Piyusha Modhave

Piyusha is a master’s candidate in Data Science & Analytics with a focus on Journalism & Strategic Communication, she possesses a strong background in strategic business management and a keen interest in analytics sparked during her tenure in wealth management. Her professional expertise spans wealth management, mergers and acquisitions, brand strategy, strategic management, and communications. Her experience in finance and strategy, acquired over three years in pivotal roles, includes leading comprehensive financial analytics and strategic planning initiatives that significantly boosted product visibility and profitability. She has a proven track record of managing assets for high-net-worth individuals and offering strategic investment…

Timoteo Kelly

Timoteo Kelly is a National Science Foundation CyberCorps Scholar currently affiliated with the Mizzou Scalable Data Science Lab, where he has been contributing to research in data security and the Internet of Medical Things. Prior to this, he conducted research in mobile health and data science at Nova Southeastern University’s Department of Decision Sciences where he obtained a master’s degree in health informatics. Timoteo is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Informatics with an emphasis in the Internet of Medical Things and data security at the University of Missouri-Columbia. 

Deshan Wattegama

Deshan Wattegama is a Ph.D. student in the IDAS lab following a health informatics Ph.D. program. He worked as a senior software engineer for over 4 years and has domain knowledge in supply chain management, stock brokering, etc. He is interested in the usage of blockchain and AI in healthcare systems and using VR, and AR technologies to improve the quality of healthcare systems.

Farzaneh Esmaili

Farzaneh is currently pursuing her PhD in Bioinformatics at the University of Missouri, building on her previous master’s degree in Software and IT Engineering from Iran. Known for her vibrant energy and passion for coding, her famous phrase “I’m coding and doing awesome” encapsulates her lifelong dedication to technology and innovation. Beyond academia, she finds joy in outdoor activities and dance, embodying an active lifestyle. Her passion lies at the intersection of AI and its applications in bioinformatics. With a solid foundation in natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision, she is driven by the conviction that AI can significantly…

Sonia Akter

Sonia is currently pursuing her doctoral research in Health Informatics. Her research interests focus on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), large language models (LLM), and analyzing various types of healthcare-related data, including electronic health records (EHR), cognitive data, and sensor data, to predict clinical outcomes. Sonia earned her BS in Forestry from the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences at Chittagong University (CU) in Bangladesh. She then received a European Union (Erasmus Mundus) Scholarship to pursue her MS in European Forestry, which provided her the unique opportunity to immerse herself in diverse academic environments across several…

Chi-Ren Shyu

Chi-Ren Shyu (he/him/his) is a Paul K. and Dianne Shumaker Professor in electrical engineering and computer science and serves as the director of the MU Institute for Data Science and Informatics, where 60 interdisciplinary core faculty from 22 departments/schools support more than 160 graduate students in the MS degree program in Data Science & Analytics and PhD degree program in Informatics with emphasis areas in bioinformatics, health informatics and geospatial informatics. Shyu has organized and chaired technical program committees for several IEEE conferences, such as IEEE HealthCom 2011 (Columbia, Missouri), IEEE BigMM 2016 (Taipei, Taiwan), IEEE BIBM 2017 (Kansas City,…