Faculty:
Mara Alagic holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Belgrade. Currently, she is a Professor in the School of Education, and Graduate coordinator for MEd in Learning and Instructional Design and iSTEM Education Graduate Certificate. Her transdisciplinary research interests extend from mathematical modeling of various phenomena including intercultural communication (ThirdPlaceLearning) to globally engaging in Human Dignity and Humiliation studies. Mara is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, published by Taylor & Francis, UK.
Rajiv Bagai received his BS degree in Computer Science from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India, and his MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the University of Victoria, Canada. He is presently a Professor in the School of Computing at the Wichita State University. His current research is in web and data anonymity, but in the past he has worked in logic programming and paraconsistent databases.
Aaron Bowen is an Instruction and Research Services Librarian at WSU, with subject liaison duties for the Health Sciences, Psychology, and Communication fields. His specialties include providing information literacy and evidence-based practice instruction and assessment, offering reference and research consultation services, and developing the library collection in his liaison areas. His goal as a librarian is to help students think critically about information and its sources, understand the process of conducting research, and understand what they can do themselves to access information from a wide range of different resources in order to satisfy their information needs, both current and future.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5511-0694
Zelalem Demissie received his BS and MSc degrees in Geology and Geophysics from the Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and his Ph.D. in Geology from the Oklahoma State University, USA. He is presently an Assistant Professor of Environmental Geophysics in the Department of Geology at the Wichita State University. He has over 20 years of experience in the industry and academia, in natural resource allocation, change-detection projects, and hazard predictions and mitigations.
Atri Dutta received his Bachelor of Technology degree in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, and his MS and PhD degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. He is currently an Associate Professor in Aerospace Engineering at WSU. Prior to joining WSU, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. He has been a Visiting Faculty at the Air Force Research Laboratory during the Summers of 2018-2020. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of astrodynamics, control theory, mission planning and optimization.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2191-0305
Terrance Figy is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Mathematics, and Statistics. He is a theoretical particle physicist, who became interested in mathematics and physics at a very young age. He attended the Summer Science Camp at the University of Wiscons-Eau Claire (UWEC), Eau Claire, WI in 1992. This experience fueled his desire to become a particle physicist. In 1996, he started an undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics at UWEC and graduated in 2000. Subsequently, Terrance completed a PhD in physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006. He has held postdoctoral appointments at the University of Durham, UK, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, Switzerland, and the University of Manchester, UK.
Nathan Filbert received his MLIS (Library & Information Sciences) degree at the Emporia State University in Emporia, KS; his BA, BS, and MTS degrees in Classical Music and Philosophical Theology were received via Cairn University and Calvin Theological Seminary, respectively. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Philosophy, Art and Critical Thought at the European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Nathan is an Assistant Professor and Research and Instruction Services Librarian with the Wichita State University Libraries and WSU Graduate School. His research interests focus on the cultural aspects of information systems and access from the digital to the democratic with particular emphasis on infrastructural and proprietary domains and the informational literacies of various communities participating.
Meghann Kuhlmann is an Instructor, Research Services Librarian and Assistant Professor. She holds a Master’s of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and a BA in English Literature from California State University, Sacramento. She serves as the subject librarian for the School of Business, Social Work, Public Administration and Department of English. She has an interest in how individuals and communities access and make sense of information.
Ethan Lindsay is the Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian and Assistant Professor at WSU. He completed a PhD in Religious Studies at the Princeton University, an MA in Religious Studies at the Indiana University, and an MLIS at UNC-Greensboro. He serves as the library liaison for History, Sociology, Criminal Justice, Political Science, and Religion. In addition to his research on the history of libraries, he is researching socially vulnerable populations and the challenges they face when natural disasters occur.
Susan Matveyeva is an Associate Professor, and an Institutional Repository and Cataloging Librarian. She has been working at the Wichita State University since 2002, providing intellectual access to library materials and managing SOAR, the WSU digital archive. She earned her PhD in Philosophy of Culture, at the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia); Masters of Library and Information Science at the Wayne State University (Detroit, MI), and BA/MA in Theory and History of Music at the Odessa State Conservatory (Odessa, Ukraine). Her research interests follow her career path: from methodology of musicological research to Russian socio-cultural dynamics, and to scholarly communication. Her current research interests include electronic publishing, institutional repositories, metadata and open access to research.
