Our Team – Directory and Profiles

Program Contacts

Academic Programs: Master of Science in Data Science (MSDS), CERT-DAPI, and Scholarships
Christi Retzer | Program Manager | ceretzer@tamu.edu

Academic Partnerships: Visitor Program, National Labs, and Seminars
Simon Foucart | Associate Director of External Academic Engagement | foucart@tamu.edu

Education Initiatives
Krishna Narayanan | Associate Director for Education Initiatives | krn@tamu.edu

Data Science Consultancy: Coffee Connections, Bring Your Own Data
Jian Tao | Assistant Director for Project Development | jtao@tamu.edu

Industry Engagement: Capstone Projects, Industry Affiliates, and Professional Education
Jennifer Cutler | Assistant Director | jenniferjoe@tamu.edu

Program Engagement: Student Data Competitions, Campus Engagement, Outreach, Program Development, and Grants
Drew Casey | Assistant Director for Program Engagement | drew.casey@tamu.edu

Communications & Marketing: Social Media, Publications, and Community Groups
Delany Baum | Program Specialist | delany_baum@tamu.edu

Strategic Initiatives & Organizational Collaboration:
Nick Duffield | Director | duffieldng@tamu.edu

Institute Directors

NameTAMIDS Role
Other Affiliations
EmailPhoneLocation
Drew CaseyTAMIDS Asst. Director for Program Engagementdrew.casey@tamu.eduBLOC 227E
Jennifer CutlerTAMIDS Asst. Directorjenniferjoe@tamu.edu979.574.6620BLOC 227D
Nick DuffieldTAMIDS Director
Royce E. Wisenbaker Professorship I
Electrical & Computer Engineering
duffieldng@tamu.edu 979.845.7328 BLOC 227G
WEB 332D
Simon FoucartTAMIDS Assoc. Director External
Academic Engagement 
Professor, Department of Mathematics
foucart@tamu.eduBLOC 502D
Krishna NarayananTAMIDS Assoc. Director for Education Initiatives
Eric D. Rubin ’06 Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
krn@tamu.edu979.422.9891WEB 334K
Christi RetzerProgram Manager, MS Data Scienceceretzer@tamu.eduBLOC 227B
Jian TaoTAMIDS Asst. Director for Project Development
Assistant Professor, School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts
jtao@tamu.edu 979.845.2030BLOC 224C
ARCA 314

Administration 🔝

NameTAMIDS Role
Other Affiliation
EmailLocation
Delany BaumProgram Specialistdelany_baum@tamu.eduBLOC 223A
Angela GuerraSenior Administrative Coordinator IIangelag@tamu.eduBLOC 227
Angie RollinsAdministrative Coordinator Ia-rollins@tamu.eduBLOC 227
Allie SaxtonStudent Web Developerallie.saxton@tamu.eduBLOC 227

Research Staff 🔝

NameTAMIDS Role
Other Affiliations
EmailLocation
Suparno BhattacharyyaAssistant Research Scientist, Digital Twin Labsuparnob@tamu.eduBLOC 221B
Snehashis ChakrabortyTEES Research Engineer IV, Department of Electrical Engineeringsnahashisc@tamu.eduBLOC 221F
Xingzhuo ChenPostdoctoral Research Associate, TAMIDS SciML Labchenxingzhuo@tamu.edu
Brittany GarciaPostdoctoral Research Associate, TAMIDS Data Justice Labbrinni@tamu.edu
Suphanut JamonnakAssistant Research Scientist, TAMIDS Urban AI Labj.suphanut@tamu.eduBLOC 221B
Shuiwang JiResearch Coordination Fellow, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineeringsji@tamu.eduPETR 305
Haoyu NiuTEES Research Engineer IV, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Director, Agriculture Smart Data Lab
hniu@tamu.eduBLOC 221E
Yalong PiAssociate Research Scientist, TAMIDS
Director, Operational Data Science Lab
piyalong@tamu.eduBLOC 221C

