Cheng Li

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My research focuses on developing advanced numerical models and computational tools to enhance our understanding and prediction capabilities for both terrestrial and extraterrestrial climate systems. By leveraging the power of data science, I aim to unravel the complexities of atmospheric dynamics and climate processes on Earth, as well as on other planets such as Mars, Venus, and Jupiter.

My approach involves the integration of large-scale datasets, including satellite observations and ground-based measurements, with statistical methods and sophisticated machine learning algorithms including vision-based large models. This enables me to extract meaningful insights and improve the accuracy of climate models, which are crucial for weather forecasting, climate change projections, and planetary exploration.

Irina Gaynanova

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Dr. Gaynanova’s research focuses on the development of statistical methods for analysis of modern high-dimensional biomedical data. Her methodological interests are in data integration, machine learning and high-dimensional statistics, motivated by challenges arising in analyses of multi-omics data (e.g., RNASeq, metabolomics, micribiome) and data from wearable devices (continuous glucose monitors, ambulatory blood pressure monitors, activity trackers).Dr. Gaynanova’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, and recognized with a David P. Byar Young Investigator Award and an NSF CAREER Award. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for Journal of the American Statistical Association, Biometrika and Data Science in Science.

Qiong Yang

Qiong Yang

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My research program at the University of Michigan (UM) integrates the fields of biophysics, quantitative systems biology, and bottom-up synthetic biology to understand complex stochastic cellular and developmental processes in early embryos.
We have developed innovative computational and experimental techniques in microfluidics and imaging to allow high-throughput quantitative manipulation and single-cell lineage tracking of cellular spatiotemporal dynamical processes in various powerful in vitro and in vivo systems we established in my lab. These systems range from cell-free extracts, synthetic cells reconstituted in microemulsion droplets, presomitic mesoderm (PSM) and progenitor zone (PZ) cells dissociated from the zebrafish tail buds, their re-aggregated 2D and 3D cell-cell communications, ex vivo live tissue explants, and live embryos.
Our current research questions center around the understanding of the design-function relation of robust biological timing, growth, and patterning, how individual molecules and cells communicate to generate collective patterns, and how biochemical, biophysical, and biomechanical signals work together to shape morphogenesis during early embryo development.

Chuan Zhou

Chuan Zhou

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With a passion for developing decision support systems that integrate cutting edge techniques from artificial intelligence, quantitative image analysis, computer vision, and multimodal biomedical data fusion. Research interests have been focusing on characterizing diseases abnormalities and predicting their likelihood of being significant, with the goal to enable early diagnosis and risk stratification, as well as aiding treatment decision making and monitoring.

Bing Ye

Bing Ye

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The focus of our research is to address (1) how neuronal development contributes to the assembly and function of the nervous system, and (2) how defects in this process lead to brain disorders. We take a multidisciplinary approach that include genetics, cell biology, developmental biology, biochemistry, advanced imaging (for neuronal structures and activity), electrophysiology, computation (including machine learning and computer vision) and behavioral studies.

We are currently studying the neural basis for decision accuracy. We established imaging and computational methods for analyzing neural activities in the entire central nervous system (CNS) of the Drosophila larva. Moreover, we are exploring the possibility of applying the biological neural algorithms to robotics for testing these algorithms and for improving robot performance.

A major goal of neuroscience is to understand the neural basis for behavior, which requires accurate and efficient quantifications of behavior. To this end, we recently developed a software tool—named LabGym—for automatic identification and quantification of user-defined behavior through artificial intelligence. This tool is not restricted to a specific species or a set of behaviors. The updated version (LabGym2) can analyze social behavior and behavior in dynamic backgrounds. We are further developing LabGym and other computational tools for behavioral analyses in wild animals and in medicine.

The behavior that this chipmunk performed was identified and quantified by LabGym, an AI-based software tool that the Ye lab developed for quantifying user-defined behaviors.

The behavior that this chipmunk performed was identified and quantified by LabGym, an AI-based software tool that the Ye lab developed for quantifying user-defined behaviors.

What are some of your most interesting projects?

