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A Better Future
Revolutionizing Healthcare with AI
AI4HEALTH is redefining healthcare, turning data into actionable, personalized insights for every patient.
Dr. Pu Wang
Principal Investigator – Computer Science Professor
Dr. Ahmed Helmy
Associate Dean for Research – Computer Science Department
Dr. Liyue Fan
Computer Science Professor
Dr. Srijan Das
Computer Science Professor
Dr. Minwoo Lee
Computer Science Professor
Dr. Min Shin
Professor and Chair of Computer Science
Dr. Razvan Bunescu
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Dr. Xiang Zhang
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Dr. Aidong Lu
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Li Yang
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Dr. Srinivas Akella
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Dr. Wenhao Luo
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Dr. Yaorong Ge
Senior Personnel – Department of Software and Information Systems
Dr. Abbey Fenwick
Senior Personnel – Department of Applied Physiology, Health, and Clinical Sciences
Dr. Joseph S. Marino
Senior Personnel – Department of Applied Physiology, Health, and Clinical Sciences
Dr. Luke Donovan
Senior Personnel – Department of Applied Physiology, Health, and Clinical Sciences
Dr. Kelly Powers
Senior Personnel – School of Nursing
Dr. Meredith Troutman-Jordan
Senior Personnel – School of Nursing
Dr. Naiquan (Nigel) Zheng
Senior Personnel – Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science
Hongfei Xue
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Issam Alzouby
Research Assistant – Computer Science Department
Dr. Pu Wang
Principal Investigator
Biography Pu Wang received B.Eng degree in Electrical Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology, China, in 2003, and M.Eng degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Memorial University of Newfoundland , Canada, in 2008. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, in August 2013, under the guidance of Professor Ian F. Akyildiz. Currently, he is an Associate Professor with the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte . Prior to joining UNCC, he was an assistant professor with Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Wichita State University from 2013 to 2017. His current research interests focus on deep learning and reinforcement learning, with applications in smart sensing, networking, computer vision, Internet of Things, and Cyber-Physical Systems.
Dr. Ahmed Helmy
Associate Dean for Research
Dr. Ahmed Helmy is a distinguished academic with a rich background in computer science and electrical engineering. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (’99) and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering (’95) from the University of Southern California (USC), as well as an M.S. in Engineering Mathematics (’94) and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (’92) from Cairo University. Dr. Helmy played a significant role in developing the IP multicast Internet standard PIM and Network Simulator NS-2 at USC/ISI. Currently, he serves as the Associate Dean for Research at the College of Computing & Informatics at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. His previous positions include Professor and Graduate Director at the University of Florida’s CISE Department and Professor in the EE Department at USC, where he established labs focused on Wireless Sensor Networks and Protocol Testing. Dr. Helmy’s research encompasses wireless networks, mobility modeling, multicast protocols, and network simulation. He has led multiple NSF-funded projects and received grants from various organizations, including Intel, Cisco, and NASA. He has earned numerous awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, several best paper awards at prestigious ACM and IEEE conferences, and recognition as a Fellow of the IEEE and a Distinguished Scientist of the ACM.
Dr. Liyue Fan
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Dr. Liyue Fan is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science in the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research is at the intersection of data privacy and spatio-temporal databases (see list of publications here). She was named one of the “Rising Stars in EECS” by MIT in 2015. Prior to joining UNC Charlotte, Dr. Fan was an Assistant Professor in Information Technology Management at University at Albany. She spent two years as a postdoc research associate in the Integrated Media System Center at University of Southern California, under the supervision of Prof. Cyrus Shahabi. She received a Ph.D. in Computer Science & Informatics from Emory University (with Prof. Li Xiong) and a B.S.in Mathematics from Zhejiang University (a Chu Kochen ACEE alumna). Dr. Fan serves the professional community as a PC member for SIGMOD, KDD, ICDM, AAAI, SIGSPATIAL, etc., and as a reviewer for many high impact journals, such as TKDE, TIST, TIFS, TMC, DAPD, and Computer & Security.
