The Sanghani Center is home to high-profile research, garnering recognition within and beyond the data analytics community.
Our talented team has been recognized with many competitive research awards and featured in major news and media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the Boston Globe and the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Graphic is from the paper “Comparative analysis of alternative powertrain technologies in freight trains: A numerical examination towards sustainable rail transport”
Ahmed Aredah’s graduate school experience is not a typical one as he is simultaneously pursuing two graduate degrees in different majors. He is a master’s degree student in the Department of Computer Science advised by Hoda Eldardiry, assistant professor and core faculty at the Sanghani Center, and is also a Ph.D. student in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, advised by Hesham Rakha with Eldardiry serving on his dissertation committee.
“The multidisciplinary approach at the Sanghani Center aligns perfectly with my dual-degree aspirations, allowing me to bridge the gap between civil engineering and computer science,” Aredah said. “Advanced research facilities and extensive networking opportunities have further enriched my academic experience.”
His research area is centered on energy optimization in transportation. He is part of a team at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute that developed NeTrainSim, a network train simulator that explores ways to make train operations more energy efficient.
“A significant contribution from our work has been the study and proposal of different powertrain technologies to enhance train infrastructure in the United States. Thanks to the robust methodology we have employed, our findings can be expanded to other regions/countries,” Aredah said.
His interest in energy optimization for railway systems was sparked by a combination of factors. “The real-world impact of creating more efficient, sustainable transport solutions resonated with my desire for meaningful work,” Aredah said. “And the interdisciplinary nature of the field offers a unique technical challenge that appealed to my problem-solving instincts.”
Aredah earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in civil engineering from German University in Cairo, Egypt, and nanodegrees in data science and machine learning from Udacity.
After graduating with his Ph.D. (currently projected for 2025), Aredah said that he is open to exploring any opportunity that allows him to leverage his skills.
“At my core, I am a problem solver, passionate about applying my knowledge to real-world challenges. Whether that means continuing research to push the boundaries of what’s possible or working in an industrial setting to implement practical solutions, I am eager to find a role where I can make a meaningful impact,” he said.
(From left) Chang-Tien “C.T.” Lu, Naren Ramakrishnan, and Dimitrios Nikolopoulos. Photo illustration by Peter Means for Virginia Tech.
Chang-Tien “C.T.” Lu, Dimitrios Nikolopoulos, and Naren Ramakrishnan, all faculty in the Department of Computer Science, have been elected to the 2024 class of fellows in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
To be named a fellow, IEEE members must demonstrate significant contributions to their field, show evidence of technical accomplishments and realization of significant impact to society, and a record of service to professional engineering societies, among other criteria.
Fewer than 0.1 percent of voting members in the institute are selected annually for this career milestone, according to IEEE.
A recent project from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute provides new insights to the impact of freight trains using alternative fuel sources. Virginia Tech photo
Researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute recently created the nationwide multi-train simulation software, NeTrainSim, to show the impacts of a countrywide shift away from diesel.
A U.S. map shows counties where residents could (blue) or could not (pink) receive local-specific information about environmental justice issues. Photo courtesy of Junghwan Kim.
Virginia Tech researchers have discovered limitations in ChatGPT’s capacity to provide location-specific information about environmental justice issues. Their findings, published in the journal Telematics and Informatics, suggest the potential for geographic biases existing in current generative artificial intelligence (AI) models.
Virginia Tech’s 2023 Fall Commencement ceremonies take place today. The Graduate School Commencement Ceremony will be held in Cassell Coliseum at 1:30 p.m. and will be live-streamed.
“We celebrate our Summer and Fall graduates who have worked so hard to achieve their graduate degrees,” said Naren Ramakrishnan, the Thomas L. Phillips Professor of Engineering in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech and director of the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics. They deserve all the congratulations coming their way and we wish them all the best as they embark on their new journeys.”
The following Sanghani Center students are among those who are receiving degrees:
Ph.D. Graduates
Aman Ahuja,advised by Edward Fox, has earned a Ph.D. in computer science. His research focused on document understanding, search and retrieval, and question-answering to improve the accessibility of long PDF documents, such as books and dissertations. His dissertation, “Analyzing and Navigating Electronic Theses and Dissertations” was awarded the 2023 Innovative Student Thesis Award by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). Ahuja has joined DocuSign in Seattle, Washington, as an applied scientist.