Thematic Lab Directors 🔝

NameTAMIDS Role
Other Affiliations
EmailPhoneLocation
Ulisses Braga-NetoTAMIDS SciML Lab Director
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
ulisses@tamu.edu979.862.6441WEB 236B
Ann McNamaraTAMIDS VIVID Lab Director
Professor and Associate Dean for Research,
School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts
ann@viz.tamu.edu979.845.4715SCTS 105
Haoyu NiuTAMIDS Agriculture Smart Data Lab Director
TEES Research Engineer III, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
hniu@tamu.eduBLOC 221E
Yalong PiTAMIDS Operational Data Science Lab Director
Associate Research Scientist, TAMIDS
piyalong@tamu.eduBLOC 221C
Lu TangTAMIDS Data Justice Lab Director
Professor, Communications
ltang@tamu.edu979.845.5500BLTN 209D
Jian TaoTAMIDS Digital Twin Lab Director 
Assistant Professor, School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts
jtao@tamu.edu979.458.2171BLOC 224C
ARCA 314
Xinyue YeTAMIDS Urban Artificial Intelligence Lab Director
ProfessorLandscape Architecture & Urban Planning
xinyue.ye@tamu.edu979.458.4306ARCA A 306

TAMIDS Leadership

Nick Duffield

Director
Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Royce E. Wisenbaker Professor I

Dr. Nick Duffield is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, holder of the Royce E. Wisenbaker Professorship I, and Director of the Texas A&M Institute of Data Science. He is co-director of the NSF TRIPODS Research Institute on the Foundations of Interdisciplinary Data Science at Texas A&M, serves on the Executive Committee of the Texas A&M Center for Geospatial Sciences, Applications and Technology (GEOSAT), and holds a courtesy appointment in the Texas A&M Department of Computer Science and Engineering. His research combines the foundations and applications of data science and computer networking, currently graph stream sampling, network measurement and resilience, and applications of data science to transportation, agriculture, hydrology, infrastructure, and operations. In his TAMIDS role, he directs the MS in Data Science in collaboration with the Colleges of Science and Engineering, He is an ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow, and IET Fellow, and was a co-recipient of the ACM Sigmetrics Test of Time Award in both 2012 and 2013 for work in Network Tomography. From 1995 to 2013 Duffield worked at AT&T Labs, Florham Park, NJ, where he was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff and an AT&T Fellow, and prior to that, he held faculty and postdoctoral positions in Germany and Ireland. He received his PhD in Physics from the University of London, UK in 1987 and the MMath and BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK, in 1983 and 1982 respectively.

Jennifer Cutler

Assistant Director for Industry Engagement

Jennifer Cutler is the Assistant Director for Industry Engagement where she leads the TAMIDS Industry Affiliates program to build partnerships with academia, industry, non-profits, and National Labs. Her work includes workforce development and continuing education, enhancing student engagement, faculty research, and professional education. Jennifer coordinates with internal stakeholders, oversees industry outreach for the Data Science Capstone, and develops strategies to engage industry and national labs in TAMIDS research activities. Before joining TAMIDS, Jennifer served as the Assistant Director of the Texas A&M Cybersecurity Center where she led strategic initiatives in cybersecurity education and innovation. In this role, she worked extensively with students, providing mentorship and guidance to prepare them for careers in cybersecurity. Jennifer orchestrated workshops, seminars, and cyber competitions and collaborated with industry partners to offer internships and employment opportunities.

Prior to her work in cybersecurity, Jennifer was at Mays Business School’s Center for Executive Development, where she coordinated executive development programs and worked with industry leaders to align curriculum and professional training. Earlier in her career, Jennifer worked at the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) – National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center (NERRTC), supporting emergency training for the state of Texas. Jennifer also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Texas A&M University.

 

Drew Casey

Assistant Director for Program Engagement 

Drew Casey is TAMIDS’s Assistant Director for Program Engagement. Drew has been with Texas A&M since 2017, previously working at the Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation and Texas Sea Grant. Prior to moving to College Station, Drew was a communications professor for Renmin University of China and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Technical and Scientific Communication from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a Master’s degree in Asian Studies, with a focus on East-Asian security and technology issues, from Florida State University; and a Master’s in Public Service & Administration from Texas A&M’s Bush School.

