NRT PhD Trainees—2023-2024
Cohort starting in 2023-2024
Adma Gama‐Krummel
Adma is a doctoral student at the Warner School of Education.
Research interest: Adma is fascinated with the interplay between philosophy, education, and technology, especially the potential of AR/VR in education. She has a background in philosophy and education which gives her a unique perspective on how technology influences learning. Adma has done various projects related to AR/VR technologies which has amplified her interest in the ethical implications of AI in education, particularly the development of "technoselves", which is the concept of human identity in a technological society. Adma wants to explore students' virtual identities using VR for learning.
Email: agamakru@u.rochester.edu
LinkedIn: Adma Gama-Krummel Info
Ekram Hossain
Ekram is a PhD in Computer Science.
Research interest: His passion lies in creating diverse assistive interventions and feedback systems designed for therapeutic purposes and human performance enhancement. Ekram’s research interest is centered around the design of AI‐driven assistive interventions combined with Augmented Reality (AR) technology. His ultimate goal is to improve the quality of life for deaf children over the long term, a particularly pertinent focus given that 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents.
Email: ehossai2@ur.rochester.edu
LinkedIn: Ekram Hossain Info
Akhil Kasturi
Akhil is a PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Rochester, under the guidance of Professor Axel Wismuller.
Research interest: His research focuses on AI applications in computer-aided diagnosis, with an aim to understand and refine current methodologies. Akhil's current work includes a collaborative project with Carestream Healthcare on detecting abnormally placed indwelling tubes in chest X-rays which is crucial for patient safety and applying Granger causality-based approaches on fMRI to detect neurodegenerative disorder. Akhil is interested in exploring the applications of AR/VR technologies in computer-aided diagnosis and medical imaging. Outside of work, Akhil enjoys swimming, video games, and playing the piano.
Email: akasturi@ur.rochester.edu
LinkedIn: Akhil K.
Google Scholar: Akhil Kasturi
Anis Idrizovic
Anis is a PhD student at the Institute of Optics. His undergraduate degree is in optical engineering, and he brings a background in design and modelling of optical systems. Anis is especially interested in using optics to help better understand human vision and tackle current AR/VR challenges.
Research interest: Anis is currently working on developing a high-precision, head-mounted eye-tracking device for studying eye movements.
Email: aidrizov@ur.rocester.edu
LinkedIn: Anis Idrizovic Info
Md Mamunur Rashid
Md is a doctoral student at the Warner School of Education.
Research interest: Md Mamunur has been captivated by the transformative potential of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) since his first encounter with immersive technologies during his Fulbright program at NYU in 2017‐2018. While attending a course at Studio 20: Digital First at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, Mamunur was introduced to the concept of immersive journalism, showed him the extraordinary capability of AR and VR technologies to create engaging, immersive experiences. As a photographer and video editor, Mamunur is inherently drawn to visual storytelling and has grown to appreciate the power of AR/VR as a tool for creating highly immersive and interactive experiences.
Email: mrashid5@u.rochester.edu
LinkedIn: Md Mamunur Rashid Info
Caitlin Sharp
Caitlin is a doctoral student at the University of Rochester, School of School of Medicine and Dentistry. She is in the Department of Neuroscience under the direction of Dr. Benjamin Suarez‐Jimenez.
Research interest: Caitlin’s current research combines VR threat/reward conditioning tasks with fMRI to examine neural signatures for trauma exposure related to location‐specific threat/reward learning. Her VR reward conditioning work will examine how trauma exposure impacts one's ability to form cognitive maps of reward.
Email: caitlin_sharp@urmc.rochester.edu
LinkedIn: Caitlin Sharp Info
James Spann
James is a PhD in Computer Science.
Research interest: James’s previous research has focused on modeling user behavior in a variety of settings and distilling those motions into a formalized assessment of activity. These settings have included room scale touch sensing with infrared cameras, simulated software arenas to monitor the spread of knowledge, time series modeling and prediction for suicide prevention, measuring features of motion to create a severity score of Parkinson’s disease and others. These projects utilized a combined skill set of machine learning, signal processing, time series analysis, data cleaning/processing, and more to produce several papers and posters.
Email: jspann2@cs.rochester.edu
LinkedIn: James Spann Info
Personal Website: https://jspann.me/
Huiran Yu
Huiran is a first-year PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, working with Professor Zhiyao Duan. She received a BE in Computer Science and Technology from Tsinghua University and an MS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. She has interned at Tencent Music Entertainment and TikTok in their music and audio technology research group.
Research interest: Currently, Huiran is interested is in music generation, music information retrieval, and singing voice synthesis.
Email: hyu56@ur.rochester.edu
LinkedIn: Huiran Yu
Yamin Zheng
Yamin is a PhD student in Teaching, Curriculum and Change at Warner School of Education. Concurrently, she is enrolled in the Advanced Certificate in Data Science at Rochester. Before joining the University, she taught in K-12 and higher education settings in both China and the US, as well as leadership experience in teacher education.
Research interest: Yamin is passionate about AR/VR’s potential to enhance language learning in an immersive and situational learning context. She is keen to innovate and design AR/VR applications for dual language immersion programs and explore how these technologies affect learning outcomes.
Email: yzheng58@u.rochester.edu
Google Scholar: Yamin Zheng