjing research was in Civil Engineering, Ocean Engineering, and Remote Sensing.
	Katherine Dale (2014-2015) Project: Big Data Analysis in Marine Genomics Mentors: Doug Crawford, PhD \| Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Geoff Sutcliffe, PhD \| Department of Computer Science Foote Fellow \| Marine Science \| Biology \| Computer Science
	Julian Dallmeier (2021-2022) Project: Spatial Clustering Analysis of Corpora Amylacea and Tau in the Hippocampus Mentors: William Scott, PhD \| Professor, and Vice-Chair for Education and Training, Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics \| Professor of Neurology and Public Health Sciences, UM Miller School of Medicine \| Faculty Member, John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics (HIHG) \| Executive Director, UM Brain Endowment Bank Mitsunori Ogihara, PhD \| Professor, Department of Computer Science \| Director, IDSC Workforce Development and Education \| Cooper Fellow, College of Arts and Sciences \| Site Director, NSF University of Miami CARTA Julian was a third-year Neuroscience PhD candidate under the supervision of Dr. William Scott. He researched clearance mechanisms of Alzheimer’s-disease-associated pathology at the Brain Endowment Bank. As an IDSC Fellow, he applied feature extraction and clustering algorithms to neuropathological datasets to potentially unveil novel pathology distribution patterns.
	Kevin Davis (2021-2022) Project: Expanding Functional Control of a Fully Implanted Brain-Computer Interface Mentors: Abhishek Prasad, PhD \| Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering Odelia Schwartz, PhD \| Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences \| Director of Undergraduate Studies, Secondary Faculty in Biology \| Principal Investigator, Brain + Machine Learning Lab Kevin Davis was a second-year graduate student in the medical scientist training program (MD/PhD) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His research centered around neuromodulation and rehabilitation for movement disorders such as spinal cord injury and paralysis. As an IDSC Fellow, he used feature extraction and a series of classification and regression algorithms to improve the functionality of a fully-implanted Brain-Computer Interface in a patient with chronic cervical spinal cord injury for use in their home.
	Matt Danzi (2015-2016) Project: “Identifying the Regulators in RNA-Seq Data” Mentors: Stephan Schuerer, PhD \| Interim Program Director, IDSC Drug Discovery Stefan Wuchty, PhD \| Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science 3rd Year PhD Candidate, Lembix Lab \| The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis \| Dept. of Neurological Surgery
	Phillip L. Davidson (2015-2016) Project: “Comparative RNA-seq Analysis during Embryogenesis” (two development stages of the ctenophore) Mentors: Gary Beecham, PhD \| Director, Division of Research Informatics in the Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics, John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics William E. Browne, PhD \| Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences Senior, Biology Major
	Michael Durante (2016-2017) Project: Michael’s project “Epigenomic Profiling of Uveal Melanoma” focused on utilizing next-generation sequencing techniques to understanding the epigenetic mechanisms of uveal melanoma tumorigenesis. Uveal melanoma is the most common primary adult cancer of the eye, which manifests as aggressive tumors (pictured at right). Most uveal melanoma tumors have one of three driver mutations (BAP1, SF3B1, EIF1AX), as well as distinct copy-number profiles. Michael will use techniques that look at histone modifications and chromatin accessibility to study how the driver mutations change the epigenetic landscape of uveal melanoma. The large-scale datasets that are generated with these techniques were analyzed using the Center for Computational Science’s Pegasus supercomputer. Michael’s IDSC Fellowship helped him use advanced mathematical modeling and novel computational algorithms to analyze these next-generation sequencing datasets. Mentors: J. William Harbour, MD\| Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Stephan Schuerer, PhD \| CCS Drug Discovery Program
	Michael Fernandez (2016-2017) Project: 3D Vortex Visualization Mentors: GeCheng Zha, PhD \| Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Mahsa Mirzargar, PhD \| Computer Science
	Matthew Field (2014-2015) Project: Retinoblastoma Genomics Analysis for Variant Discovery Mentors: J. William Harbour, MD\| Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Nick Tsinoremas, PhD \| IDSC Founding Director Cancer Biology Program \| Miller School of Medicine
	Jia Geng (2019-2020) Project: Developing Deep Learning Models for Rotifer (Bachionus spp.) Detection and Classification Mentors: Amin Sarafraz, PhD \| Research Assistant Professor, College of Engineering and IDSC Systems and Data Engineering Daniel Benetti, PhD \| Director of Aquaculture and Professor, Department of Marine Ecosystems and Society, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Jia was a PhD student in Marine Ecosystem and Society under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Benetti. He received his BS in Aquaculture from the Ocean University of China in 2015 and Graduate Certification in Data Science Foundations from North Carolina State University in 2019. His doctoral research centered on developing AI systems to automated live feed cultivation for fish hatcheries. During the IDSC Fellows program, he applied deep learning models to achieve high accuracy rotifer detection and classification. His project website can be reached via GitHub: gengjia0214/AIRoti. Congratulations Jia! Jia was selected for an “AI for Earth Microsoft Azure Compute” Grant. Through this award, Jia received a sponsored Microsoft Azure account for his project. Microsoft’s AI for Earth program awards grants to support projects that change the way people and organizations monitor, model, and ultimately manage, Earth’s natural systems. Depending on project need, the grants can award Microsoft Azure cloud computing resources (including AI tools) and/or data labeling services.