Arka Daw, advised by Anuj Karpatne, has earned a Ph.D. in computer science. His research centers around the emerging field of science-guided machine learning, where machine learning models are integrated with scientific knowledge (or physics) to ensure better interpretability and generalizability while enforcing scientific consistency. The title of his dissertation is “Physics-informed Machine Learning with Uncertainty Quantification.” Daw is joining Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) in Knoxville, Tennessee, as a Distinguished Staff Fellow.
Chris Grubb, advised by Leanna House, has earned a Ph.D. in statistics. His research focuses on developing a statistical learning method of population synthesis that allows for propagation of uncertainty from sample data into synthetic populations of agents. The title of his dissertation is “Inference for Populations: Uncertainty Propagation via Bayesian Population Synthesis.” Grubb has joined Virginia Tech’s Center for Biostatistics and Health Data Science in Roanoke, Virginia, as a research scientist.
Whitney Hayes, co-advised by Ashley Reichelmann and Naren Ramakrishnan, has earned a Ph.D. in sociology. Her research focus is on identity. The title of her dissertation is “Enhancing Identity Theory Measurement: A Case Study in Ways to Advance the Subfield.” Hayes also received a graduate certificate in urban computing offered through the Sanghani Center. She has joined Elevate, a climate action nonprofit based in Chicago, Illinois, and works remotely as a research analyst.
Brian Keith, advised by Chris North, has earned a Ph.D. in computer science. His research focuses on how to represent, extract, and visualize information narratives to aid analysts in their narrative sensemaking process. The title of his dissertation is “Narrative Maps: A Computational Model to Support Analysts in Narrative Sensemaking.” Keith has joined the Catholic University of the North in Chile as an assistant professor in the Department of Computing and Systems Engineering.
Shuo Lei, advised by Chang-Tien Lu, has earned a Ph.D. in computer science. Her research focuses on few-shot learning and domain adaptation.The title of her dissertation is “Learning with Limited Labeled Data: Techniques and Applications.” Lei has joined Sony Research in San Jose, California, as a research scientist.
Nikhil Abhyankar, advised by Ruoxi Jia, has earned a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering. His research focus is on machine learning privacy and security. The title of his master’s thesis is “Data Centric Defenses for Privacy Attacks.” Abhyankar has joined the Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science to pursue a Ph.D.
Chongyu He, advised by Edward Fox, has earned a master’s degree in computer science. His research primarily revolves around the application of advanced deep learning techniques for cell organelle segmentation in high-resolution microscopy images. The title of He’s master’s thesis is “Deep Learning Approach for Cell Nuclear Pore Detection and Quantification over High Resolution 3D Data.”
Junho Oh, advised by Lynn Abbott, has earned a master’s degree in Computer Engineering. His research focus is machine learning. The title of Oh’s master’s thesis is “Estimation of Global Illumination using Cycle-Consistent Adversarial Networks.”
Akash Sonth, advised by Abhijit Sarkar and Lynn Abbott, has earned a master’s degree in computer engineering. His research focus is on the application of machine learning in driver safety and intelligent transportation. The title of his master’s thesis is “Enhancing Road Safety through Machine Learning for Prediction of Unsafe Driving Behaviors.” Sonth has joined the Aspen Technology office located in Bedford, Massachusetts, as a data scientist.
Surendrabikram Thapa,co-advised by Anuj Karpatne and Abhijit Sarkar, has earned a master’s degree in computer science. His research focus is multimodal learning, computer vision, and natural language processing applications. The title of his master’s thesis is “Deidentification of Face Videos in Naturalistic Driving Scenarios.” Thapa also received a graduate certificate in data analytics offered by the Sanghani Center. He has joined the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) as a research faculty.
“Curious Conversations” is produced by the Virginia Tech Office of Research and Innovation.
Ismini Lourentzou joined Virginia Tech’s “Curious Conversations” to chat about artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning related to personal assistants, as well as her student team’s recent experience with the Alexa Prize TaskBot Challenge 2.
Ahuja defended his dissertation this past summer and is currently an applied scientist at DocuSign in Seattle, Washington. His advisor was Edward Fox.
