New Professor in Machine Learning and Big Data

What is your field of research?

- I am a Professor in Machine Learning and Big Data. More specifically, my focus is on causal inference and machine learning for large scales sociotechnical networks such as electricity, transportation, and water networks.

My ultimate goal is using machine learning to decode the complex interactions and interdependencies among large scale systems that shape urban life and guarantee the quality of our life. The data analysis algorithms that we develop often use in projects that are known to the public with ”Smart Grid” or “Smart City” terms.

For example, we are developing new machine learning algorithms to combining various datasets from weather, infrastructure networks, and demographics to predict the energy consumption and mobility patterns in cities.

In another project, we used machine learning to understand the impact of extreme weather events on urban infrastructure and find better ways for emergency response and restoration. This is an essential application since nature is getting harsh to us due to climate change.

How did your career as researcher start?

- In my bachelor studies in Electrical Engineering area, I learned more about network and sensors. That was the start of my obsession with data and analytics to understand the behavior of complex systems such as power grid and the communication networks.

Later working in the power system industry encouraged me to learn more about statistics and mathematics for engineering problems. I moved to the USA in 2008 and joined Virginia Tech and later the University of California in Berkeley where I studied data analytics and monitoring systems more deeply. In 2015, I joined the Florida State University in the USA as an Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Which project(s) are you currently working on?

- In a joint effort with two Norwegian companies, StormGeo and eSmart, we recently received a grant from the European Space Agency to study the impact of weather and nature on the electric grid using the satellite images. I am excited about this project. It needs developing complex machine learning algorithms which are my interest.

I am also continuing my collaboration with colleagues at Florida State University, the USA on emergency management and resilience of the infrastructure network against hurricane and storms.

If you were allowed full freedom and unlimited amounts of money and time – what research would you perform?

- For some years, I am working on a new area in artificial intelligence called causal inference. It pushes the boundaries of machine learning to make machines think similar to humans. This is very exciting! Machine learning at best reveals the association and similarities between datasets without understanding the cause and effect relationship that is behind datasets and systems’ behaviors.

We need machines capable of experiencing human-level intelligence. Artificial intelligence now is about repeating a specific task or at the best showing some animal-level abilities.