Our team
Ilmi Yoon, Principal Investigator — Chair
Dr. Ilmi Yoon is a Teaching Professor and Director of Computing Programs for Khoury College in the Silicon Valley (SV) Campus at Northeastern University. She earned both her MS and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles in 1996 and 2000. She studied at CGIT Laboratory (Computer Graphics and Immersive Technologies) with Prof. Ulrich Neumann in the Computer Science Department at the University of Southern California.
Her research interests lie in promoting inclusivity and accessibility, utilizing machine learning and Human-centered AI. Furthermore, her research intersects innovative technology and societal benefits, specifically for enhancing digital access in video accessibility for visually impaired users by enabling descriptive audio description generations to online videos.
Research Interests: Artificial Intelligence, Computational Biology, Human-Computer Interactions, Machine Learning
Nadim Saad, Principal Investigator — Co-Chair
Nadim Saad is an assistant teaching professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, based in Silicon Valley.During his doctoral studies at Stanford University, Saad developed traffic flow models based on partial differential equations. He also built physically informed deep learning models to solve PDEs during his time as an applied scientist intern with Amazon Web Services.
Saad joined Khoury College in 2023, where he teaches a variety of foundational computer science and data science courses. Saad enjoys these courses, as he can guide students in subject areas that might be new to them and encourage them to pursue computing careers. He also enjoys teaching more specialized elective courses like “Supervised Machine Learning and Learning Theory” to help students who have already found a passion within computer science to grow their knowledge further.
Research Interests: Machine Learning, PDEs, Deep Learning, Physics Informed Neural Networks
Ali Shehral, Founding Researcher — President
Ali Shehral is an MSCS candidate at Northeastern University’s Silicon Valley campus with a background in finance. His research interests lie at the intersection of quantitative finance and cutting-edge artificial intelligence. Passionate about applying advanced methodologies to transform financial applications, Ali explores reinforcement learning alongside other state-of-the-art approaches—including deep neural networks, generative models, graph neural networks, and meta-learning—to innovate in areas such as algorithmic trading, risk management, and portfolio optimization.
Additionally, Ali is intrigued by the prospect of AI systems engaging in recursive self-improvement—researching and refining their own methodologies—to drive continuous advancements in AI. This dual focus on financial technologies and meta-level AI research underscores his commitment to pushing the boundaries of both fields, paving the way for smarter, more adaptive systems in the financial sector and beyond.
Research Interests: Multi-Agent RL, Algorithmic Game Theory, Explainable AI, Quantum ML
Jose Sampedro Mazon, Founding Researcher
— Lab Lead – Industry Partnerships
Jose is an MSCS candidate at Northeastern’s Silicon Valley campus with 12+ years of multi-disciplinary industry experience. Prior to joining Northeastern, Jose co-founded an AI-powered legaltech startup in the ‘pre-ChatGPT’ era, led consultative business development engagements defining cloud-first technology strategies for key corporate accounts as Oracle Cloud Insight Director, and managed business and technical consulting teams on digital transformation projects for leading financial institutions as a Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group. He has also directed investment teams at major corporate venture capital funds as Principal of Mach49’s CVC practice, and remains active in Silicon Valley startup scene.
Jose’s research interests focus on exploring advanced reasoning, multi-agent systems, and agent-based simulations as foundational elements for artificial general intelligence (AGI). He aims to investigate how integrating causal and counterfactual reasoning with symbolic abstraction—and studying multi-agent interactions—can enable AI systems to truly understand and plan in complex environments.
Research Interests: Advanced Reasoning, Multi-Agent Systems, Agent-Based Simulations, AGI
Stella Zhang, Founding Researcher
— Lab Lead – Academic Partnerships
Stella Zhang is a Computer Science graduate student at Northeastern University’s Silicon Valley campus. She holds a Master’s in Accountancy from Baruch College and previously worked as an Audit Manager at Ernst & Young, LLP (2019–2023), specializing in financial audits for REITs and hedge funds. Her background in financial accounting led to her interest in AI-driven automation and data analysis.
Stella is currently working on a researching focusing on object-oriented modeling of traffic flow using partial differential equation (PDE) models. The research is aims to improve the real-world traffic simulation by incorporating PDE models with non-linear velocity functions to simulate diverse driver behaviors on different road type. She is also passionate about AI applications in financial analysis, risk assessment, and fraud detection, as well as AI-driven solutions for personal finance, health, and fitness.