Drew’s role as Assistant Director for Program Engagement is to increase the impact of TAMIDS’s programs by identifying opportunities to connect participants, capabilities, and activities across programs, and working with students, faculty, partner organizations, and program participants to establish these connections. Drew also identifies opportunities for new TAMIDS engagement programs and develops these into opportunities for students, researchers, and educators.

Simon Foucart

Associate Director of External Academic Engagement
Professor, Department of Mathematics

After earning a Master of Engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris, Simon Foucart received his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge in 2006. He took two postdoctoral positions, at Vanderbilt University and at Paris 6 University, before joining Drexel University in 2010 and moving to the University of Georgia in 2013. Since 2015, he has been with Texas A&M University, where he became Professor and Presidential Impact Fellow in 2019. He also held short visiting appointments at the University of Bonn, the University of South Florida, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, CNRS Toulouse, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Foucart’s most influential work to date revolves around the field of Compressive Sensing. His contribution was recognized by the 2010 Best Paper Award from the Journal of Complexity. His current interests include the mathematical aspects of Metagenomics, Optimization, Deep Learning, and Data Science at large. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Approximation Theory, the Journal of Numerical Mathematics, and of Sampling Theory, Signal Processing, and Data Analysis. Aside from 50+ peer-reviewed research articles, Dr. Foucart has written two graduate-level textbooks: ‘A Mathematical Introduction to Compressive Sensing’ (with Holger Rauhut, Birkhauser) and ‘Mathematical Pictures at a Data Science Exhibition’ (to appear, Cambridge University Press).

Krishna Narayanan

TAMIDS Associate Director for Education Initiatives
Eric D. Rubin ’06 Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Krishna Narayanan is TAMIDS Associate Director for Education Initiatives and Eric D. Rubin ’06 Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Dr. Narayanan leads the academic design of new education and training programs within TAMIDS and collaboratively with Texas A&M faculty and academic units. After earning a Bachelor’s degree from the Coimbatore Institute of Technology and a Master of Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University, Krishna Narayanan received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1998. Since 1998, he has been with Texas A&M University, where he became a Professor in 2008 and Eric D. Rubin ’06 Professor in 2016., He also held short visiting appointments at the University of California at Berkeley, Institut Eurecom, Sophia Antipolis, France, and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Dr. Narayanan’s research interests include coding theory and information theory, machine learning, signal processing for big data, next-generation wireless systems including 5G/6G cellular systems, the Internet of Things, data storage, and distributed computing. Aside from numerous publications, editorial positions, and invited talks, Dr. Narayanan has been recognized with a variety of prestigious awards for both his teaching and research including the 2014 Professional Progress in Engineering Award from the College of Engineering at Iowa State University, the 2018 Texas A&M Association of Former Students university-level teaching award, the 2009 Halliburton professorship, the 2020 and 2006 Best Paper Awards in data storage from the IEEE communications society and the 2001 National Science Foundation CAREER award, and in 2015, Dr. Narayanan was elected IEEE Fellow for his research and educational contributions.

Jian Tao

Assistant Director for Project Development & TAMIDS Digital Twin Lab Director
Assistant Professor, Visual Computing and Creative Media Section (School of Performance, Visualization, & Fine Arts)
Affiliated Faculty: Electrical and Computing Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, and Multidisciplinary Engineering, Multidisciplinary Engineering (College of Engineering
)

Dr. Jian Tao is an Assistant Professor in the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts at Texas A&M University. Dr. Tao also holds courtesy appointments at the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Department of Nuclear Engineering, and Department of Multidisciplinary Engineering. Dr. Tao has been a key contributor to TAMIDS programs in education, training, and research engagement, and served as the Associate Director of TAMIDS SciML Lab. At TAMIDS, Dr. Tao leads the development and execution of Data Science collaboration between TAMIDS and Texas A&M academic and operational partners.