1) Develop AI-based software tools for analyzing the behavior of wild animals and human.
2) Use biology-inspired robotics to test biological neural algorithms.

How did you end up where you are today?

Since my teenage years, I have been curious about how brains (human’s and animals’) work, enjoyed playing with electronics, and learning about computational sciences. My curiosity and opportunities led me to become a neuroscientist. When I had my own research team and the resources to explore my other interests, I started to build simple electronic devices for my neuroscience research and to collaborate with computational scientists who are experts in machine learning and computer vision. My lab now combines these approaches in our neuroscience research.

What makes you excited about your data science and AI research?

I am very excited about the interactions between neuroscience and data science/AI research. This is a new area and has great potential of changing the society.

Liyue Shen

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My research interest is in Biomedical AI, which lies in the interdisciplinary areas of machine learning, computer vision, signal and image processing, medical image analysis, biomedical imaging, and data science. I am particularly interested in developing efficient and reliable AI/ML-driven computational methods for biomedical imaging and informatics to tackle real-world biomedicine and healthcare problems, including but not limited to, personalized cancer treatment, and precision medicine.

In the field of AI/ML, we focus on developing reliable, generalizable, data-efficient machine learning and deep learning algorithms by exploiting prior knowledge from the physical world, such as: Prior-integrated learning for data-efficient ML Uncertainty awareness for trustworthy ML. In the field of Biomedicine, we focus on developing efficient computational methods for biomedical imaging and biomedical data analysis to advance precision medicine and personalized treatment, such as: Multi-modal data analysis for decision making Clinical trial translation for real-world deployment.

In the field of AI/ML, we focus on developing reliable, generalizable, data-efficient machine learning and deep learning algorithms by exploiting prior knowledge from the physical world, such as: Prior-integrated learning for data-efficient ML Uncertainty awareness for trustworthy ML. In the field of Biomedicine, we focus on developing efficient computational methods for biomedical imaging and biomedical data analysis to advance precision medicine and personalized treatment, such as: Multi-modal data analysis for decision making Clinical trial translation for real-world deployment.

What are some of your most interesting projects?

Our goal is to develop efficient and reliable AI/ML-driven computational methods for biomedical imaging and informatics to tackle real-world biomedicine and healthcare problems. We hope the technology advancement in AI and ML can help us to better understand human health in different levels. Specifically, we develop Biomedical AI in different parts, including:
– AI in Biomedical Imaging: develop novel machine learning algorithms to advance biomedical imaging techniques for obtaining computational images with improved quality. Specifically, relevant topics include but not limited to: Implicit neural representation learning; Diffusion model / Score-based generative model; Physics-aware / Geometry-informed deep learning.
– AI in Biomedical Image Processing and Bioinformatics: develop robust and efficient machine learning algorithms to extract useful information from multimodal biomedical data for assisting decision making and precision medicine. Specifically, relevant topics include but not limited to: Multimodal representation learning; Robust learning with missing data / noisy labeling; Data-efficient learning such as self- / un- / semi-supervised learning with limited data / labels.

How did you end up where you are today?

I am an assistant professor in the ECE Division of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department of the College of Engineering, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. Before this, I received my Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University. I obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2016. I is the recipient of Stanford Bio-X Bowes Graduate Student Fellowship (2019-2022), and was selected as the Rising Star in EECS by MIT and the Rising Star in Data Science by The University of Chicago in 2021.

jianghui

Hui Jiang

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My research focuses on statistical genomics and computational statistics. I am interested in developing statistical and computational methods for the analysis of large-scale biological datasets generated by modern high-throughput technologies such as next-generation sequencing. I implemented many of the methods that I developed as software tools and packages to be used by the research community. I am also interested in developing efficient algorithms and methods that deal with computational problems arising from statistics genomics. I have worked on and am working on problems including efficient algorithms for resampling-based hypothesis testing, penalized modeling and optimization algorithms for model fitting, as well as computational methods for density estimation and machine learning.

Nishil Talati

Nishil Talati

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I am a research faculty at the Computer Science and Engineering department at University of Michigan. I work with a group of talented PhD students on computer architecture, compiler techniques, and software engineering. My group focuses on developing novel software and hardware solutions to optimize large-scale data intensive worklods (e.g., graph traversals).

