PhD Students:

Mehdi Azabou

Email: mazabou3@gatech.edu
Program: Machine Learning, ECE
Bio: Mehdi is a third-year PhD student in Machine Learning at Georgia Tech. He received his MS in Engineering from CentraleSupelec, France in 2019 and a MS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech in 2020. His interests lie in Deep Learning, Computational Neuroscience and Representation Learning on Graphs and Manifolds. He is excited about finding applications of machine learning that can improve our understanding of the brain and is an enthusiast for dynamic and interactive visualizations that can provide insights into complex data and enable new ways of thinking
Webpage: http://www.mehai.dev/ 

Ran Liu

Email: rliu361@gatech.edu
Program: Machine Learning, ECE
Bio: Ran is a Machine Learning PhD student at Georgia Tech. Originally from mainland China, Ran received her bachelor’s degree in Physics from Fudan University with a lot of extra courses in data science, mathematics, and social science. Ran is broadly interested in machine learning and deep learning, and is particularly passionate about problems that utilize advanced machine learning algorithms on challenging practical problems in the field of health. Outside of research, Ran enjoys observing online communities and playing with her super adorable cat whose Instagram is @tiggerisasmalltiger.
Webpage: https://ranliu98.github.io/

Lakshmi Sathidevi


Email: lsathidevi3@gatech.edu
Program: ECE
Bio: Lakshmi is a PhD student in Electrical & Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. She received her M.S. in ECE from Georgia Tech and her B.Tech. in ECE from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India. She has a deep interest in machine learning (ML) and its applications in the biomedical field. She is also keenly interested in the application of ML on graphs and in the design of novel ML methods. She finds a deep meaning in being able to apply the discoveries and insights from research to impactful applications that can benefit a larger community of people. Personally, she loves painting and badminton.

Kevin Tynes


Email: kdtynes@gatech.edu
Program: Machine Learning (CSE)
Bio: Kevin is a PhD student in Machine Learning at Georgia Tech. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Georgia Tech. Kevin’s research has applied machine learning and computer vision methods to consumer images, drug delivery systems, and high-dimensional genomics data. His current interests are in leveraging graph machine learning and multi-modal models to study chemical and biomedical systems. Outside of research, Kevin is passionate about advocating for underrepresented minorities in STEM fields.

Jingyun Xiao


Program: PhD in Machine Learning
Bio: Jingyun will be joining the lab as a PhD student in Machine Learning in the Fall. He received his bachelor’s degree in CS from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and MS in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology. Jingyun is broadly interested in the intersection topics of Artificial Intelligence and Natural Intelligence, especially Human Intelligence, like inspiring next-generation AI models with HI, 2)understanding HI better with AI tools, 3)exploring hybrid-intelligence by combining AI and HI. Outside research, he enjoys playing badminton, jogging and watching movies.

Masters Students:

Vinam Arora


Program: Masters in Computer Science
Bio: Venky is a first year MS student in Computer Science at Georgia Tech. He received his Bachelors (B.Tech Hons.) in Computer Science from the National Institute of Technology – Tiruchirappalli, India in 2020 and has since then worked at NVIDIA contributing to Machine Learning on GPUs. His interests broadly lie in exploring how intelligence emerges from the brain, how it can be computed in machines and how to efficiently implement them. His hobbies include sketching, calisthenics and watching sci-fi films/documentaries.

Venkataramana (Venky) Ganesh


Program: Masters in Computer Science
Bio: Venky is a first year MS student in Computer Science at Georgia Tech. He received his Bachelors (B.Tech Hons.) in Computer Science from the National Institute of Technology – Tiruchirappalli, India in 2020 and has since then worked at NVIDIA contributing to Machine Learning on GPUs. His interests broadly lie in exploring how intelligence emerges from the brain, how it can be computed in machines and how to efficiently implement them. His hobbies include sketching, calisthenics and watching sci-fi films/documentaries.

Sahil Khose


Program: Masters in Computer Science
Bio:   Sahil is a first year MS CS student at Georgia Tech. He received his bachelor’s in CS from Manipal Institute of Technology, India in 2022. His global optimum in life is understanding the human brain and engineering artificially intelligent systems. He has worked in the field of Computer Vision, NLP, Semi/Self-supervised Learning, Zero-Shot Learning, Domain Adaptation, and Continual Learning. Solving deep learning problems using a limited (ideally zero) amount of data is what piques his interest. During his free time he streams research paper explanations on his YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/SahilKhose). Outside research, he enjoys speedcubing, playing chess, philosophical conversations, hiking and cooking.
Webpage:  https://sahilkhose.github.io/

Keerthan Ramnath


Program: Masters in Computational Science and Engineering
Bio: Keerthan is a MS in Computational Science and Engineering student from the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. He graduated with a Master’s in Data Science and Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 2022. His interest revolves around applied machine/deep learning and self-supervised learning with a special focus in Computer Vision, NLP, and Neuroscience. During his free time, Keerthan makes music with GarageBand and listens to The Beatles.

Ritu Sinha


Program: Masters in Computer Science
Bio: Ritu is an MS in Computer Science student from the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. She received her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering at Ramaiah Institute of Technology and worked for a year as an Associate Data Engineer at Lowe’s India. She is looking forward to gaining a better understanding of the applications of deep learning in neuroscience. Outside the lab, she enjoys dancing, reading, and hiking.