Tao received his Ph.D. in Computational Astrophysics from Washington University in St. Louis in 2008 and worked on computational frameworks for numerical relativity, computational fluid dynamics, coastal modeling, and other applications at Louisiana State University before he joined Texas A&M in 2016. In 2018, Tao led the Texas A&M team to the final of both the ASC18 and SC18 student cluster competitions. He currently serves as a faculty advisor of the Texas A&M 12th Unmanned Team for the SAE/GM AutoDrive Challenge Competition and leads a project funded by the Department of Commerce to build a digital twin for the Disaster City at Texas A&M University. Tao is an NVIDIA DLI University Ambassador and XSEDE Campus Champion at Texas A&M and a contributor to the SPEC CPU 2017 benchmark suite. His research interests include numerical modeling, machine learning, data analytics, distributed computing, visualization, digital twin, and workflow management.

Christina Retzer

Program Manager, Master of Science in Data Science Program

Christi coordinates TAMIDS Educational Programs, including the new MS in Data Science program which will welcome its first cohort of students in Fall 2021. Christi has been working in higher education for the past twelve years. She worked at the University of Houston for five years as an international transfer credit analyst and then spent seven years at the University of Texas Medical Branch as a graduate admissions coordinator for the School of Nursing and as a graduate program coordinator for the Institute for Medical Humanities. Christi received her Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Design/Visual Arts from the University of Houston-Clear Lake, and her MBA from Texas Woman’s University. Outside of work Christi enjoys traveling, wine tasting, home and art projects, and spending time with her three nephews.


Administration

Angela Guerra

Senior Administrative Coordinator II

Prior to coming to Texas A&M University, Angela was employed with College Station ISD for 5 years as the Campus Office Assistant with Cypress Grove Intermediate. Angela brings with her a passion for supporting students with their Academic careers. As of June 2024,  Angela C. Guerra serves as the Sr. Administrator Coordinator II for Dr. Duffield for the Texas A&M Institute of Data Science office.  Prior to joining the team, she served with the Division of Student Affairs for 6 years.  Angela has been with Texas A&M University since 2015.  Angela enjoys, crafting, baking, and spending time with her family. 

Angie Rollins

Administrative Coordinator I

Angie Rollins joined us on November 1, 2022, as Administrative Coordinator I. In this position, Angie provides administrative support to TAMIDS leadership and staff, general office support, and assists with event coordination and planning. Angie comes to us from the Department of Entomology, Texas A&M AgriLife, where she worked in administrative positions for the past 13 years. Outside of work, Angie enjoys spending time with her family and stays busy trying to keep up with her 13-year-old daughter, Summer. Angie is passionate about cooking, spontaneous getaways with family & friends, and her cats.

Delany Baum

Program Specialist

Delany joined TAMIDS as the Program Specialist in 2024 where she oversees communications efforts including social media, website updates, and graphic design. Delany received her Master’s in environmental science from the University of North Texas in 2020 where her focus was education and communications. Before joining TAMIDS, she served as a project coordinator with Texas A&M AgriLife Research for three years where she organized events, managed social media accounts, and performed administrative duties.

Allie Saxton

Student Web Developer

Allie Saxton is a Computer Science Student at Texas A&M and has been working with TAMIDS since May 2022 as a student technician. Alongside maintaining the TAMIDS website, Allie helps out with the Coffee Connections program by matching participants. In her free time, she loves baking and going on hikes.


Research Staff

Yalong Pi

Associate Research Scientist & TAMIDS / GEOSAT Operational Data Science Lab Director

Dr. Yalong Pi has been an Associate Research Scientist at the Texas A&M Institute of Data Science (TAMIDS) at Texas A&M University since 2020. From 2013-2016, he worked as a project manager at Gree Real Estate Co. Ltd, Zhuhai City, China. He also worked as a junior architect at Shanghai Water&Rock Group in 2017. He obtained a Ph.D. in Architecture from Texas A&M University (2020), a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering (2013) from Wuhan Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering (2011) from Wuhan Textile University. He is a certified Architectural Engineer in mainland China. His research focuses on machine learning (computer vision) and data mining, applications in domains including disaster reconnaissance, transportation, construction automation, and building information modeling.

Haoyu Niu

Research Engineer IV & TAMIDS Agriculture Smart Data Lab Director
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and TAMIDS

Dr. Haoyu Niu joined the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering on January 1, 2023, as a Research Engineer III, and works at TAMIDS at the intersection of Data Science and cyberinfrastructure for smart agriculture. He joins a team of researchers from TAMIDS, Texas A&M’s Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, AgriLife Research, AgriLife Extension, and the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts on a project to develop data-driven infrastructure that enables efficient irrigation using AI-derived crop-growth model based in UAS imaging and environmental data.