Atul Rai
Associate Professor of Accountancy
Barten School of Business
Ajita Rattani is an Assistant Professor at the School of Computing, Wichita State University. She received her PhD and Post-doc at University of Cagliri, Italy and Michigan State University, USA, respectively.
Dr. Rattani is the director of the Visual Computing and Biometric Security Lab comprising of PhD. and Master's students. The mission of the lab is to conduct cutting-edge research in advanced techniques concerning Visual Computing and Biometric Security. Current research activities of the research group include studying bias and fairness of AI systems, deep fake detection, models for on-device AI, wearable biometrics, harnessing unlabeled data for domain adaptation and performance enhancement, AI for healthcare and obesity prediction, and natural disaster detection using computer vision techniques.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1541-8202
Glyn Rimmington is a former Boeing Distinguished Professor of Global Learning, having retired from WSU at the end of 2020, but is a voluntary participant in the DRAC project as its first international collaborator from Australia. He has a PhD from the University of Queensland and, prior to moving to WSU in 2001, he had worked at the University of Melbourne for 17 years. During his career, he has held tenure in colleges of Education, Engineering, and the Sciences. His research interests include mathematical modelling of environmental systems and intercultural learning. He has published international refereed journal papers, books and book chapters in each area. Much of his work has been in globally-distributed and multi-disciplinary, collaborative research projects.
Maria Sclafani received her MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and MA in English Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is the Coordinator of Library Instructional Services and Assistant Professor at the Wichita State University Libraries. Her liaison areas include education, counseling, human performance studies, and sport management. Her research interests include critical information literacy, feminist and critical pedagogies, and disaster education.
Kaushik Sinha received his MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the Ohio State University, USA. He is presently an Associate Professor in the School of Computing at the Wichita State University. He is also an affiliated researcher at the NSF sponsored Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning headquartered at the University of Texas at Austin. His current research interests are in theoretical and applied machine learning, algorithms and statistics.
Xiaoheng Wang received her doctoral degree from the Department of Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She joined the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs at Wichita State University as an assistant professor of public finance. Her research focuses on public budgeting and finance, financial management of state and local governments, and survey methods.
Staff:
Jill Fisher received her MEd from Wichita State University in Learning and Instructional Design, with a specialization in Interdisciplinary STEM Education. Her BA is from Tabor College in Biochemistry and Secondary Education. She is the Outreach Coordinator for the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at WSU and serves as the director of Kansas Science Olympiad and the Kansas Junior Academy of Science. Her volunteer work includes immediate disaster relief with Tornado clean-up.
Current Students:
Prashant Rimal received his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences from Kathmandu University, Nepal. He is currently a master’s student in Earth, Environment, and Physical Sciences, from the Department of Geology, Wichita State University. He is currently working as a Graduate Research Assistant for the DRAC project. His research interests include Deep Learning and automating GIS workflow for natural hazards detection
Padmanjali Chintakrindi received her Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication from VRSEC, affiliated to JNTU Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India. She has worked in an IT firm for two years after completing her graduation. She is a Graduate Student pursuing her Master's in Computer Science at the School of Computing and is working as a Graduate Research Assistant responsible for maintaining the website for Disaster Resilience Analytics Center (DRAC). Her interests include Web Development, Machine Learning, Data Structures and Algorithms.
Amrutha Dasyam is a PhD student in the Aerospace Engineering department at WSU and works as a graduate research assistant at the Astronautics laboratory. She completed her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from WSU in May 2021 and received the Outstanding Graduating Senior award from the department. Her research interests are in the areas of astrodynamics, trajectory design and optimization, flight control theory, and machine learning.
Eldon Taskinen received his bachelor’s degree in Geology from Wichita State University. He is currently a master’s student in Earth, Environment, and Physical Sciences, from the Department of Geology, Wichita State University. He is currently working as a Graduate Research Assistant for the DRAC project. His research interests include geophysics, machine learning, and remote sensing.
