University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Recent PhD Graduates

Ryan Chandler

PhD: 2023
Advisor: Dr. Chilin Shih and Dr. Mark Hasegawa-Johnson
Dissertation:
Semantic Prosodic Correlates of Backchannel Utterances in Human-Computer Dialog

Alexis Kim

PhD: 2023
Advisor: Dr. Judith Pintar, iSchool
Dissertation:
Shaping Virtual Realities: Heuristics and Design Practices for Simulations & Games

Cliff Shin

PhD: 2023
Advisor: Dr. Stan Ruecker
Dissertation:
Interdependency Between Complexity and Longevity Through The Lens of The Designer

Mohammad Amanzadeh

PhD: 2022
Advisor: Dr. George Francis, Mathematics
Dissertation:
A Mathematical Interpretation of Human Body Movement

Priscilla Boff Ferronato

PhD: 2022
Advisor: Dr. Masooda Bashir, iSchool
Dissertation:
Trust in Autonomous Systems: Investigating Individual Differences in Dispositional and Situational Trust

Si Chen

PhD: 2022
Advisor: Dr. Brian Deal, Landscape Architecture
Dissertation:
Urban Informatics Systems Science Using Engaging Interface and Machine Learning in Spatial-temporal Analysis

Juan Alfonso De La Rosa

PhD: 2022
Advisor: Dr. Stan Ruecker, Graphic Design
Dissertation:
Multilayer future system-mapping using decentered prototypes: A participatory tool for design of public infrastructure in complex social environments

Ryan Ingebritsen

PhD: 2022
Advisor: Dr. Steven Taylor, Music
Dissertation:
Auditory Kinesthesia: A Framework to Facilitate The Design and Performance of Interactive Music Systems

Ming Jiang

PhD: 2022
Advisor: Dr. J Stephen Downie, iSchool
Dissertation:
The Influence of Optical Character Recognition quality on the Robustness of Representation Learning

Chang Liu

PhD: 2022
Advisor: Dr. Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo, iSchool
Dissertation:
Sociotechnical Matching: Furniture Manufacturers at the Peripheries of Chinese Economic Reform

 

Hans Muller Paul

PhD: 2022
Advisor: Dr. Matthew Hudson, Crop Sciences
Dissertation:
Development and Application of Machine Learning Tools for the Advancement of Energy Crop Genetic Manipulation using CRISPR/Cas Technology

Monica Porteanu

PhD: 2022
Advisor: Kevin Hamilton, New Media & Dean, Fine and Applied Arts
Dissertation:
Decision-Making For a Regenerative Society: Voice-Based Emotion AI

 

Yaguang Sun

PhD: 2022
Advisor: Dr. Stan Ruecker, Graphic Design
Dissertation:
New Challenges for Smartphone Apps Among Chinese Urban Older Persons During the Covid-19 Pandemic

 

James Balamuta

PhD: 2021
Advisor: Dr.Jeffrey Douglas, Statistics and Dr.Stephen Culpepper, Statistics
Dissertation:
Bayesian Estimation of Restricted Latent Class Models: Extending priors, link functions, and structural models

Kelechi Ikegwu

PhD: 2021
Advisor: Dr.Robert J. Brunner, Accounting
Dissertation:
Machine Learning and Information-Theoretic Approaches for Financial Applications

Brandi Smith

PhD: 2021
Advisor: Dr.Rebecca L. Smith, Pathobiology
Dissertation:
Health Disparities, Environmental Toxicants and Midlife Women’s Health Outcomes

Fizza Mughal

PhD: 2020
Advisor: Dr.Gustavo Caetano-Anolles, Crop Sciences
Dissertation:
Evolution of Protein Structure, Function, and Dynamics in Biological Systems

Justin Pence

PhD: 2020
Advisor: Dr. Zahra Mohaghegh, Nuclear Plasma and Radiological Engineering
Dissertation:
Theorizing and Quantifying Organizational and Social Factors in Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Complex Systems

Siva Ratna Kumari Narisetti

PhD: 2020
Advisor: Dr.Vivechkanand Chunoo, Agricultural Leadership Education and Dr.Michael Twidale, iSchool
Dissertation:
Utility of Agricultural Mobile Apps Among Indian Rural Farmers