	Lyssa Goldberg (2014-2015) Project: Media Coverage Biases in Reporting on the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict Mentors: Joseph Uscinski, PhD \| Department of Political Science Mitsunori Ogihara, PhD \| Department. of Computer Science, and Director, IDSC AI + Machine Learning Alberto Cairo, PhD \| Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the School of Communication and Director, IDSC Visualization Foote Fellow \| Journalism \| Political Science \| Computer Science
	Matt Grossi (2017-2018) Project: Predicting Ocean Dispersion Using Neural Networks Mentors: Tamay Özgökmen, PhD \| Department of Ocean Sciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Miroslav Kubat, PhD \| Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering Matt Grossi was a PhD student in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Rosenstiel School. He was working with Dr. Tamay Özgökmen and the Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment (CARTHE) towards understanding and predicting how spilled oil gets transported in the ocean using field observations, hydrodynamic models, and, as an IDSC Fellow, neural networks. Matt holds a B.S. in Physical Oceanography with a minor in Meteorology from Florida Institute of Technology and a M.S. in Oceanography from the University of Delaware. Before coming to the University of Miami, he worked in the Ocean Observation Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) where he oversaw underwater glider operations and maintained a regional network of high-frequency (HF) radar sites for monitoring coastal ocean surface currents in near real time.
	Zhi Liu (2013-2014) Project: Gene Network Organization in Disease Mentors: Gary Beecham, PhD \| Dr. John T. Foundation Dept. of Human Genetics, Miller School of Medicine Xiaodong Cai, PhD \| Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering Graduate IDSC Fellow
	Joseph Masterjohn (2013-2014) Project: Elucidating Novel Genetic Interactions in Yeast Mentors: Stefan Wuchty, PhD \| Department of Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences Gennaro D’Urso, PhD \| Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, Miller School of Medicine Undergraduate IDSC Fellow \| Double Major in Computer Science/ Math
	Thomas McCauley (2017-2018) Project: Properties of Network Models in Social Psychology Mentors: Michael McCullough, PhD \| Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences Kamal Premaratne, PhD \| Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering Thomas graduated with a B.S. in psychology from the University of Delaware in 2014, and an M.A. in experimental psychology from the College of William & Mary in 2017. He joined the EHB lab in fall of 2017, with the aim of pursuing questions pertaining to the evolved psychological mechanisms underlying cooperation, punishment, emotion, and morality. His goal was to understand how these mechanisms interact with enduring ecological features by identifying points of variance and invariance in their function across diverse societies. He’s also interested in statistics, experimental methodology, reproducibility in psychological science, and meta-science.
	Sadegh Tale Masole (2022-2023) Project: Identification and Segmentation of Micro-Cracks in Micro-CT Images of Air-Entrained Cement Paste Specimens Mentor: David Chapman, PhD \| IDSC AI + Machine Learning Sadegh was a second-year PhD student doing research in the advanced infrastructure materials lab in the college of engineering. His research included measuring physiochemical properties of polymers in fluids and in cast construction materials, and then analyzing the results with different methods, one of them being machine learning. He hoped that with access to the IDSC’s expertise and resources, he could achieve good progress on his project.
	Samantha Mitsven (2018-2019) Project: Objective Measurement of Language Development: An Investigation of Preschoolers’ Networked Social Interactions Mentor: Daniel S. Messinger, PhD \| Professor of Psychology Samantha received her B.A. in Psychology from San Diego State University in 2013 and worked as a Research Assistant and Lab Manager in cognitive and neuroimaging labs at UC Davis and Stanford University following graduation. She was a second year PhD student in Developmental Psychology working under the supervision of Daniel Messinger. In her work, Samantha utilized objective, continuous measurements of children’s movement and vocalizations within preschool classrooms to understand the mechanisms by which social interactions with teachers and peers promote language development. As an IDSC Fellow, she hoped to further examine how peer social networks shape, and are shaped by, developing language capacities and how language is transmitted through the classroom through the formation and dissolution of network ties.
	Karna Nagalla (2019-2020) Project: Computational Approaches to Microbiome Alterations and Disease States Mentors: Sylvia Daunert, PhD Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Lucille P. Markey Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Director, Dr. JT Macdonald Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute; Director of Research, Center for Integrative and Complementary Medicine Gregory O’Connor, PhD \| Post Doctoral Associate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Karna was an undergraduate at the University of Miami studying Microbiology/Immunology and Applied Math with a minor in Chemistry and Electrical Engineering. He worked under Dr. Sylvia Daunert and Dr. Gregory O’Connor to analyze human microbiome changes caused by various diseases and their progression. Through the IDSC Fellows program, he hoped to continue learning different analyses programs to analyze massive amounts of data as well as gain a further understanding of the human microbiome and its potential role in disease treatments.
	Sathvik Palakurty (2017-2018) Project: Modeling Relationships Between Taxa Using Microbiome Networks Mentors: Michelle Afkhami, PhD \| Department of Biology Neil Johnson, PhD \| Department of Physics Sathvik was an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Biology and Mathematics (Applied). He was interested in emerging systems biology approaches to complex problems and is currently using coexpression network analyses of RNAseq data to ask about the molecular basis of Multiple Mutualist Effects.
