Hewlett Packard Enterprise Data Science Institute

Wenli Gao is the data services librarian at the UH Libraries providing research support and instruction in locating, evaluating, and visualizing data. She teaches workshops and course integrated sessions in data visualization to help students identify the most effective graphic for demonstrating the interpretation of data, recognize relevant tools to enhance data visualization, and evaluate data visualizations for accuracy and bias. She is working on integrating data literacy into the curriculum to equip students with needed skills and help them succeed in school and beyond.

Vedhus Hoskere's current research interests are highly interdisciplinary, at the intersection of civil engineering, computer science and robotics. His doctoral work at the University of Illinois with Billie F. Spencer Jr. focused on developing artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer vision solutions for rapid and automated civil infrastructure inspection and monitoring. For his research toward automated post-earthquake building inspections, Hoskere received the Liu Huixian Earthquake Engineering Scholarship in 2018. 

Professor Koontz’s research focuses on the public sculpture of Ancient Mesoamerica and includes articles, book chapters and the books, Lightning Gods and Feathered Serpents (University of Texas Press, 2009) and Organized Violence in the Art and Architecture of Mesoamerica (with Heather Orr, UCLA, 2009). His more general interests include design and communicative function in non-Western art. His review article “Visual Culture Studies in Mesoamerica” appeared recently in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica, and in 2011 he was one of three North Americans chosen to contribute to Mexico’s bicentenary exhibition catalog at the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City (Seis Ciudades Antiguas de Mesoamérica). Other books include Landscape and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited with Kathryn Reese-Taylor and Annabeth Headrick, and Mexico (5th, 6th and 7th editions, 2002, 2008, and 2013) with Michael Coe. He is the recipient of fellowships at Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard) and the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Political economy, Globalization of production, Fiscal policy and taxation, Political representation, Quantitative methods

Spatial and Spatio-temporal statistics and application to climate and social science problems. Climate model validation. Covariance models for global data

The focus of my research is to understand and identify the fundamental principles that govern the dynamics of complex systems. I am interested in processes of growth, adaptation, self-organization, self-assembly, and evolution. Often, my approach is to construct simple models that capture the essence of experimental behavior of a class of systems, and use them to explore the common features that underlie their dynamics. My work usually involves a combination of analytic calculations and computer simulations.

Dr. Pavlidis‚ current research interests involve computational medicine, where he is charting new territory. He developed a series of methods to compute vital signs of subjects in an automated, contact-free, and passive manner. Dr. Pavlidis originated multiple patents and is considered one of the founders of modern lie detection technology. His research is cited extensively in scientific literature and receives significant coverage from international media outlets, including CNN, the Discovery Channel, Reuters, Time magazine, and the L.A. Times. Dr. Pavlidis is a Fulbright Fellow, a senior member of IEEE, and a member of the ACM. He also serves as associate editor for the journal Pattern Analysis and Applications and has chaired numerous major IEEE conferences.

Image formation and reconstruction for medical imaging; objective assessment of imaging systems; visual perception and sources of observer variability; image classification and pattern recognition; statistical decision and estimation theory; parallel-computing applications in imaging.

Dr. Guoning Chen's research aims to develop efficient and scalable analysis and visualization techniques for various scientific data using topology-based, graph-based, data reduction and summarization, and other innovative methods. He has developed numerous techniques and tools to aid the interpretation of data stemming from automatic and aircraft design, mechanical engineering, climate study, oceanography, earthquake engineering, fusion science, medical imaging, and more.

I am interested in mentoring students in translational research from the Systems Control Technology literature to practical implementations. Examples  include implementation of a deadbeat controller design with application to optimal defibrillator pulse synthesis; decoupling and MIMO optimal PI controllers for chemical processes; design of controllers to automate  a  heat  shrinking  device  for  cable  harnesses;  modeling and control of Stirling  engines;  co-simulation design of constrained PID controllers; and modeling and control of infectious disease.