Students

I have the pleasure of advising a number outstanding students in research.
I am always eager to engage students in research projects. If you have been accepted
into the graduate program at DSU or are an undergrad deciding upon a Senior Capstone
project or independent study, please email me to chat about possible research projects.

Below are links to my present and former advisees:

Graduate Students

  • Piyush Sharma, PhD Candidate, Applied Math
    Topic: Machine Learning on Novel Data (Spectroscopic Data, LIBS, PTLS, Spin Polarization)
  • Rexford Aboagye, MS Candidate, Computer Science
    Topic: Balancing Algorithmic and Architectural tradeoffs in GPU acceleration
  • Michael Green, M.S. Program, Computer Science
    Topic: Machine Learning on sensor data

Undergraduate Students

  • Janelle Boyd, B.S. Program, Computer Science
    Undergraduate Research Associate: Human Robot Interaction
    Awards: Generation Google Scholar, Delaware Space Grant Consortium Scholar
  • Deshaun Crawford, B.S. Program, Computer Science
    Undergrauate Research Associate: Terrain Classification for Autonomous Wheelchair
    Awards: NASA Scholar, Apple Scholar
  • Destiny Brown, B.S. Program, Computer Science
    Undergrauate Research Associate: Autonomous Wheelchair, perception and controls
    Awards: NASA Scholar
  • David Medina, B.S. Program, Information Technology
    Capstone: Assessing the impact of CPU/GPU balance on Graphical Lag
  • Agyei Axum, B.S. Program, Information Technology
    Capstone: Optimizing Network Infrastructure through Model Based Simulation, Analytics, and Scenario Testing
  • Your Name here
    I am always looking for energetic hard working undergraduate students for research.

Thesis Committees

  • Abdullah Al-Zubaer Imran
    M.S. in Computer Science
    Thesis: Estimation of Breast Anatomical Descriptors from Mastectomy CT Images
  • Shana Brown
    M.S. in Applied Mathematics
    Thesis: Graph Theoretic Image Analysis Methods with Applications to Computer Vision and Biomedicine

Alumni

My research advisees have gone on to fantastic post-DSU careers.
Below please find my former advisees:

Graduate Students

Visitors

Undergraduate Students

My Philosophy and Approach

Having come to academia from industry, I am a firm believer in establishing my
expectation concerning research advisees. I have found that the best research
relationships occur in an environment where the personalities of the various involved
stakeholders complement one another. This is not intended to be harsh. I believe
in establishing apriori my goals, objectives, and expectations so that perspective
advisees can make an informed decision as to whether or not I am an appropriate advisor.

My belief is that the goal of education is not for students to please a professor
by producing the right answer; rather it is to do something meaningful by producing
an artifact that solves a significant problem. My approach is to help students to gain
mastery for (1) the process of scholarly inquiry, (2) the identification and suitable
scoping of a research problem, (3) the systematic solution of the problem (model, design,
prototype, test, experiment, analysis) and (4) crafting thoughtful exposition and,
articulation of results.

My approach is to "teach you to fish" research-wise so that you will develop the
necessary skills for a career of inquiry, self-directed learning, and invention. As an
advisor, I expect nothing shy your best effort and best work at all times. I favor medium
contact to hands-off interaction in my advising of projects after an initial warmup period of
micro-management. I expect each of my research advisees to attend a weekly research group
meeting. This is required of all my advisees. I expect my students to take ownership of their
projects. Be it a stipend, facilities, or equipment, research projects are made possible through
very hard-fought research funding. I will not waste precious resources, including my time, on
the unmotivated or the lazy. If you are someone who needs frequent contact and to be told, at
each turn, what to do, next, I am not the right advisor for you.

I also subscribe to a number of ideas in the text "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What
Motivates Us" by Daniel Pink. The three things that motivate are autonomy, mastery, and
impact. My philosophy is that by giving students some leeway into selecting a topic, they
are more likely to be successful since they tend to make more substantial contributions for
topics that genuinely interest them or about which they genuinely care. I am also a proponent
of developing in my students the practice of self-directed learning. The ability to seek
out the materials necessary to understand a new concept or solve a problem, I believe, are
key building blocks to mastery. Finally, I also challenge my students to solve a problem
that will have meaning to others. My students tend to develope a clear sense of a research topic of interest.