Former Students:
Smitha Haridasan received her BTech and ME degrees in Computer Science from University of Calicut and Anna University respectively. She is presently a PhD student in School of Computing at Wichita State University. Her research interests include Computer Vision, Deep learning and Natural Hazard Detection.
Santhosh Jothimani received his Bachelor in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, India. He is a Master's student in Computer Science, from the School of Computing at Wichita State University. He works as a Graduate Research Assistant and involves with the DRAC project. His research interests include Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Saideshwar Kotha received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from SRM Institute of Science and Technology, India. He worked as a Software Development Engineer at Arthashastra Intelligence for 1 year after completing his undergrad. He is a Graduate Student from Master's in Computer Science at the School of Computing, Wichita State University. He worked as a Graduate Research Assistant with DRAC, on Multimodal Deep Learning system for disaster response. His interests include Machine learning, Computer Vision, Data Structures and Algorithms.
Lalith Koneti received his Bachelor of Technology in Electrical; and Electronics Communication from the Vellore Institute of technology, India. He is a Master's student from Computer Networking in the School of Computing at the Wichita State University. He worked as a Graduate Research Assistant for the DRAC project.
Muqtada Mohammed received his Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Kakatiya University, India. Grew expertise in the field of Data Engineering by working at leading IT firms for three years before furthering his quest for learning more in the field of data sciences by pursuing a Master of Science degree in the School of Computing at Wichita State University. He was a Graduate Research Assistant focused on machine learning research for the DRAC project, where he built a machine learning model for predicting economic damage caused by tornadoes in the North American region.
Suresh Pokharel received his Bachelor in Computer Engineering and MSc in Computer System and Knowledge Engineering degrees from the Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He is a PhD student in the School of Computing at the Wichita State University. He worked as a Graduate Research Assistant and involved with the DRAC project. His research interests include Computer Vision and Deep Learning algorithms.
Tejaswini Pyneni received her Bachelor's degree in Computer Science Engineering from VVIT, affiliated to JNTU Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India. She is a Master's student from Computer Science in the School of Computing at the Wichita State University. She is worked on developing a website for the DRAC project.
Durga Harini Sangu received her Bachelor's degree in Computer Science Engineering JNTU, Hyderabad, India. She is a Graduate Computer Science student from School of Computing in Wichita State University. She is a Senator in the Student Government Association for the School of Engineering. She is also an Ambassador holding team lead position in the Student Involvement. She worked on her Master's Project which is building Disaster Resilience Analytics Center (DRAC) Website. She also worked as a Graduate Research Assistant for DRAC team.
Ivanshi Shah received her Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science Engineering from Gujarat Technological University, Gujarat, India. She is Graduate Computer Science student in School of Computing at Wichita State University. She worked on her Master's Project which is building Disaster Resilience Analytics Center(DRAC) Website along with the Dashboards to visualize the Research.
Jaipara Vepura received his BS degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from JNTU, Hyderabad, India, and a Master's student in Computer Science from the Wichita State University. He worked as a Graduate Research Assistant with the DRAC team and worked on applying Deep Learning techniques to social media data to determine its usefulness in assisting the Disaster Resilience teams in the wake of a disaster.
Pardhasai Chadalavada is a PhD student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at WSU. He has his master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from the San Jose State University, and a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the SRM Institute of Science and Technology, India. He is currently working as Future Investigator in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology at WSU. His research interests are in the areas of Astrodynamics, Remote Sensing, Optimization, and Controls.
Sai Kaushik Basa received his bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore and currently he is a master's Student in Engineering Management at Wichita State University and working as Graduate Research Assistant at DRAC. His areas of research interests include Critical Infrastructure Systems and Communication Systems.
Madhurika Patil received her Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and Technology from SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India. She has worked in a leading IT firm for two years after completing her graduation. She is a Graduate Student pursuing a Master's in Computer Science at the School of Computing, WSU. She is currently working as a Graduate Research Assistant for DRAC project. Her interests include Machine learning, Data Science, and Deep Learning.
Chinmay Nandkishor Sagade received his Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Telecommunication from Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune. He worked for Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Currently, he is pursuing MS in Computing from School of Computing at Wichita State University, and working as a Graduate Research Assistant at Disaster Resilience Analytics Center(DRAC).