Rory Ward is a first-year PhD student in the Unit for Social Semantics at the Data Science Institute, National University of Ireland, Galway, where he is supervised by Prof. John Breslin. His research is in the field of Automatic Visual Media Colourisation which is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence. This area is concerned with tools and techniques to colourise black and white images and videos from some underlying representation of information. Rory holds a B.Eng. in Electronic and Computer Engineering from National University of Ireland, Galway, where his thesis was focused on Local-Specifically Trained Deep Learning Colourisation. Prior to joining the CRT-AI funded PhD programme, Rory developed a background in Electrical Power Transmission. In his spare time Rory enjoys practicing judo and playing guitar.

Supervisor:  Professor John Breslin

Aaron Flannagan is a first-year PhD student in the school of computer science at the National University of Galway (NUIG), where he is supervised by Dr. Frank Glavin. His research is in the field of Data Synthesis and Deep Learning which is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence machine learning that is concerned with the tools and techniques of data augmentation, automatic learning, and predictive modelling. Aaron holds an MSc. in Artificial Intelligence from NUIG where his thesis was focused on the semantic segmentation of the skin layer boundaries in nano and standard Optical Coherence Tomography finger tissue scans prior to joining the CRT-AI funded PhD programme, Aaron worked as a software developer and devops engineer in SAP, while obtaining his MSc part-time over two years. The core projects he focused on were concerned with the tracking and tracing of pharmaceuticals, systems integration for a drug ordering management portal, and full-scale network and API development for financial institutions. 

Supervisor: Dr. Frank Glavin

Fitria Wulandari

Fitria is a member of the 3^rd cohort of CRT-AI, studying at the School of Computer Science, University of Galway, under the supervision of Dr. James McDermott. Her research is in the field of Evolutionary Computation, which is a subfield of AI. She is working on the interpretability of regression modelling for interpolation and extrapolation using genetic programming (GP) and multi-objective optimization. 

She gained an interest in this field while she was doing her master’s at Kyungpook National University in the research lab of Evolutionary Computation and Intelligent Systems Lab, South Korea, and her thesis was focused on the Evolutionary Multi/Many-objective Approaches to solving the Next Release Optimization Problems. 

Supervisor: Dr. James McDermott

Adam Callaghan is a first-year PhD student in the Information Technology department in the National University of Ireland Galway, where he is supervised by Dr. Patrick Mannion and Dr. Karl Mason. His research is in the field of Theoretical Evolutionary Deep Reinforcement Learning which is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence that is concerned with developing genetical algorithms in the domain of Deep Reinforcement models. He holds an honours BSc in Mathematics and Applied mathematics. His final year project was on Differential Geometry and focused on Vector Bundles, sections and Connections.  He also holds a higher diploma in Data Analytics from the National University of Ireland Galway, where he undertook a research paper in Classical Machine learning and Artificial Neural Networks for use in Credit Card Fraud Detection. Prior to joining the CRT-AI funded PhD programme, He was involved in a research internship on the multidisciplinary “Safeplan” project in collaboration with the National University of Ireland Galway. The project aimed to offer a new mobile application providing help for individuals with suicidal intentions through the use of break-point analysis and machine learning techniques. In his/her spare time He enjoys hanging out with friends playing soccer and video games. 

Supervisor : Dr. Patrick Mannion and Dr. Karl Mason.

Jiaolin Luo is a first-year PhD student in the School of Computer Science, National University of Ireland Galway, where she is supervised by Dr. Colm O’Riordan. Her research is in the field of the Explainability and Interpretability of Deep Learning which is concerned with the explanation approaches, and, the theoretical and empirical research, of DL architecture and tricks. She holds a Masters of Science degree in Artificial Intelligence from NUI Galway, Ireland, where her thesis was focused in the research of self-supervised contrastive learning. Prior to joining the CRT-AI funded PhD programme, she worked as a level-19 leading architect and expert focusing on data storage research at Huawei Research Institute and a researcher focusing on memory technology and High-performance Computing (HPC) at the PASA Lab of University of California Merced. She holds 10+ granted patents from China/USA/Europe in data storage and conference publications in the field of HPC and System for Machine Learning (System for ML). In her spare time she enjoys making friends, cooking, doing sports, travelling and learning to play instruments.

Supervisor: Dr. Colm O’Riordan.

Mashal Kahn is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at the National University of Ireland, Galway-NUIG, where she is supervised by Dr. Matthias Nickles and Dr. Frank Glavin. Her research is in the field of Federated Machine Learning which is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence. The research is about the decentralized and federated training of Machine Learning models ensuring data Privacy. Mashal holds an MS in Information Security, Pakistan where her thesis was focused on Blockchain and its applications. Prior to joining CRT-AI funded Ph.D. program, Mashal worked as a Lecturer and Final Year Project Coordinator in the department of Computer Science, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Pakistan. She also worked as a Research Assistant, where she worked on the network and security analysis of blockchain networks. In her spare time, Mashal enjoys hanging out with friends, going on trips, and playing badminton.

Supervisor: Dr. Matthias Nickles and Dr. Frank Glavin.