	Emily Prince (2015-2016) Project: Measurement of Behavior During the Strange Situation Mentors: Daniel S. Messinger, PhD \| Professor of Psychology Juhong Park, PhD \| Assistant Professor, School of Architecture Developmental/Clinical Psychology Doctoral Candidate
	Tatiana Espindola Schnitman (2015-2016) aka Catalina von Wrangell Project: “Com’ and shift: a sound play” an audio-visual installation created to raise awareness about the loss of musical tradition and knowledge in a cross-cultural context. Mentors: Juraj Kojs, PhD \| Asst. Professor Prof. Practice, Dept. of Theory and Composition, Frost School of Music Alberto Cairo, PhD \| Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the School of Communication and Director, IDSC Visualization Juhong Park, PhD \| Assistant Professor, School of Architecture MTC Department Student \| MM in Digital Arts and Sound Design
	Anchen Sun (2016-2017) Project: Anchen’s project revolved around the numerical solution of the shallow-water equations on high-performance computers. He focused on identifying the bottlenecks in the code’s performance—whether in CPU-bound or memory-bandwidth bound—and suggesting improvements. Mentors: Mohamed Iskandarani, PhD \| Department of Ocean Sciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science William M. Drennan, PhD \| Department of Ocean Sciences, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Burton Rosenburg, PhD \| Department of Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences
	Jeffrey Serville (2022-2023) Project: Orientation-selective Deep Brain Stimulation of Midbrain Circuits in the Yucatan Micropig for Improving Gait After Spinal Cord Injury Mentor: Ravi Vadapalli, PhD \| Director, IDSC Advanced Computing Jeffrey Serville was a 2^nd-year PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His research focused on neuromodulation and rehabilitation for movement disorders, specifically spinal cord injury. As an IDSC Fellow, he aspired to utilize the University’s Triton supercomputer to accelerate preprocessing algorithms designed for diffusion-weighted images (including eddy-current, susceptibility, and motion distortions) and automate MRI-based segmentation of the pig brain that is used for generating anatomically-constrained-tractograms (3D reconstructed fiber pathways) to predict neural activation patterns resulting from deep brain stimulation of the mesencephalic locomotor region (midbrain/brainstem) in pigs. The purpose of his research project was to optimize stimulation programming, as it relates to generating locomotion while minimizing unwanted side-effects, by implementing the finite-element method to solve the associated bioelectric field problem on a subject-by-subject basis.
	Kelly Soluri (2022-2023) Project: Forecasting Bycatch Hotspots using Multivariate Random Forest Machine Learning Mentors: -Dr. Elizabeth Babcock, quantitative fisheries scientist and professor at the University of Miami with a specialty in fisheries stock assessments. – Dr. Gang Ren, data and computer scientist and professor at the University of Miami with expertise in artificial intelligence – Dr. Mitsunori Ogihara, Director of Workforce Development and Education at IDSC and Editor-in-Chief of the Theory of Computer Systems Journal with research interests in data mining – Cooperative Institute for Marine And Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Kelly was an M.S. Candidate for Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School for Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science with strong interests in ecological processes in oceanic and coastal systems as well as learning novel technologies and methods to better understand how these processes function as a response to climate change or anthropogenic pressure. As a native South Floridian, she wished to support coastal communities that deal with sea level rise, resource insecurity, and intensifying natural disasters. She was also passionate about science literacy for all and the uplifting of minority communities in STEM.
	Shara Sookhoo (2022-2023) Project: Co-Occurrence Patterns in the Microbiomes of Six Species of Coral Mentor: Manohar Murthi, PhD, Associate Professor \| Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering Shara was a Junior majoring in Marine Biology and Ecology with minors in Computer Science and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. After learning to SCUBA dive at 14, she became passionate about coral conservation. Through her work with University of Miami’s Marine Genomics lab and Mote’s Coral Health and Disease lab, she was learning the skills to find and develop corals that are more resilient to climate change and disease. In the last year, these interests led her to jump off a bridge in the Florida Keys and climb a volcano in the Galapagos. Both in and out of the lab, Shara was always looking for the next adventure.
	Nicolas Velasquez (2016-2017) Project: Evolution of the Infrastructural Power of the State: Magdalena Medio, 1982-2002 Mentors: Elvira Restrepo, PhD [now at George Washington] \| Geography & Regional Studies and International Studies Shouraseni Sen Roy, PhD \| Geography & Regional Studies, College of Arts and Sciences
	Chun Wu (2014-2015) Project: Brain Insulin Regulation in Cocaine Addiction and Obesity Mentors: Deborah Mash, PhD \| Miller School of Medicine Stefan Wuchty, PhD \| Department of Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology \| Miller School of Medicine
	Mingyue Wu (2021-2022) Project: The Role of Cement Nanostructure on the Creep Behavior of Concrete Mentors: Luis Ruiz Pestana, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering Melvin Ayala, PhD \| IDSC Systems and Data Engineering, and Advanced Computing Mingyue was a first-year PhD student in the Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering Department following Dr. Luis Ruiz Pestana. Her doctoral research focused on predicting the aging behavior of colloidal glasses based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and machine learning (ML) techniques. As an IDSC Fellow, she trained deep-learning networks using data from MD simulations to identify the complex patterns of behavior underlying glass relaxation.
	Wei Wu (2013-2014) Project: Protein Networks Within the Wnt Signaling Pathway Mentors: Athula Wikramanayake, PhD \| Department of Biology Enrico Capobianco, PhD \| IDSC Senior Lead Bioinformatics Scientist Graduate Student