The organization’s annual award supports student efforts to transform the genre of the dissertation through the use of innovative research data management techniques and software to create multimedia Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). It includes a cash award and travel scholarship funds to attend a future ETD Symposium.
Following is an excerpt from the email Ahuja received from the chair of the NDLTD Awards Committee notifying him of this honor:
“Your thesis, “Analyzing and Navigating Electronic Theses and Dissertations,” provides a technical framework to expand the access to the content of millions of published theses, like yours, which are constrained in their usability and usefulness by the portable document format. Current digital libraries are institutional repositories with the objective being content archiving, they often lack end-user services needed to make this valuable data useful for the scholarly community. To effectively utilize such data to address the information needs of users, digital libraries should support various end-user services such as document search and browsing, document recommendation, as well as services to make navigation of long PDF documents easier and accessible. Your research and dissertation directly addresses these concerns in creative and beneficial ways.”
Assistant Professor Theo Lim of the School of Public and International Affairs presents on his research during the 2023 State of the College program. Photo by Andrew Adkins for Virginia Tech.
This summer marked the Earth’s hottest on record.
The Roanoke Valley was no exception to the heat, with news reports naming 2023 as the region’s second-hottest summer. But the rising temperatures were particularly stifling for some neighborhoods in Roanoke — those impacted by harmful urban planning practices.
Naren Ramakrishnan, the Thomas L. Phillips Professor of Engineering and director of the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, and Nathan Self, research associate at the center, are on a team of researchers led by Theodore Lim, who will use a National Science Foundation grant to work with Roanoke communities to combat the impact of rising temperatures and promote healing among those impacted by harmful urban planning practices. Read full story here.
Virginia Tech has received funding from the National Science Foundation for a collaborative research project that brings machine learning and data science research to the domain of Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA) to improve discovery and traceability of illicitly-sourced timber products. Illegal timber trade (ITT) is the most profitable natural-resource crime, valued at 50-152 billion U.S. dollars per year.
“To enforce timber regulations and international frameworks, there is a need for accurate, cost-effective, and high-throughput tools that can be used to identify and trace illegally sourced timber products,” Ramakrishnan said.
The team brings together data scientists, analytical chemists, geospatial and remote sensing scientists, practitioners, international trade and supply chain specialists, and field experts who conduct reference sample expeditions to bring novel data science approaches to analyzing a range of geospatial and remotely sensed datasets.
Patrick Butler, senior research associate, and Brian Mayer, research associate at the Sanghani Center will be part of the Virginia Tech team.
Key foci of this project include machine learning methods for SIRA analytics; location determination from isotopic ratios; and active sampling strategies to close the loop. Foundational machine learning contributions in science-guided machine learning, contrastive and generative learning paradigms, and active sampling algorithms will support not only the specific domain of SIRA but other adjacent domains in environmental conservation, agricultural forecasting, and smart farm modeling.
“For example, what welearn from our research could be directly applicable to tracing many other illicitly-sourced products and product inputs, including forest risk commodities such as cocoa, soy, and beef,” said L. Monika Moskal, professor at the University of Washington.
The study will have broad and far-reaching impacts on American security and prosperity, as well.
“Many key U.S. adversaries rely on illegal logging to finance their activities,” said Jade Saunders, executive director at World Forest ID. “Detecting and curbing such activities will moderate sources of regional instability and threats to U.S. interests.”
The project will lead to improving geospatial prediction accuracy of product origin and will enable a cost-benefit analysis to minimize future data collection costs and optimize prediction gain. Finally, this project will also positively affect U.S. economic competitiveness by reducing competition with illicit actors and moderating risks to international trade, Ramakrishnan said.
Sue Ge, director of ICAT’s Center for Future Work Places and Practices, addresses faculty at the center’s spring networking event. Virginia Tech photo
As technology continues to revolutionize industries and alter the nature of everyday life, the future of work can seem unclear. Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) is bringing together a wide breadth of expertise to discuss this topic during the Human-Centered Future of Work Symposium.
Sponsored by the Department of Economics and the Kohl Center, AAEC, the symposium feature a policy roundtable discussion that aims to search for the common ground on the human-centered future of work.
