Ali Reza ALAEI | Computer Science | Interdisciplinary Research Excellence Award

Assist Prof Dr. Ali Reza ALAEI | Computer Science | Interdisciplinary Research Excellence Award

Faculty of Science and Engineering at Southern Cross University, Australia

Dr. Ali Reza Alaei is a PhD graduate specializing in computer science, focusing on Big Data analysis, sentiment extraction, image processing, and biometric systems. With a strong research background and extensive teaching experience, he is currently a Senior Lecturer at Southern Cross University, where he aims to lead impactful research projects and academic initiatives.

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Scopus profile

Education 🎓

Dr. Alaei obtained his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Mysore, India, in 2012, where his thesis focused on the “Automatic Segmentation of Persian Handwritten Texts Enabling Accurate Recognition.” He also earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the same institution in 2007, where he researched the “Recognition of Persian/Arabic Numerals Using Feature Reduction and Distance Measure.”

Experience 🧑‍🏫

With over 20 years of academic experience, Dr. Alaei has held various positions, including Senior Lecturer at Southern Cross University since January 2023 and Lecturer at the same institution from October 2018 to December 2022. His previous roles include Research Fellow at Griffith University, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at LI-RFAI in France, and PhD Scholar at the University of Mysore. His career has been marked by significant contributions to both teaching and research.

Research Interests 🔍

Dr. Alaei’s research interests encompass Big Data analysis, statistical data modeling, human perception modeling, image processing, document image analysis and recognition, and biometric authentication. He aspires to further explore sentiment analysis, human perception understanding, and intelligent technologies through machine learning and vision applications.

Awards 🏆

Dr. Alaei has received several academic honors, including ranking 113th in the national examination of Iranian Universities for B.Sc. entrance and achieving the second rank in his M.Sc. program. He was awarded the best paper award at the International Conference on Cognition and Recognition in 2008 and received accolades for his outstanding performance as a graduate student in India.

Publications 📚

Dr. Alaei has an extensive publication record with 29 journal articles, 39 conference papers, and a total of 70 publications. Some notable peer-reviewed articles include:

  1. Document Image Quality Assessment: A Survey – ACM Computing Survey, 2024. Cited by: 2432.
  2. Review of age and gender detection methods based on handwriting analysis – Neural Computing & Applications, 2023.
  3. Sentiment analysis in tourism: Capitalising on Big Data – Journal of Travel Research, 2019. Cited by: 564.
  4. Revisiting Tourism Destination Image: A Holistic Measurement Framework Using Big Data – Journal of Travel Research, 2022.

Conclusion ✅

Dr. Ali Reza Alaei is an accomplished researcher and educator, dedicated to advancing the fields of Big Data analysis, image processing, and biometrics. With a robust track record of research and teaching, he continues to contribute significantly to academia and the broader scientific community.

Mario Flores | Computational Biology | Next-Generation Science Trailblazer Award

Assist Prof Dr. Mario Flores | Computational Biology | Next-Generation Science Trailblazer Award

Biomedical, University of Texas at San Antonio, United States

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Short Bio

Dr. Mario A. Flores is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, specializing in artificial intelligence models for disease phenotype predictions, biomarker identification, and explainable mechanisms. His innovative research integrates various AI techniques to enhance our understanding of disease progression, particularly in oncology.

Education

Dr. Flores holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from the Metropolitan Autonomous University, a Master’s in Applied Mathematics, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering (Computational Biology) from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), NIH.

Experience

Since 2020, Dr. Flores has served as an Assistant Professor with joint appointments in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Biomedical Engineering (BME) at UTSA. His prior roles include NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at NCBI and Research Associate at the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute, showcasing his extensive experience in computational biology and bioinformatics.

Research Interests

Dr. Flores’s research focuses on developing AI tools for disease gene dependence prediction, utilizing spatially resolved transcriptomics, single-cell RNA sequencing, and Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to analyze tumor microenvironments. His work aims to bridge gaps in understanding disease mechanisms and improve patient outcomes through precision medicine.

Awards

Dr. Flores has received numerous awards for his research, including funding from the NIH for projects on neural circuits inhibiting pain, and recognition from the AIM-AHEAD Fellowship program, supporting his efforts to address health disparities in minority populations.

Publications Top Notes

Dr. Flores has authored several impactful publications, including:

New tools for spatial biology transcriptomics & proteomics in immuno-oncology, Immuno-Oncology Insights, 2023.

Deep learning tackles single-cell analysis—a survey of deep learning for scRNA-seq analysis, Brief in Bioinformatics, 2022.

Transformer for Gene Expression Modeling (T-GEM): An Interpretable Deep Learning Model for Gene Expression-Based Phenotype Predictions, Cancers, 2022.