Mikko Tuomela

PhD: 2020
Advisor: Dr. Michael Twidale, iSchool
Dissertation:
Individual Reading Types and the Effects of Automated Annotation

Aseel Addawood

PhD: 2019
Advisor: Dr. Umberto Ravaioli, ECE
Dissertation:
Understanding Misinformation on Twitter in the Context of Controversial Issues

Jarai Carter

PhD: 2019
Advisor: Dr. Lulu Rodriguez, Agricultural Communication
Dissertation:
Use of and Information Seeking Behaviors on Facebook Among Illinois Farmers and Farm Families

Usawadee Chaiprom

PhD: 2019
Advisor: Dr. Matt Hudson, Crop Sciences
Dissertation:
Analysis of Soybean Gene Regulation Reveals Regulatory Mechanisms of RHG1-Mediated Resistance to Soybean Cyst Nematode

Hsiao-Ying Huang

PhD: 2019
Advisor: Dr. Masooda Bashir, iSchool
Dissertation:
Examining Older Users’ Online Privacy-Enhancing Experience from a Human-Computer Interaction Perspective

Kyungho Lee

PhD: 2019
Advisor: Dr. Donna Cox, Art & Design
Dissertation:
Understanding the role of Visual Metaphors in Emerging Media Arts Research and Practice

Halie Rando

PhD: 2019
Advisor: Dr. Anna Kukekova, Animal Sciences
Dissertation:
Genomic Response to Selection for Behavior

Daniel Wickland

PhD: 2019
Advisor: Dr. Matthew Hudson, Crop Sciences
Dissertation:
Computational Methods For Genomic Variant Calling and Analysis

Sean Wilner

PhD: 2019
Advisor: Dr. John Hummel, Psychology
Dissertation:
Narrative Comprehension Through Analogy: A Study in Cognitive Modeling and Narrative Clustering

Xuesong Yang

PhD: 2019
Advisor: Dr. Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Dissertation:
Dealing with Linguistic Mismatches for Automatic Speech Recognition

Syed Abbas Bukhari

PhD: 2018
Advisor: Dr. Alison Bell, Animal Biology
Dissertation:
Neurogenomic Dynamics Following Social Interactions in Male Threespined Sticklebacks

Michael Junokas

PhD: 2018
Advisor: Dr. Guy Garnett, Music
Dissertation:
A Singular Synthesis: Investigating Timbral Synthesis and Control Systems Through the Integration of Music Composition and Machine Learning

Ankit Rai

PhD: 2018
Advisor: Dr. Barbara Minsker, Civil & Environmental Engineering
Dissertation:
Inferring Landscape Preferences from Social Media Using Data Science Techniques

Kiumars Soltani

PhD: 2018
Advisor: Dr. Shaowen Wang, Geography
Dissertation:
A Distributed Workload-aware Approach to Partitioning Geospatial Big Data for Cybergis Analytics

Joseph T. Yun

PhD: 2018
Advisor: Dr.Brittany Duff, Adverstising
Dissertation:
Analyzing the Boundaries of Balance Theory in Evaluating Cause-Related Marketing Compatibility

Tom Le Paine

PhD: 2017
Advisor: Dr. Thomas Huang, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dissertation:
Practical Considerations for Deep Learning

Yan Liu

PhD: 2017
Advisor: Dr. Shaowen Wang, Geography
Dissertation:
High-Performance Evolutionary Computation for Scalable Spatial Optimization

Brent Fegley

PhD: 2016
Advisor: Dr. Vetle Torvik, iSchool
Dissertation:
Mechanisms Driving the Formation and Success of Collaborations between Scientists in Biomedicine

Arshan Nasir

PhD: 2015
Advisor: Dr. Gustavo Caetano-Anolles, Crop Sciences
Dissertation:
Structural and Functional Advances in the Evolutionary Studies of Cells and Viruses

Scott Nixon

PhD: 2015
Advisor: Dr. Sandra Rodriguez-Zas, Animal Sciences
Dissertation:
Study of Phenotypic and Gene Expression Response to Bacterial Challenge