Team

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Principal Investigator

Yao is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.[CV]

PhD Student

Jayanta is a PhD student at UNC Charlotte. He earned two master’s degrees in Urban Planning (Khulna University, Bangladesh) and Earth Sciences (University of Memphis). His research interests focus on using remote sensing, GIS, GeoAI, and advanced machine learning techniques to study human–environment relationships.

Master Student

Morgan is a master's student in Geography at UNC Charlotte and a Virginia Tech alumna, where she earned a B.A. in Geography. Her research interests include GIS, urban planning, human geography, and the application of geospatial analysis to better understand environmental and urban systems

Master Student

Eric Fackelman is an early-entry Computer Science student pursuing his B.S. and M.S. at UNC Charlotte. His interests include machine learning, data visualization, and human geography, and he enjoys learning new things across a wide range of topics.

Undergraduate Student

Samir Rahil is a Computer Science student at UNC Charlotte, concentrating in Gaming, AI, and Robotics. His interests include Unity's ML-Agents, scientific simulation, and deep learning technologies. He would love to harness the power of game engines to model and solve real-world problems.  

Undergraduate Student

Smit Patel is a Computer Science student at UNC Charlotte focused on robotics, embodied AI, and robot learning. His research interests include vision-language-action models, reinforcement learning, autonomous robots, and robotic manipulation. 

Undergraduate Student

Hariom Pughat is a Computer Science student at UNC Charlotte. His interests include artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and sensing technologies, particularly in applications that combine software with physical systems and real-world data. He enjoys working on projects that bridge software development with hardware, sensing, and intelligent systems. In his free time, he enjoys climbing, mountain biking, and hiking.

Undergraduate Student

Riley is a sophomore student at UNC Charlotte who is pursuing his B.S. in Computer Science with a concentration in AI and Robotics and a minor in Computer Engineering. His interests include machine learning, data analysis, and sensing technologies and wants to use these things to solve real world problems.

Lab Assistant

Baozi has been a lab member since 2022, she mainly focused on nutritional intake, rest, and substantial fur shedding.

Lab Assistant

Duoduo joined our lab in 2022. Her research focuses on carbohydrate consumption, vocalization, and tactile interactions.