Leadership
Damon Woodard
![Damon Woodard](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/04/Woodard_New.png)
Director, Professor - Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) Department
Research Interests:
Applied Machine Learning; Artificial Intelligence; Biometrics; Computer Vision; Natural Language Processing.
Domenic Forte
![Domenic Forte](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/09/DomenicForte.jpg)
Associate Director, Steven A. Yatauro Faculty Fellow, Professor - ECE
Research Interests:
Traditional & AI-Enabled CAD/EDA Tools for Hardware Security; Microelectronics Supply Chain Security & Assurance: Semiconductor IP Protection; Counterfeit Electronics Detection & Avoidance; Hardware Trojan Detection & Prevention; Reverse Engineering & Anti-Reverse Engineering; Hardware Security Benchmarking; Countermeasures Against Physical Attacks; Hardware Security Primitives; Biometrics.
Members
Warren Dixon
![Warren Dixon](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/02/download-2.jpeg)
Dean’s Leadership Professor and Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department
Research Interests:
Artificial Intelligence; Sustained Deep Learning; Reinforcement Learning; Concurrent Learning; Assured Autonomy; Nonlinear and Adaptive Control; Robotics.
Sid Dobrin
![Sid Dobrin](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2022/09/sid-dobrin-scaled-e1665652519657.jpg)
Director of Trace Innovation Initiative, Professor and Chair of English (Eng) Department
Research Interests:
Protein security (from a national security perspective); Artificial Intelligence and the Humanities; Relationships between writing and emerging technologies–such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) Applications, and Contemporary Digital & Visual/Screen Culture.
Named Digital Thought Leader by Adobe.
Bonnie J. Dorr
![Bonnie J. Dorr](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2022/08/BonnieDorr_02-26-2021_web.png)
Professor & Director of Natural Language Processing Research Laboratory - Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Department
Research Interests:
Artificial Intelligence; Natural Language Processing; CyberNLP (at the cross-section of cyber security and natural language processing); Multilingual Processing; Social Computing; Human-Centered Computing.
Natalie Ebner
![Natalie Ebner](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2022/09/natalie-1-1024x1024-1-e1665653070546.jpg)
Professor & Director of The Social-Cognitive & Affective Development (Ebner) Lab - Psychology (Psych) Department
Research Interests:
Usable Security; Social Engineering; Phishing Attacks; Cuing developers about security blind spots in APIs; Aging and the Human Brain.
James Fairbanks
![James Fairbanks](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2022/08/james-fairbanks-e1665653622384.png)
Assistant Professor & Director of GATAS Laboratory - CISE
Research Interests:
Applied Category Theory; Concurrency, Database; Data Science & Informatics; Graph Algorithms & Analytics; Numerical Methods; Parallelism & High-Performance Computing; Programming Languages; Scientific Computing & Data Science; Mathematical Modeling; and Combinatorial Algorithms.
Jie Fu
![Jie Fu](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2022/09/Jie-Fu-small-768x889-1-259x300-1-e1665653786379.png)
Assistant Professor - ECE
Research Interests:
Machine Learning; Intelligent & Semi-intelligent Autonomous Systems; Integration of Control Theory; Cyber-Security, Cyber-physical Systems; Game-theoretic Design of Provably Correct Autonomous Systems.
Daniel A. Hahn
![Daniel A. Hahn](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-10-172452.png)
Professor & Associate Department Chair for Evolutionary Physiology - Entomology & Nematology (EntNem) Department
Ecological and Evolutionary Psychology; Rapid Adaptation; Phenotypic Plasticity; Seasonal Biology of Insects; Pest Control.
Kyle Cameron Hartig
![Kyle Cameron Hartig](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2022/12/hartig.jpg)
Assistant Professor - Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) Department
Research Interests:
Remote Sensing; Radiation Hard Electronics; Machine Learning; Nuclear Nonproliferation/Counterproliferation; Nuclear Security; Nuclear Policy.
Amanda Hodges
![Amanda Hodges](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/10/2023_Hodges_Amanda-e1696538848375.jpg)
Professor & Lab Director for the Biosecurity Research & Extension (BRE) Lab and the Doctor of Plant Medicine (DPM) Program - EntNem
Research Interests:
Biosecurity; Invasive Species; Integrated Plant Medicine; Entomology; Nematology.
Jim Hoover
![Jim Hoover](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/11/Jim-Hoover.png)
Clinical Professor, Director of Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Center - Marketing (MKTG) Department
Research Interests:
Forecasting; Implementations of AI with Business Applications; Methods for teaching AI and Machine Learning; and Privacy related to AI, Machine Learning and Big Data
William Inboden
![William Inboden](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/11/imboden-profile.png)
Professor & Director of Hamilton Center
Research Interests:
History and processes of the National Security Council system; American presidency; the Cold War; history and statecraft; and religion and international affairs.
Christopher McCarty
![Christopher McCarty](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/06/chris_mccarty_headshot.jpeg)
Associate Dean at College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS), Director of UF Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR), Lead for BEBR's Social Network Analysis (SNA) Group's partnership with UF Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) Collaboration - Anthro
Research Interests:
AI and Cognitive Science; Social Network Analysis; Personal Network Analysis; Collaboration Networks; Acculturation; Disasters; Survey Research.