Dr. Srijan Das
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. At UNC Charlotte, I am working on Video Representation Learning, and Robotic Vision. I am a member of the Charlotte Machine Learning Lab (CharMLab) at UNC Charlotte. Before this, I was a Postdoctoral Associate at Stony Brook University under the supervision of Michael Ryoo. In 2020, I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science at INRIA, Sophia Antipolis, France under the supervision of Francois Bremond and Monique Thonnat. My Ph.D. thesis is on ¨Spatio-temporal attention mechanisms for Action Recognition¨ and click here to watch my Defense Presentation. I did my Post-Grad in Computer Science from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela.
Dr. Minwoo Lee
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Dr. Minwoo Lee is a professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina Charlotte. He is working on machine learning algorithms for reinforcement learning. His interests focus on various topics in machine learning, with an emphasis on reinforcement learning, such as interpretational learning, transfer learning, sparse learning, multiagent learning, fine control-based policy development, and robust knowledge augmentation. Recent research focuses on the analysis of learning behavior with sparse Bayesian learning.
Dr. Min Shin
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Min C. Shin (Ph.D., Computer Science, University of South Florida, 2001) is a Professor of Computer Science and the Assistant Dean for Research in the College of Computing and Informatics at UNC Charlotte. His research interests are in Computer Vision, with a focus on multiple object tracking. He has had multiple successful NSF, NIH, DARPA, and industry grants to develop tracking algorithms and user-friendly software for several systems (ants, bees, cells, termites, robots, people, cars). His current NSF project is funding deployment of a highly usable application based on his group’s 10+ years of multiple object tracking work (www.abctracker.org). He has mentored two Ph.D. students (one faculty and one at industry research), and is currently mentoring two Ph.D. students including one female student. He has been regularly mentoring multiple undergraduate research students for past 18 years. He has been serving as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics-B and on the program committees of major computer vision conferences including ICCV, CVPR, ECCV.
Dr. Razvan Bunescu
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Dr. Razvan C. Bunescu is a highly accomplished computer scientist with a strong educational background, holding a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin (2007), and both an M.S. and B.S. in Computer Science from the University Politehnica of Bucharest (1999, 1998). His primary research interests span across machine learning, natural language processing, and music information retrieval. Dr. Bunescu is actively involved in seeking motivated Ph.D. students with proficient programming skills to join his research endeavors in these areas.
Dr. Xiang Zhang
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Xiang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte. Before joining UNC Charlotte, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University from March 2020 to July 2022. Xiang received his Ph.D. degree (in 2020) in Computer Science from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). His research interests lie in data mining and machine learning with applications in pervasive healthcare, medical time series, and Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs). Xiang’s research outcomes have been published in prestigious conferences (such as ICLR, NeurIPS, and KDD) and journals (like Nature Computational Science).
Dr. Aidong Lu
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Dr. Aidong Lu is a distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. With a focus on Data Visualization and Mixed Reality, Dr. Lu’s work revolves around immersive analytics, offering innovative approaches to visualizing complex data. She is keenly interested in applications that span across social network analysis, augmented and virtual reality, 3D interactions, and gaming analytics. Her commitment to education is evident in her active engagement with both undergraduate and graduate students, encouraging them to participate in visualization courses and lab projects. Dr. Lu’s lab is equipped with diverse devices, facilitating hands-on learning experiences in these fields.
Li Yang
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
I am an Assistant Professor at University of North Carolina at Charlotte in Computer Science Department, where I work on Data-intensive and High-performance systems. I work in optimizing and designing intelligent infrastructure for high-performance data-intensive systems, such as parallel file systems, metadata management, graph storage, and resource management. I lead the Data Intelligence Research (DIR) Lab, also serve as the Associate Director of the High Performance Computing Systems (HPCS) Lab at UNC-Charlotte.
Dr. Srinivas Akella
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Srinivas Akella is a researcher specializing in diverse fields within robotics and automation. His work includes developing algorithms for coordinating multiple robots, enabling collision-free interactions in shared workspaces, as well as optimizing digital microfluidic systems for efficient biochemical analysis. Akella also focuses on proximity queries between convex objects and dynamic simulations of multibody systems with intermittent contact, contributing to precise and reliable modeling of complex mechanical systems. Furthermore, he explores articulated 3-D structures and protein folding pathways, showcasing his broad expertise in the robotics and computational geometry domains.