Undergraduate Students:

Matthew Jin

Email: mjin73@gatech.edu
Program: BS in Computer Science

Bio: Matthew is a third-year Computer Science major at Georgia Tech who is also pursuing a minor in Biomedical Engineering. His general interest lies in understanding the underlying mechanisms of consciousness. To do so, Matthew aims to apply his knowledge of computer science and machine learning to problems in neuroscience. He is excited to be a part of the lab and is looking forward to learning more about the intersection between these two fields. In his free time, Matthew enjoys drawing, reading fantasy novels, and dabbling in recreational mathematics.

Christopher Liding

Email:
Program: BS in Industrial Engineering

Bio: Christopher is a second-year undergraduate student at Georgia Tech majoring in Industrial Engineering. His new-found interest in machine learning and data analytics inspired him to also pursue a minor in Computing and Intelligence. He is excited for the opportunity to integrate the development of his deep learning repertoire with the cutting-edge advancement of neuroscience, a field he always found to be captivating and mysterious. Outside his passion of expanding his knowledge, Chris is an avid golfer and sports fanatic.

Michael Mendelson

Email: michaelmendelson@gatech.edu
Program: BS in Biomedical Engineering

Bio: Michael is a third-year Biomedical Engineering student at Georgia Tech.  His academic interests are broad, but he is particularly interested in the intersection between computation and biological processes, especially with regards to neuroscience.  Michael is also a budding jazz musician and music producer.  He is excited to be able to incorporate many of his interests into the lab, and looks forward to gaining a deeper understanding of the field.

Santosh Nachimuthu

Email: michaelmendelson@gatech.edu
Program: BS in Biomedical Engineering

Bio: Santosh is a 3rd year Biomedical Engineering student at Georgia Tech who is also minoring in Computer Science. He is very interested in better understanding and modeling the brain using computer science. Outside of academics, he enjoys sports, good food, and new music. He wants to contribute to the neurotech field and learn as much as possible from the lab to better understand the brain.

Research Affiliates

Aidan Schneider


Email: aidans@wustl.edu
Program: Computational and Systems Biology
Washington University in St. Louis

Bio: Aidan is a PhD student in Computational & Systems Biology at Washington University in St. Louis in the Hengen Lab and works in close collaboration with the NerDS Lab. He received a B.S. in Molecular BioSciences & Biotechnology and also a B.S. in Finance from Arizona State University in 2018. Aidan applies deep learning to characterize the influence of behavior, genetics, and anatomy on neuronal computations throughout the brain. He aims to develop models which generalize and transfer successfully across diverse contexts. He also hopes deep learning can facilitate insight from data with minimal pre-processing. Outside the lab, Aidan enjoys hiking and developing tabletop role-playing games.

Mohammad Gheshlaghi Azar

Email: mazar@google.edu

Bio: Mohammad Azar is a staff research scientist at DeepMind labs in London and an Affiliate Researcher in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Azar’s research encompasses a variety of topics in the field of AI and machine learning ranging from self-supervised learning to exploration, Deep RL, graph representation learning and RL theory. Mohammad obtained his master degree from university of Tehran, Iran in Electrical Engineering. Then he obtained his Ph.D. from University of Nijmegen, Netherlands in Biophysics. Dr. Azar then joined the CS department at CMU as a  postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Professor Emma Brunskill. Afterwards he joined the Kording lab at Northwestern university as a postdoctoral researcher in Computational Neuroscience.

Interns:

  • Geethika Atmakuri, High School Student (2024)

Collaborators:

Alumni:

Postdocs:

  • Farahnaz Soleimani, 2017-2019 -> Assistant Professor at Oregon State University

Ph.D. students:

  • Chi-Heng Lin, 2018-2022; TRIAD Research Fellowship (2020); PhD Thesis:  “Understanding Data Manipulation and How to Leverage it to Improve Generalization” -> Now at Samsung Research

Graduate students:

  • Jorge Quesada, 2021-2022 -> ML PhD @ Georgia Tech
  • Aishwarya Balwani, 2018-2021 -> Hannah Choi’s lab at Georgia Tech
  • Kyle Milligan, 2018-2020 -> Now at Northrup Grumman
  • TJ LaGrow, 2017-2019; NSF GRFP Honorable Mention -> Now in Shella Keilholz’s lab at Emory

Selected undergraduates and interns:

  • Carolina Urzay, 2021-2022 -> Masters @ TU Delft
  • Joy M. Jackson, 2021-2022; REU SURE (2021) – Best Research in the Biomedical Category -> Undergrad at U Miami
  • Zijing Wu, 2020-2021 -> Anqi Wu’s lab at Georgia Tech
  • Max Dabagia, 2018-2020; NSF GRFP (2020), Presidential Undergraduate Research Award (PURA) (2019) -> Ph.D. at Georgia Tech w/ Santosh Vempala
  • Amaal Abdi, 2020-2021 -> Undergrad at Wharton, University of Pennsylvania
  • Joseph Miano, 2018-2020; PURA (2019) -> MS in CS, AI & ML Associate at JPMorgan Chase
  • Alexis Webber, 2019-2019; Charles Hancock Award for Neuroengineering Research -> Alpha Omega