Haoyu received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Merced in 2022.  Among many honors and awards, most recently Haoyu won first place for the 2021 CITRIS Aviation Prize and in 2020 was awarded the GRAD-EXCEL Award for Peer Mentorship. Haoyu’s research interests are in Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Big Data, Precision Agriculture, and sUAS Remote Sensing/Application, such as water stress detection, early detection of nematodes, yield estimation, and evapotranspiration (ET) estimation.

Snehashis Chakraborty

Research Engineer IV
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and TAMIDS

Snehashis Chakraborty joined the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering on February 1, 2023 as a Research Engineer III. Snehashis works at the Texas A&M Institute of Data Science (TAMIDS) to develop innovative Data Science and AI applications for infrastructure and operational projects, including a NIST-supported collaboration to develop data and tools for planning for Public Safety Radio services.

Snehashis received his Masters in Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata in 2014. He worked as a data scientist in industry from 2014 to 2018 for a ride-sharing start-up, as well as multinational banks. More recently, Snehashis spent the last four years as an Industry Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore. Among his many achievements, Snehashis won the best project award at ICICI Bank for location-based intelligence models in 2015. Snehashis research interests lie in statistical modeling, text mining, machine learning, and computer vision.  

Suphanut Jamonnak

Assistant Research Scientist, Urban AI Lab

Dr. Suphanut Jamonnak joined the TAMIDS Urban AI Lab in August 2023 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate working with Dr. Xinyue Ye, Lab Director and Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. His research interests include geospatial analysis, visual analytics, Human-computer interaction (HCI), and eXplainable AI (XAI). Dr. Suphanut received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Kent State University in 2021. Before joining TAMIDS, Suphanut worked as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Research and Technology Center North America, Robert Bosch LLC. His works have been published in multiple leading conferences and journals, e.g. IEEE TVCG, EuroVis, IJGIS, and CVPR.

Shuiwang Ji

Research Coordination Fellow

Links

Email

Dr. Shuiwang Ji was named TAMIDS Research Coordination Fellow in 2024 to advance AI initiatives and drive the creation and growth of research communities focused on strategic areas within Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning. Dr. Ji is a Professor and the Truchard Family Chair in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Texas A&M University. Dr. Ji has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Arizona State University and his research interests include machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) for science and engineering, and language models and agents.

Suparno Bhattacharyya

Assistant Research Scientist, Digital Twin Lab

Dr. Suparno Bhattacharyya holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Penn State University, an M.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and a BE in Mechanical Engineering from Jadavpur University, India. His doctoral research centered on the model order reduction of dynamical systems using Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD). This work produced a novel physics-informed criterion that effectively determined the dimension of reduced-order models, ensuring accurate representation for both linear and nonlinear structural vibration systems. After his doctoral studies, Dr. Bhattacharyya undertook a postdoctoral position at Clemson University where he focused on topology optimization for bandgap maximization in 2D lattice structures and purely data-driven model discovery of structural vibration systems using neural ordinary differential equations.

In August 2023, he transitioned to the TAMIDS Digital Twin Lab as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, working closely with Drs. Jian Tao, Jean Ragusa, and Eduardo Gildin on the reduced-order modeling of nonlinear systems. Outside of these research endeavors, Dr. Bhattacharyya has exhibited a commitment to professional growth, securing certifications in both machine learning and online teaching, further enhancing his multifaceted skill set. Beyond his academic achievements, Dr. Bhattacharyya is an Indian classical vocalist, reflecting his commitment to cultural traditions. Additionally, he possesses a keen passion for traveling, allowing him to immerse himself in diverse cultures and landscapes.

Xingzhuo Chen

Postdoctoral Research Associate
TAMIDS Scientific Machine Learning Lab

Links

Email

Dr. Xingzhuo Chen will join the TAMIDS Scientific Machine Learning Lab in September 2024 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate working with Prof. Ulisses Braga-Neto. His research interests include radiative transfer simulation, type Ia supernova, deep-learning application in astronomy, and physics-informed neural networks (PINN). Xingzhuo received his Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Sichuan University in 2019, and his Ph. D degree in Astronomy from Texas A&M University in 2024. His works have been published in multiple leading journals, e.g. Physica B, The Astrophysical Journal.

