Applied AI Lab Team
Hardik Gohel (Director)
Dr. Gohel has extensive research experience in artificial intelligence and his research projects have involved cyber test automation and monitoring, smart bandages for wound monitoring, bigdata for security intelligence, trustworthy cyberspace for security and privacy of social media, predictive maintenance for nuclear infrastructure, and database and mobile forensics infrastructure. Dr. Gohel is also working on how to prepare quality diversified workforce with artificial intelligence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
His independent research program is inspired from his graduate and postdoc studies. He is interested to design and develop robust artificial intelligence and cybersecurity solutions to make human life better. Dr. Gohel is actively working with United States Federal funding agencies and national labs for research collaborations. He is also interested in linkages, and MOUs with government, academia and industry to foster individual and institutional partnerships in a natural and sustainable manner.
Dr. Gohel welcomes motivated undergraduate and graduate students to join his research team and contact him.
Aobo Jin, Ph.D. (Associate Director)
Dr. Aobo Jin is an assistant professor of computer science at University of Houston at Victoria. He received the BS degree in electrical engineering from Dalian University of Technology in 2011, and the Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston in 2016. He is received PhD in Department of Computer Science, University of Houston. He is reviewer of top journals and proceedings and published 4 papers in leading journals and proceedings.
Research Staff
Jeyaraja Rathinaraja, Ph.D. (Post-Doctoral Fellow)
Rathinaraja Jeyaraj is passionate about unboxing, manipulating, and applying machine and deep learning algorithms to solve problems in cloud-IoT, CV, NLP, and interdisciplinary research domains. Some of the projects he has worked on include music generation from gestures, pattern sparsity handling in sequential models, and defect detection in manufacturing systems. Currently, he is working on GAN, diffusion modelling, and sequential models to solve climate change problems.
He has experience in distributed systems (Hadoop, Spark), NoSQL databases, machine learning (TensorFlow, PyTorch), and optimization methods (ACO, PSO, GA). He has published in reputed journals (ACM Computing Surveys, IEEE Access) and written a book on Hadoop MapReduce. In addition to being an Associate Editor of IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Magazine, he is also a reviewer for several journals and conferences of great repute. The goal of his interdisciplinary research is to merge research domains for the development of innovative solutions that will result in a smarter, more interconnected world.
Maulin Raval (Research & Dev. Architect)
Maulin Raval is an accomplished solutions architect with a strong background in data sciences, cloud and edge computing, full-stack development, and AI/ML technologies. He is leading the way in the deployment of end-to-end AI and always pushing the envelope of what is feasible. Maulin, who works as a Research & Development Architect at The University of Houston - Victoria, has advanced artificial intelligence significantly. Among his efforts is the creation of complex cloud-based apps using AI-based image processing and deep learning methods. Additionally, he has played a key role in automating and streamlining workflows for a variety of departmental applications, raising the bar for effectiveness and output.
He graduated from The University of Houston with a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and is skilled with a variety of tools and technologies, such as TensorFlow, Python, MS Azure, and Amazon Web Services. His expertise includes using artificial intelligence to create end-to-end solutions, workflow automation, OpenAI APIs, and large language models to create self-programming applications. A thought leader in his field, he has also authored two books on data analytics and artificial intelligence and also holds a patent. His impact is not confined to technical contributions; he has also demonstrated outstanding mentorship and leadership skills, training engineers and guiding technical teams in the deployment of cloud-based solutions.
Graduate & Undergraduate Research Assistants
Aradhana Sharma
Aradhana Sharma is a graduate student at the University of Houston-Victoria's College of Natural and Applied Science, where she is pursuing a master's degree in computer information systems with a focus on data science and analytics and their implementation in industrial applications. She is an experienced software engineer with her bachelor's degree in computer science (honors) from Delhi University, India, and has 2 years of professional experience in the industry as a developer and 2.5 years of experience as an educator. She is a versatile engineer with extensive technical expertise and training in programming and proficiency in all phases of computer hardware and software lifecycles. She is currently applying cutting-edge advanced data analytics techniques along with machine learning, deep learning, and artificial intelligence in her research at the University of Houston-Victoria's Applied Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory under the advisement of Dr. Hardik Gohel and Dr. Aobo Jin. Aradhana is an avid learner, seasoned programmer, and data enthusiast, motivated to become a data scientist.
Louis Lasseter
My name is Louis Lasseter, I am a member of the Applied AI research group at University of Houston-Victoria. My role is a research assistant investigating and working with AI models for the purposes of data forecasting. I also work on rendering figures for project presentations and papers for the research group. This group is full of good people, whom I respect. The team pushes me to learn new things and get out of my comfort zone. I say this as my major is in Digital Game Design, which is luckily enough something that I consider a hobby as well as a future profession.
Yogesh Karnam
Yogesh Karnam brings with him a deep-rooted experience in medical imaging data. Since joining the Applied AI Lab at UHV, his focus has transitioned to climate change analysis, utilizing the capabilities of deep learning and artificial intelligence. Yogesh dedication to research and development showcases his adaptability and commitment to addressing pressing global issues.
Aobo Zhou
Aobo Zhou is an undergraduate student at the University of Houston-Victorians College of Natural and Applied Science. Aobo has 3 years of experience in IT technology support and recently transferred to machine learning and deep learning of AI model training. Research Laboratory under the advisement of Dr. Jin and Dr. Gohel.
In June of 2023, he joined the Applied AI DoE Research Team to assist in researching with Dr. Gohel and Dr. Jin. Under their wing, he has been learning how to program AI models and applying programming skills to practical situations to assist them in their research.