Connie Mulligan
![Connie Mulligan](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/01/Connie_Mulligan_0067_UFRF2_May2013-199x300-1.jpg)
Professor and Director of the Human Genetics in Anthropology Lab - Anthro
Research Interests:
Human Genetics; Population History; Epigenetics; Microbiome Variation; Complex Phenotypes; Biocultural Investigation & Perspectives; Impact of Psychological Stress; Risk & Resilience; Origin and Spread of Human Disease and Human Pathogens; Human Evolution & Adaptation.
Duncan Purves
![Duncan Purves](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/06/Exchange_DuncanPurves_Profile-scaled.jpg)
Associate Professor, UF Research Foundation - Philosophy (Phil) Department
Research Interests:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Predictive Policing; Ethics of AI; Ethics of Autonomous Weapons Systems.
Erik Sander
![Erik Sander](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/06/Sander.jpg)
Michael Durham Executive Director of the University of Florida Engineering Innovation Institute
Areas of Expertise:
Aerospace Engineering; Defense; Mechanical Engineering; Nanobiotechnology; Business Development and Entrepreneurship; Technology Development; Engineering Ethics and Communication.
Sonja Schmer-Galunder
![Sonja Schmer-Galunder](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/11/Sonja.png)
Professor of Practice, Glenn and Deborah Renwick Leadership Professor in AI and Ethics - CISE
Research Interests:
Social Science, Value Alignment, AI Ethics, Responsible AI, Collective Intelligence, ML Bias, NLP and LLMs, Cultural Modeling, Prosocial Discourse and Moderation, Human-AI Teaming and Team Performance in extreme environments
David S. Siroky
![David S. Siroky](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-10-162405.png)
Professor and Director of the Violence, Conflict and Security Lab - Political Science (Poli Sci) Department
Research Interests:
International Relations; Big Data and Machine Learning;
Separatist and Irredentist Nationalism; Insurgency and Counterinsurgency; Eastern Europe and Eurasia Political Relations
Ben Smith
![Ben Smith](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/10/Smith.png)
Professor, Interim Director of the Center for Global Islamic Studies - Poli Sci
Research Interests:
Research Methods for Qualitative & Quantitative Causal Inference; Politics of Resource Wealth; Ethnic Politics of Nationalist Mobilization and Ethnic Violence; Regime Change and Regime Transitions
Daisy Zhe Wang
![Daisy Zhe Wang](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2022/09/daisy-wang.png)
Associate Professor, Arnold and Lisa Goldberg Rising Star Professor, Director of Data Science Research Lab (DSR) - CISE
Research Interests:
Machine Learning; Database, Data Science and Informatics; Probabilistic Databases; Probabilistic Knowledge Bases; Large-scale Inference Engines; Query-driven Interactive Machine Learning; Crowd Assisted Machine Learning.
Yu Wang
![Yu Wang](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/03/yu-wang.jpeg)
Assistant Professor, Director of Smart Autonomy Lab - MAE
Research Interests:
Autonomy; Cyber-physical Systems; Security & Privacy; Machine Learning; Formal Methods.
Gregory Webster
![Gregory Webster](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2022/10/webster-e1665656656752.jpg)
R. David Thomas Endowed Professor of Psychology, Director of Web Lab - Psych
Research Interests:
Personality Measurement and Judgment; Multilevel Modelling; Social, Romantic, and Sexual Relationships; Meta-Analysis; Social Network Analysis; Judgments about Rare Events (e.g., Hurricanes).
Joe Wilson
![Joe Wilson](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2022/09/wilson-1-1.jpg)
Associate Professor, Graduate Program Director - CISE
Research Interests:
Information Security; Machine Learning; Programming Languages; Cybersecurity; Design of Malware-ready Programs; Detection and remediation of land mines and other unexploded buried hazards.
Ronald Wilson
![Ronald Wilson](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/09/RonaldWilson-scaled.jpg)
Research Assistant Professor - ECE
Research Interests:
Hardware Assurance on ICs; Stylometry and Psycholinguistics for Identity Sciences; Machine Learning; Computer Vision; Natural Language Processing.
Xiang (Jacob) Yan
![Xiang (Jacob) Yan](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/01/Yan.jpg)
Professor & Director of the Just Green Transportation Lab - Civil & Coastal Engineering Department, Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment (ESSIE)
Research Interests:
Using data science and artificial intelligence (Machine Learning) to make transportation more equitable and sustainable; Bridging transportation engineering; Data Science & Urban Planning; Machine Learning & AI; Spatial Big Data; Public Transport & Shared Mobility; Travel Behavior; Transport Equality; Spatial Accessibility; Transportation & Community Resilience.
Alina Zare
![Alina Zare](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2023/02/Zare_Horiz_Crop3-300x300-1.jpeg)
Professor, Associate Dean for Research and Facilities and Director of the Machine Learning and Sensing Lab - ECE
Research Interests:
Machine Learning; Pattern Recognition; Remote Sensing; Artificial Intelligence; Image Processing.
Post-docs
Didem Pehlivanoglu
![Didem Pehlivanoglu](https://www.eng.ufl.edu/fins/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2022/11/didem.jpg)
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Research Interests:
Cognitive Aging; Affective Neuroscience; Judgment and Decision Making; Deception; Misinformation; Neural Network Modeling.
Serves as an investigator on a project focusing on application of a neural network modeling approach on the ability to detect deceptive messages (e.g., fake news).