Emory University

Research Group on Data Driven Innovations for Human-Technology Symbiosis


Dr. Nirmalya Thakur

Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Computer Science, Emory University, USA

Dr. Thakur received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, USA. Prior to his Ph.D., he also received his Master of Science in Computer Science degree from the University of Cincinnati, USA. He has a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from KIIT University, India. Before joining Emory University, he was working as a Dean's Fellow at the University of Cincinnati, USA. His research interests include Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Human-Computer Interaction, Pattern Recognition, and Natural Language Processing. He has co-authored 42 peer-reviewed publications (12 journal papers, 27 conference papers, and 2 invited book chapters) in these fields. He has delivered 28 presentations as an invited speaker/presenter at international conferences and universities in 9 countries: the United States, Canada, China, France, Denmark, Nepal, Malaysia, Switzerland, and Indonesia. He has been interviewed by IEEE TV, featured on the cover page of the Millennium Magazine, and received several nationally and internationally recognized awards such as the Young Scientist of the Year Award, the Young Innovator of the Year Award, and the Excellent Researcher of the Year Award. His research works have been featured on Business Insider, Yahoo News, and on different newspapers. To learn more about his work, please visit his website at https://nirmalyathakur.com/

Email: nirmalya.thakur@emory.edu

Office Address: W302-J, Math and Science Center, Department of Computer Science, Emory University


Isabella Hall

Isabella Hall is currently in her third year pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Cincinnati on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. She has been working with Dr. Thakur on research projects since 2021 and has co-authored 3 conference papers. She is interested in the areas of Cyber Security, Cryptography, AI, and Human-Computer Interaction. She has done her last two internships at Siemens Digital Industry as a Software Developer and an Engineering Consultant.

Email: hallib@mail.uc.edu


Karam Khanna

Karam Khanna is currently pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Applied Mathematics at Emory University. He has over two years of experience as an engineering intern. In his previous role, Karam worked as a "resident hacker," tackling native-run OCR models that train on data received from different applications (using CoreML on apple and Win32 API on Windows), dockerizing servers, running them in GCS, and building cross-platform compression between Mac/Windows. In DDIHTS, he is working on a research project at the intersections of Big Data, Data Mining, and Machine Learning.

Email: karam.khanna@emory.edu


Hazel Cho

In the last few years at Emory, Hazel was involved in Language Acquisition Lab, Korean Liquid study, NLP chatbot research, and now in the DDIHTS team. She has experience in data analysis, language acquisition research, and technologies, including Praat, Java, Python, and ClanC. She is also working as a Teaching Assistant for CS 224 this semester. In DDIHTS, she is working on a research project at the intersections of Data Mining, Data Analysis, and Natural Language Processing.

Email: hazel.cho@emory.edu


Haokun Cheng

Haokun Cheng is a junior at Emory University, majoring in Quantitative Science Informatics track. His research interests include Data Analysis and Data Mining. In DDIHTS, he is working on a research project at the intersections of Data Mining, Data Analysis, and Natural Language Processing.

Email: haokun.cheng@emory.edu


Nazif Azizi

Nazif is currently pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science at Emory University. In DDIHTS, he is working on a research project at the intersections of Big Data, Data Mining, and Machine Learning.

Email: mohammad.nazif.azizi@emory.edu


Shuqi Cui (Nicole)

Nicole has worked on projects that involved performing sentiment analysis using the Twitter developer API. She is also working on creating a chatbot named StyAIist that can generate discussion regarding fashion with its users. In DDIHTS, she is working on a research project at the intersections of Big Data, Data Mining, and Machine Learning.

Email: nicole.cui@emory.edu


Zihui (Chloe) Liu

Chloe is currently pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science at Emory University. Her areas of interest include Data Management, Data analysis, and Data Visualization. She is also an active member of Emory Pawsitive Outreach and enjoys volunteering at animal shelters regularly. In DDIHTS, she is working on a research project at the intersections of Big Data, Data Mining, and Machine Learning.

Email: chloe.liu2@emory.edu



Austin Wheeler (August 2022 - April 2023)

B.S. in Computer Science and B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology, Emory University


Oanh Nguyen (August 2022 - April 2023)

B.S. in Computer Science and B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology, Emory University


Hyunji Lee (January 2023 - April 2023)

B.A. in Economics and Computer Science, Emory University


Saumick Pradan (August 2021 - April 2022)

B.S. in Computer Science, University of Cincinnati

Achievements: co-authored one conference paper (published in the proceedings of the IHIET-AI 2022 conference) and received the Research Fellowship from the University of Cincinnati


Cat Luong (August 2021 - December 2021)

B.S. in Computer Science, University of Cincinnati

Achievement: co-authored one conference paper (published in the proceedings of the IHIET-AI 2022 conference)


Dhruv Pandey (January 2022 - April 2022)

B.S. in Computer Science, University of Cincinnati


Thavishka Gamage (January 2022 - April 2022)

B.S. in Computer Science, University of Cincinnati


Huy Le Phong (August 2021 - December 2021)

B.S. in Computer Science, University of Cincinnati


Please note: A few members of the alumni of the Research Group are the students Dr. Thakur had advised during his affiliation with the University of Cincinnati from August 2017 to April 2022.


Dr. Chia Y. Han

University of Cincinnati

Dr. Chia Y. Han is an Emeritus Associate Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Cincinnati. He has a B.S. and a M.S. degree in Electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering. He has taught courses in electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science for over thirty-five years. His current research interests include human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, computer vision, smart building and smart homes.