Dr. Wenhao Luo
Senior Personnel – Computer Science Department
Dr. Wenhao Luo is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at UNC Charlotte. His research interests are at the intersection of robotics, control theory, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Specifically, Dr. Luo’s research focuses on principled methods for robust and interactive autonomy that enable robots to safely and effectively collaborate with each other and with humans in the physical world. His recent work has focused on learning and control for safe autonomous multi-robot systems, with emphasis on robustness, resilience, and adversaries in the systems. He received MS and PhD degrees in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, and his B.E. degree with honors in Measurement & Control Technology and Instruments from Central South University, China. He was a research intern at Microsoft Research in the summer of 2019 and 2020. His work has been supported by NSF, USDA, DARPA, ONR, and AFOSR.
Dr. Yaorong Ge
Senior Personnel – Department of Software and Information Systems
Yaorong Ge, Ph,D., comes to the Department of Software and Information Systems as a tenured Associate Professor after serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Center of Biomedical Informatics at Wake Forest University Health Sciences (WFUHS). He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science-Medical Engineering from Vanderbilt University (1995). Dr. Ge has extensive experience in imaging informatics and medical informatics. He was a part of the virtual colonoscopy research group that initiated and advanced the development of virtual colonoscopy, a minimally invasive technology for colorectal cancer screening. His expertise in imaging includes image registration, segmentation, skeletonization, computer-aided diagnosis, and radiology structured reporting. Dr. Ge also has strong experience in industry-strength software development. He co-founded and managed a medical software company to commercialize virtual colonoscopy and radiology structured reporting technologies. As Chief Technology Officer of the company, he established rigorous software engineering processes and a strong engineering team that produced state-of-the-art, FDA cleared imaging information systems, as well as a clinical ontology for radiology reporting. After the startup was acquired by IDX Corporation, an industry leader in healthcare IT before being merged into GE Healthcare, he became the Director of the software development team of IDX’s radiology information system division.
Dr. Abbey Fenwick
Senior Personnel – Department of Applied Physiology, Health, and Clinical Sciences
Dr. Abbey Thomas (Abbey Fenwick) is an Assistant Professor in Kinesiology at UNC Charlotte. She teaches in the undergraduate Athletic Training Education Program and advises graduate students in the Applied Physiology and Neuromechanics program. Her research focuses on the long-term consequences of knee injury, particularly as it involves post-traumatic osteoarthritis development and treatment. She is currently a member of the executive committee for the Athletic Trainers’ Osteoarthritis Consortium.
Dr. Joseph S. Marino
Senior Personnel – Department of Applied Physiology, Health, and Clinical Sciences
Dr. Joseph S. Marino leads the Marino lab, a research group dedicated to advancing our knowledge of skeletal muscle mass and metabolism regulation to enhance sports performance. As the Departmental Research Project Director for the U.S. Performance Center, Dr. Marino collaborates with National and Olympic-level athletes. His current research areas encompass investigating the impact of sport specialization on long-term athlete development, identifying risk factors related to the female athlete triad, studying the effects of sleep disturbances on athletic performance and health, and exploring resistance training adaptations in healthy and diseased skeletal muscle. Dr. Marino holds multiple degrees, including a Ph.D. in Applied Physiology, and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles on topics ranging from diabetes to muscle physiology. He has received grants to support his research and has been recognized with awards for his contributions to academia and mentoring. Dr. Marino is also involved in community engagement and serves as a representative for the College of Health and Human Services at the National Science Festival.
Dr. Luke Donovan
Senior Personnel – Department of Applied Physiology, Health, and Clinical Sciences
Dr. Luke Donovan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Physiology, Health, and Clinical Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Prior to coming to UNC-Charlotte, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Toledo and served as the Director of the CAATE-accredited Post-Professional Graduate Athletic Training program. Currently, Dr. Donovan teaches within the undergraduate Athletic Training and Exercise Science Programs and advises students within the Interdisciplinary Biology PhD Program. Dr. Donovan’s research interests includes the utilization of an impairment-based rehabilitation model for the treatment of chronic ankle instability, in which he is further refining the model by studying novel assessment and rehabilitation techniques.