I earned my PhD degree in CSE from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, master’s degree in EE from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, and an undergraduate degree in EEE from BITS Pilani, Goa Campus, Goa, India.

Aditi Verma

Aditi Verma

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I am interested in how nuclear technologies specifically and complex technologies broadly—and their institutional infrastructures—can be designed in more creative, and participatory ways that are epistemically inclusive of both lay and expert perspectives. To this end, my work focuses on developing a more fundamental understanding of the early stages of the design process to improve design practice and pedagogy, and also improve the tools with which designers of complex systems work. I am particularly interested in developing novel approaches for gathering both qualitative and quantitative data generated throughout the design processes of complex systems and using this data to improve design outcomes. In my work, I focus on three main research questions:

  1. How can a fundamental understanding of design be used to improve design practice, design tools, and engineering pedagogy?
  2. How can design processes be made more open and participatory such that epistemic plurality and inclusivity are achieved as part of the design process?
  3. How can insights from design research be applied to the designs of policies and institutions for the governance — both innovation and regulation — of nuclear technologies?

The picture depicts the Sociotechnical Readiness Level which is a framework which critiques and reimagines the traditional Technology Readiness Level Framework. As part of the new SRL framework, we are developing new metrics and indicators to measure both social and technical aspects of a technology's readiness throughout its design and development processImage: The Sociotechnical Readiness Level, which is a framework which critiques and reimagines the traditional Technology Readiness Level Framework. As part of the new SRL framework, we are developing new metrics and indicators to measure both social and technical aspects of a technology’s readiness throughout its design and development process.

What are some of your most interesting projects?

Two new projects I am most excited about are (1) developing a sociotechnical readiness level framework for the assessment of novel technologies and (2) diagnosing the causes of cost overruns in the early stages of technology design.
In the first project, we are critiquing and reimagining the traditional Technology Readiness Level framework to capture both societal and engineering aspects of a technology’s readiness and integrate them into a single framework. As part of this work, we will develop metrics and indicators for assessing a technology’s readiness across the nine levels of sociotechnical readiness.
In the second project, we are studying how decisions made in the early stages of design impact overall system cost. This work is especially crucial in a nuclear energy context because recent nuclear plant construction projects have been severely impacted by cost overruns as well as project delays. It is vitally important to diagnose the causes of these cost overruns and address them in the early stages of the design if nuclear reactors are to play a significant role in our low-carbon energy systems.

How did you end up where you are today?

I was drawn to the field of nuclear engineering because of the enormous potential nuclear technologies have for solving one of the grandest challenges of our time: access to reliable, clean, and abundant energy.

What is the most significant scientific contribution you would like to make?

I hope to develop a deeper and more fundamental understanding of the design processes of complex systems that leads to more creative, robust, societally, and environmentally beneficial design outcomes.

What makes you excited about your data science and AI research?

There is an enormous opportunity to use data science and AI to study the early stages of the design processes of complex systems and develop new tools to stimulate a broader exploration of the design space and to ensure better design outcomes.

What are 1-3 interesting facts about yourself?

I love learning new languages. Depending on how you count, I speak (with varying levels of ability) six (or seven).

Minji Kim

Minji Kim

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Communication mechanisms exist inside our cells to regulate gene expression and function. In cells, communication between a gene and sequences that regulate the gene occurs through physical contact. These physical contacts between regulatory element enhancers and the gene promoters may activate gene expression. Our goal is to understand how this communication occurs within the nucleus. In particular, we leverage 3D genome mapping technologies to capture the dynamic chromatin interactions and study gene regulation in the context of developmental biology. Algorithms on graphs allow us to interpret these data generated from high-throughput sequencing assays.

How did you end up where you are today?

I studied electrical engineering, hoping to advance the field of information and coding theory. Instead, I aim to understand the communication mechanisms governing gene transcription.

What makes you excited about your data science and AI research?

Interpreting biological data is often a creative process. I enjoy browsing through the data, connecting pieces, and finding patterns.