The world-renowned faculty at Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering welcomes 17 new members for the 2022-23 school year.
The new faculty consists of a full professor, two associate professors, a visiting associate professor and seven assistant professors, plus two senior lecturers and four lecturers in intelligent systems engineering, informatics and computer science.
“The faculty at the Luddy School are renowned for their expertise and innovation,” said Joanna Mullinchick, dean of the Luddy School, “and this brilliant group of colleagues who have joined our faculty will provide critical new perspectives. Together, they will work every day to shape tomorrow through their teaching, research, and mentorship.”
More information about the individual faculty members follows.
Jisun An, Assistant Professor in Informatics
An will join IU in January of 2023. She comes from Singapore Management University’s School of Computing and Information Systems. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, UK. She developed AI and Natural Language Processing methods to understand, predict and nudge online human behavior, and to tackle various social problems, from media bias and framing, polarization, online hate to healthy lifestyle and urban changes.
Nazim Ashraf, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science
Ashraf has master’s and doctor degrees in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida. He previously was an associate professor at Forman Christian College in Pakistan. His research focus is on artificial intelligence and machine learning, and visualization. He is the founder and developer of “Personal Training Coach,” a workout application available on the Android and iOS platforms.
Hamidreza Bahramian, Lecturer in Computer Science
Bahramiam has a Ph.D in Computer Science from IU. He spent the last three years as a lecturer, research analyst and senior software engineer at the University of Arizona. He previously was an associate instructor at IU teaching applied algorithms, theory of computing, fundamentals of computer theory and object-oriented software development. He also has been a senior system analyst, a senior software developer in Great Britain and a system architect in Iran.
Shunying Blevis, Lecturer in Informatics
Blevis has a Ph.D. in in Informatics Entrepreneurship from Indiana University. Her concentration is in Human Computer Interaction Design, with a minor in Entrepreneurship. She has taught interaction design thinking, Design Strategy and Creativity, Innovation & TechA.
Heeyoul (Henry) Choi, Visiting Associate Professor in Intelligent Systems Engineering
Choi got his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in Computer Science. He is also an associate professor at Handong Global University in South Korea. He was a visiting researcher at the University of Montreal, and worked at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology for five years. He also did research in psychology and brain sciences at Indiana University. His research interests cover machine learning, artificial intelligence and cognitive science.
Jenny El-Shamy, Senior Lecturer in Informatics
El-Shamy has more than 20 years’ experience as a graphic designer and design educator. She has her own design studio (Jenny El-Shamy Design, LLC). She taught at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design from 2002-2021. She is working on a variety of design projects, including signage and wayfinding for the new southwest branch of the Monroe County Public Library set to open in the fall of 2023.
Gabriele Guidi, Professor in Informatics
Guidi has a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Bologna (Italy). He is the co-director of the Virtual World Heritage Lab at Indiana University. He comes to Luddy from Politecnico di Milano where he was a tenured associate professor. He is currently conducting research on ultrasound equipment for mechanical engineering and has taught courses in computer vision, 3D rendering, and technology for cultural heritage. He is a leader in the field of virtual heritage, and his team in Milan generated more than 500 3D models in just 30 months.
Mohsen Heidari, Assistant Professor in Computer Science
Heidari received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (2019) from the University of Michigan. His research interests lie in theoretical machine learning, quantum computing and algorithms, and classical and quantum information theory. His recent work centers on adapting analytical tools for developing and analyzing learning methods in classical and quantum frameworks.
Elizabeth Kaziunas, Assistant Professor in Informatics
Kaziunas received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan's School of Information and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at AI Now/NYU, which is dedicated to investing social impacts of artificial intelligence. Her research contributes to the fields of Human Computer Interaction, computer-supported work and health informatics.
Haewoon Kwak, Associate Professor in Informatics
Kwak will join IU in January of 2023. Kwak comes to Luddy from Singapore Management University’s School of Computing and Information Systems. He completed a Ph.D. in Computer Science at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology). His research lies at the intersection of network science, machine learning and computational social science across diverse domains such as news media, online games and social media.
Rongqian Ma, Assistant Professor in Information and Library Science
Rongqian received her Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022. Her research integrates digital humanities, digital curation, information visualization, and science and technology studies. She examines visual representations and visual technologies in humanities research (poetry) and digital archives.
Allan Martell, Assistant Professor in Information and Library Science
Martell received his Ph.D. in Information from the School of Information at the University of Michigan. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Louisiana State University before coming to IU. His research explores how societies negotiate social memories of violence, the role of information curation in shaping such memories, and possible frameworks to promote more critical, nuanced memories. It centers on the armed violence in 1980s’ El Salvador.
Jeremy Musser, Lecturer in Intelligent Systems Engineering
He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Indiana University. His background is computer networks, distributed systems and programming languages. His research focuses on network orchestration techniques (setting up devices, services and applications) through network graph analysis and novel programming language support. He hopes to inspire students for complex systems engineering and computer science.
Olgun Sadik, Lecturer in Intelligent Systems Engineering
Sadik has a Ph.D. in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University. He previously was an assistant professor in the School of Education at Middle East Technical University in Turkey. Research interests includes computer science education and technology-enhanced learning environments.
Dingwen Tao, Associate Professor in Intelligent Systems Engineering
Tao comes to IU from Washington State University and the University of Alabama. At Luddy, he leads the High-Performance Data Analytics and Computing Lab research group. He has won multiple awards, including R&D100 Awards Winner (2021), IEEE Computer Society TCHPC Early Career Researchers Award for Excellence in High Performance Computing (2020), and NSF CISE Research Initiation Initiative (CRII) Award (2020).
Samantha Wood, Assistant Professor in Informatics
Wood received her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in Psychology, with a focus on Brain and Cognitive Science. She focuses on understanding the origins of perception and cognition, using tools from artificial intelligence, virtual reality (VR), developmental psychology, and vision science. She uses VR-based controlled rearing to raise newborn animals in strictly controlled virtual worlds. Her goal is to use these “benchmarks” from newborn animals to develop artificial agents that have the same cognitive structures and learning methods as newborn brains.
Hannah Zeavin, Assistant Professor in Informatics
Zeavin received her Ph.D. from the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University in 2018. She is a scholar, writer, and editor focused on the history of human sciences (psychoanalysis, psychology, and psychiatry) and technology; feminist STS (Science Technology and Society), and media theory. Her first book, The Distance Cure: A History of Teletherapy is out from MIT Press. She’s working on a second book, Mother’s Little Helpers: Technology in the American Family (MIT Press).
Established in 2000, the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering is one of the broadest of its kind in the world. Blending the fields of computer science, informatics, intelligent systems engineering, information and library science, and data science, the Luddy School is home to more than 3,000 students from the United States and around the globe. The forward-looking School’s faculty are world-renowned experts in their respective fields, and computer and information sciences research expenditures rank among the best in the country.