Past Fellows

Past Fellows

Yeo Jin “Amy” Ahn (2018-2019)

Steven Anderson (2018-2019)

Chitra Banarjee (2019-2020)

Anthony Mario Bonacolta (2019-2020)

Zachary Brooks (2013-2014)

Jin Yop “Stephano” Chang (2018-2019)

Ashley Cook (2021-2022)

Hanjing Dai (2017-2018)

Katherine Dale (2014-2015)

Julian Dallmeier (2021-2022)

Kevin Davis (2021-2022)

Matt Danzi (2015-2016)

Phillip L. Davidson (2015-2016)

Michael Durante (2016-2017)

Michael Fernandez (2016-2017)

Matthew Field (2014-2015)

Jia Geng (2019-2020)

Lyssa Goldberg (2014-2015)

Matt Grossi (2017-2018)

Zhi Liu (2013-2014)

Joseph Masterjohn (2013-2014)

Thomas McCauley (2017-2018)

Sadegh Tale Masole (2022-2023)

Samantha Mitsven (2018-2019)

Karna Nagalla (2019-2020)

Sathvik Palakurty (2017-2018)

Emily Prince (2015-2016)

Tatiana Espindola Schnitman (2015-2016) aka Catalina von Wrangell

Anchen Sun (2016-2017)

Jeffrey Serville (2022-2023)

Kelly Soluri (2022-2023)

Shara Sookhoo (2022-2023)

Nicolas Velasquez (2016-2017)

Chun Wu (2014-2015)

Mingyue Wu (2021-2022)

Wei Wu (2013-2014)