Brittany Garcia

Postdoctoral Research Associate
TAMIDS Data Justice Lab

Dr. Brittany Garcia-Pi recently completed her PhD in the School of Architecture at Texas A&M University, with a primary focus on Human-Computer Interaction. Her dissertation research centers on enhancing user experiences in collaborative Virtual Reality (VR) environments. Brittany has worked as a Research Program Coordinator for the Institute for Applied Creativity (IAC) at Texas A&M where she oversaw various research projects including but not limited to introducing older adults to interactive technologies and observing intergenerational development between them and undergraduate students and the development of an interactive conversational job interview application for Computer Science students. In addition to working for the IAC, she also worked as Program Coordinator II for the School of Nursing at Texas A&M where she assisted in the coordination of a project that sought to facilitate the upskilling of emergency obstetric scenario skills at rural hospitals through distance simulation and a VR application. With her extensive background in research methods and user experience design, Brittany brings a wealth of expertise to her role within the Data Justice Lab at TAMIDS.

TAMIDS Thematic Lab Directors

Haoyu Niu

TAMIDS Agriculture Smart Data Lab Director

See listing above

Ulisses Braga-Neto

TAMIDS SciML Lab Director
Professor, Electrical and Computing Engineering

Dr. Ulisses Braga-Neto is a Professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2002. His research focuses on Statistical Signal Processing and Machine Learning, with applications in diverse scientific and engineering problems. Dr. Braga-Neto has proposed novel algorithms in these areas, such as the Bolstered Classifier Error Estimator, the Boolean Kalman Filter, and Self-Adaptive Physics-Informed Neural Networks. He is the Director of the Scientific Machine Learning Lab at the Texas A&M Institute of Data Science (TAMIDS). He is currently Associate Editor of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine and a member of the Machine Learning for Signal Processing Technical Committee at the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS). He is a former President of the Mid-South Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS). Dr. Braga-Neto has authored more than 140 peer-reviewed publications, including two books. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2009 and the Outstanding Professor Award from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University in 2013.

Ann McNamara

TAMIDS VIVID Lab Director
Professor, School of Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts

Dr. Ann McNamara is the Associate Dean for Research & Creative Works and Professor in the School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on advancing computer graphics and data visualization through novel approaches for optimizing an individual’s experience when creating, viewing, and interacting with data, particularly using new paradigms for immersive virtual and augmented spaces.

Yalong Pi

TAMIDS / GEOSAT Operational Data Science Lab Director

See listing above

Lu Tang

TAMIDS Data Justice Lab Director 
Professor, Communications

Dr. Lu Tang is an Associate Professor of Health Communication at the Department of Communication, at Texas A&M University. She received her doctorate in communication from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. She taught at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the University of Alabama before joining TAMU in 2017.

Her research shows how people understand and communicate about health and illness and how such understanding and communication are enabled and constrained by social, political, cultural, and technological factors. Currently, her research focuses on the spread of health misinformation on social media, especially misinformation related to vaccines. Her work has been covered in major news outlets including CNBC, Time, Bloomberg Law, and Houston Chronicle.

Jian Tao

TAMIDS Digital Twin Lab Director & TAMIDS Assistant Director for Project Development

See listing above

Xinyue Ye

TAMIDS Urban Artificial Intelligence Lab Director
Professor, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

Dr. Xinyue Ye holds the Harold Adams Endowed Professorship at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on geospatial artificial intelligence, big data, smart cities, and urban computing. According to Google Scholar Citation Global Ranking, Dr. Ye is ranked as Urban Informatics (#7) and Spatial Econometrics (#11). Because of his innovative research on integrating geography, planning, and computational science, Dr. Ye was the most junior faculty and only the second planning faculty elected as a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers (AAG).