Research Interests: Object-Oriented Modeling, Deep Learning, AI Applications in Accounting, Personal Finance & Health
Yujing Wang, Founding Researcher
— Lab Lead – Academic Partnerships
Yujing is an MSCS candidate at Northeastern University’s Silicon Valley campus, with a background in clinical medicine. Before joining Northeastern, she worked as a resident physician at the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, where she participated in multiple clinical trials and developed a strong interest in patient-centered care.
She is currently involved in the NurseTown project under Professor Ilmi Yoon, an AI-driven simulation game for nursing education. By combining her clinical experience with emerging technologies, Yujing is passionate about bridging the gap between healthcare and computer science and remains open to new challenges and interdisciplinary opportunities.
Research Interests: AI in Healthcare, Artificial Intelligence
Qiaochu Liu, Founding Researcher
Qiaochu Liu is an MSCS student at Khoury College of Computer Science, Northeastern University, Silicon Valley campus. He holds a BArch and MEng from Tsinghua University, where he developed a hybrid floor plan coding and generation system using optimization algorithms. With a diverse interdisciplinary background in design, life sciences, and computer science, Qiaochu has also engaged in research areas such as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Machine Learning (ML), Pattern Recognition, and Image Generation.
At Khoury College, Qiaochu continues to broaden his expertise, particularly in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Graphics. He is deeply interested in exploring how these fields can be leveraged for creative applications in design and game development. And he remains open to new opportunities and challenges that may further shape his career trajectory.
Research Interests: Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, AI-assisted design
Zhenzhen Qin, Founding Researcher
Zhenzhen Qin is an MSCS student at Northeastern University’s Silicon Valley campus. With previous experience as a Text-to-Speech Engineer, she developed a deep appreciation for how AI enhances people’s daily lives, sparking her interest in the field. She also has experience in full-stack development at NEU and is now exploring AI agents. Currently, she is working on Nurse Town, a project under Professor Ilmi Yoon, where LLMs and AI tools are leveraged to develop a game designed to assist with nurse training.
Research Interests: Human-AI Interaction, AI Agents
Alumni
Qiwen (Fiona) Xiong, Founding Researcher
Qiwen (Fiona) Xiong is a research apprentice at Northeastern University, focusing on AI applications in healthcare. She is currently involved in research on AI-driven nurse training simulations, contributing to Nurse Town: An LLM-powered Simulation Game for Nursing Education.
Prior to her research endeavors, Fiona gained industry experience as a software engineer intern at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on the Redshift Concurrency Scaling team, where she worked on infrastructure as code (IaC) to enhance distributed systems. She also has a background in finance and data analytics, with four years of experience at Ernst & Young (EY) as a senior auditor specializing in the technology sector.
Fiona’s research interests include machine learning, deep learning, AI agents, multimodal AI, and AI applications in healthcare. She is particularly passionate about leveraging AI to build intelligent systems that enhance real-world decision-making and education in critical fields.
Research Interests: Machine Learning, Deep Learning, AI Agents, Multimodal AI, AI in Healthcare
Lana Do, Founding Researcher
Lana is passionate about AI and machine learning and has worked on projects in natural language processing and computer vision. Her research includes responsible AI and fine-grained sentiment analysis. Currently, she is working on YouDescribe, a platform that enhances video accessibility by improving AI-generated audio descriptions and developing Infobot, a feature that lets users pause videos and ask questions. She enjoys exploring new developments in AI and machine learning and integrating them into real-world applications in an intuitive and responsible way.
Research Interests: Responsible AI, Sentiment Analysis
Yuqi Hu, Founding Researcher
Yuqi Hu is an incoming doctoral student in the UCSD/SDSU Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health, beginning in August 2025. He has earned his MS in Computer Science from Northeastern University, following earlier degrees in Public Health (MPH, Imperial College London) and Clinical Psychology (BS, UC San Diego). With a specific focus in substance use, Yuqi is also interested in exploring the broader intersections of AI and public health/healthcare.
Research Interests: AI in Public Health, AI for Healthcare, Human Computer Interaction