Dr. Kelly Powers
Senior Personnel – School of Nursing
Dr. Kelly Powers, PhD, RN, CNE is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at UNC Charlotte. She has been a faculty member at UNC Charlotte since 2008 and has taught in the BSN, MSN, and DNP programs. Dr. Powers creates innovative simulations for the BSN program, and mentors BSN Honors students to conduct scholarly projects to advance clinical practice. Her current courses are focused on teaching and mentoring DNP students to conduct scholarly projects, preparing MSN students for the nurse educator role, and advancing graduate students’ interprofessional collaboration competencies. She created and teaches an interprofessional education (IPE) course for graduate students in nursing, social work, and other programs within the College of Health and Human Services. As a member of the steering committee of the North Carolina Interprofessional Education Leaders Collaborative (NC-IPELC), Dr. Powers collaborates with other IPE leaders across the state to advance interprofessional collaborative practice.
Dr. Meredith Troutman-Jordan
Senior Personnel – School of Nursing
Meredith Troutman-Jordan, PhD, PMHCNS-BC a American Nurses Credentialing Center certified psychiatric mental health clinical nurse specialist, and my clinical experience includes work in inpatient, outpatient, and residential psychiatric mental health and substance abuse treatment, and home health. She has worked primarily with older adults for the past 20 years.
Dr. Naiquan (Nigel) Zheng
Senior Personnel – Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science
Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science Associate and BMR Focus Area Leader, Center for Biomedical Engineering and Science Associate, Gerontology Program Vision Statement Our vision is the postponement and eventual prevention of Musculoskeletal disability and disease (such as osteoarthritis) due to abnormal motion and loading. Mission Statement Our goal is to advance understanding of the Musculoskeletal system by studying human body movement and joint biomechanics. By developing and using the latest technologies, we continue the search for better diagnosis and treatment of Musculoskeletal disease.
Hongfei Xue
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Dr. Hongfei Xue is an Assistant Professor of Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo jointly supervised by Prof. Lu Su and Prof. Aidong Zhang. Before that, he received his B.S. degree from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Dr. Xue’s research interests lie in the intersection of Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, with an emphasis on building intelligent wireless sensing systems. His research focuses on developing algorithms and systems that can intelligently collect, integrate, analyze, and eventually transform the IoT sensory data into useful knowledge that can draw a better understanding of the social and physical world.
Issam Alzouby
Research Assistant
Issam Alzouby is a Tech Enthusiast and CyberSecurity Student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has actively participated in innovative projects, including a NASA hackathon where he worked on space-related data analysis. Issam has also demonstrated his technical skills by developing a website and engaging in a drone-building project. His academic pursuits are complemented by his role as an Ai Research Assistant, where he contributes to research and development in the field of artificial intelligence. Additionally, Issam has entrepreneurial experience as the owner of iRepairCLT, where he and his team have successfully reverse-engineered proprietary ASIC boards, showcasing their technical prowess and problem-solving capabilities. Furthermore, Issam has enriched his practical knowledge in the field by working as a Cyber Analyst Intern, gaining hands-on experience in analyzing and securing digital information. Issam’s commitment to technology and research is evident through his various projects and roles.
Digital Twins:
Bridging the Physical and Digital Realms.
A digital twin is a dynamic, virtual representation of a physical object or system. It uses real-time data, simulations, and machine learning algorithms to understand, predict, and optimize functions for better performance. From manufacturing equipment to entire cities and even human physiology, digital twins can be applied across various sectors.
Better Future
Explore Our Projects
HDTs
Develop comprehensive whole-body human digital twins.
HDTs for Sports Health
“Hospital at home” by enabling noninvasive continuous monitoring and early warning of health risks in elderly individuals.
HDTs for Elderly Care
Noninvasive continuous monitoring and early warning of health risks in elderly individuals.
AI4HEALTH
Insights & Updates
Dive into the latest advancements, research breakthroughs, and collaborative endeavors at AI4HEALTH. Our news section keeps you informed about the pioneering steps we’re taking in the realm of AI-driven healthcare, digital twins, and beyond.