Professor Ye received the Regional Development and Planning Distinguished Scholar Award from AAG in 2022. He was the recipient of annual research awards from both computational science (New Jersey Institute of Technology) and Geography (Kent State University). He was named one of the top 10 young scientists by The World Geospatial Developers Conference 2021. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Justice, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Department of Health and Human Services, Microsoft, and Canada Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Professor Ye directs the focus on smart cities and transportation in the PhD program of Urban and Regional Science at Texas A&M University. At TAMIDS, he leads the Urban Artificial Intelligence Lab. In addition, he is supported by the Data Science Course Development Grant Program and the Faculty Research Collaboration Program by TAMIDS.

Nick Duffield

Director
TAMIDS Knowledge Development Lab Director
Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Royce E. Wisenbaker Professor I

See listing above


Student Researchers

Rahul Gautam

MS in Data Science

Links

Email
Linkedin

Rahul Gautam joined Texas A&M University in August 2023 to pursue a Master’s in Data Science, following his undergraduate degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Before joining Texas A&M, Rahul gained significant experience at LG CNS Co. Ltd. in Seoul, South Korea. As a Senior AI Engineer, he developed innovative anomaly detection solutions and led the upgrade of the company’s cloud platform, achieving a 30% increase in system performance. Earlier, as a Senior AI Researcher, he engineered a real-time fraud detection system for a major Korean bank, significantly enhancing fraud detection in e-commerce networks. Rahul’s expertise spans various technical skills, including Python, SQL, cloud services like AWS and Azure, and machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow and PyTorch. He will be working as a Graduate Assistant Researcher under Dr. Nick Duffield in collaboration with Tenaris S.A., working on a project that involves analyzing heat treatment data in manufacturing to predict product testing results using machine learning techniques.

Connor Gooch

MS in Geography

Links

Email
Linkedin

Connor Gooch graduated in May 2023 from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi with a bachelor’s degree in Geographic Information Science. He joined Texas A&M in August 2023 and is pursuing a Master’s in Geography. His professional experience is with an internship with the Texas Department of Transportation Corpus Christi District Survey, working as a survey team member conducting field surveys, and working with the GIS department to create and upload GIS data. His research focuses on the utilization of GIS for Transportation, GeoAI, and Python coding.

At TAMIDS he is working with Snehashis Chakraborty and Nick Duffield in the Operational Data Science Lab on geospatial analysis of public safety radio data in a NIST-funded collaboration with the Internet 2 Technology Center, the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and the School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts.

Saptarshi Mondal

MS in Data Science

Links

Email
Linkedin

Saptarshi Mondal joined Texas A&M University in the fall of 2023 and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Data Science. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India, in June 2020. Before joining Texas A&M, Saptarshi worked as a Supply Chain Analyst for Lowe’s Corporation Inc., focusing on building data pipelines and processes while actively delivering rapid and advanced insights to Lowe’s distribution centers across the US. His current research interests include Machine Learning, particularly focusing on Natural Language Processing. At TAMIDS he is collaborating with Dr. Nick Duffield and Snehashis Chakraborty in the Operational Data Science Lab.

Janvita Reddy

MS in Data Science: Computer Science and Engineering Track

Lists

Email
Linkedin

Janvita Reddy joined Texas A&M University in the fall of 2023 to pursue a master’s in Data Science. She completed her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering in May 2023 at the National Institute of Technology, Surat. Janvita’s research interests include Machine Learning with a focus on Computer Vision. During her undergrad, Janvita worked on an industrial project to fully automate the welding process using object detection and also undertook a research internship on domain generalization models using GANS. She worked with an astronomy research group which resulted in the publication of a paper in The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal. Janvita is excited to work with Prof. Nick Duffield and Dr. Haoyu Niu on water stress prediction on cotton crops in the TAMIDS Agriculture Smart Data Lab.

Mohit Sarin

MS in Computer Science

Links

Email
Linkedin

Mohit Sarin completed his Bachelor of Technology from the National Institute of Technology-Raipur in 2020. Currently, he is pursuing a Master of Science in Computer Science and is a graduate student researcher in the TAMIDS Operational Data Science lab. His research focus is on Machine Learning and its applications, including fine-tuning Large Language Models and his expertise spans artificial intelligence, cloud engineering, software development, and data analytics.

Uday Vysyaraju

MS in Data Science

Links

Email
Linkedin

Uday Vysyaraju is a Master’s student in Data Science. He holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Technology in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Uday has four years of experience as an AI Specialist Researcher at LG CNS in Seoul, Korea. Prior to joining TAMIDS, he developed a computer vision-based plant phenotyping pipeline at the Advanced Vision and Learning Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University. At TAMIDS, his research with Dr. Yalong Pi, Dr. Karun Kaniyamattam, and Dr. Nick Duffield focuses on applying computer vision techniques to address challenges in beef cattle farming.

Jack Wooley

MS in Data Science: Computer Science and Engineering Track

Links

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Jack Wooley graduated in April 2023 from Brigham Young University – Provo with a bachelor’s degree in statistical science and a minor in Spanish. He came to Texas A&M in August 2023 and is currently a student in the Master of Data Science program, with an emphasis in computer science and engineering. Jack spent the last year of his undergrad working as a data engineer and analyst for BYU Broadcasting, where he built data pipelines and visualizations and started work on the company’s first fully automated end-to-end ML pipeline, which was used for predicting viewer churn. Additionally, during Jack’s undergrad, he spent a summer as a research assistant for the BYU Physics & Astronomy Department and contributed to a publication in the journal The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. In TAMIDS he is working with Dr. Yalong Pi and Dr. Nick Duffield on Computer Vision projects in the Operational Data Science Lab.

Ziyi Zhang

Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Ziyi Zhang is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, supervised by Nick Duffield. He obtained his B.E. in Electronic Information Engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) and in Electronics & Electrical Engineering from the University of Glasgow (UoG) in 2019. His research focuses on causal machine learning applied to time series data, with a fundamental understanding of theory and its applications to real-world problems, such as stock price forecasting, weather forecasting, and recommender systems. His work has been published in several leading workshops, conferences, and journals, including SIGKDD, WWW, SIGSPATIAL, IJGIS, and others.

Former TAMIDS Members

  • Mohsen Aghashahi (Research Engineer), Data Scientist, USAA
  • Bahareh Alizadeh (Research Engineer)
  • Jin Cao (Postdoc), Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, University of Houston
  • Jisu Cao (Postdoc), Assistant Professor, Department of Information Systems, Arizona State University
  • Hee Cheol Chung (Postdoc), Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • Sutanoy Dasgupta (Visiting Professor), Senior Data Scientist, Intuit
  • Liang Ding (Postdoc), Assistant Professor, Fudan University
  • Yu Ding (Associate Director for Research Engagement), Anderson-Interface Chair Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Jiaxin Du (Graduate Research Assistant), Assistant Professor, Grand Valley State University
  • Brandon Green (Assistant Director for Industry Engagement) BlueForge Alliance
  • Zachary Handshoe (Student Web Developer), Software Engineer, ExxonMobil
  • Matt Hielsberg (Affiliated Researcher), Systems Administrator, Technology Services – Academic Operations
  • Jianhua Huang (Associate Director), Associate Dean and Presidential Professor Chair, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
  • Dehao Liu (Postdoc), Assistant Professor, Binghamton University
  • Sejeong Moon (Student Technician), MS Data Science
  • Isaias Negassi (Graduate Research Assistant), Data Scientist, PepsiCo
  • Shahina Rahman (Coordinator for Student Initiatives & Faculty Fellow) AI Research Scientist, Amazon
  • Shaogang Ren (Postdoc), Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
  • Diego Rodriguez (Assistant Director for Educational Programs), Director, Multicultural & International Student Support and Engagement, University of Iowa
  • Carlie Schmidl (Administrative Associate), Event Coordinator, Infinity Hospitality, Nashville, TN
  • Siddhanth Reddy Sirgapoor (Student Technician), MS Data Science
  • Jennifer South (Senior Administrative Coordinator), Retired
  • Sree Kiran Prasad Vadaga (Research Specialist), AI/ML Engineer, PayPal
  • Yashaswini Yeramalli (Student Technician), MS Computer Science
  • Ming Zhong, (Assistant Research Scientist) Assistant Professor, Illinois Institute of Technology