Dr. Kinza Salim is a First Year PhD at the SFI CRT in Artificial intelligence. She achieved her MBBS degree from People’s University of Medical and Health Sciences, Pakistan. She is a gold medalist in the subject of Biochemistry and has recently completed her Postgraduate Clinical training in Otorhinolaryngology from Capital Hospital, Islamabad. She is an enthusiastic medical practitioner and a BLS provider.

Her keen interest in the field of research has led to publication of article named Investigation of low back pain and intervertebral disc using fatigue loading a review in 2022 and she is also recently working on thesis titled effect of cochlear implantation on vestibular function.

Dr Kinza was a subeditor in Med Hoc magazine during her undergraduate studies. She has experience of teaching medical students and has worked as a Demonstrator in the Anatomy department. She also participated at charity ‘love your eyes’, World Sight Day symposium. Prior to joining CRT-AI, she was working as an occupational medical officer in Islamabad. Dr Kinza has experience of teaching medical students and worked as a Demonstrator in the Anatomy department.

Her supervisor is Dr.Harry Nguyen and she will be working closely with the National Learning Analytics Unit spearheaded by Professor George Shorten.

In her spare time, she reads books, likes to play badminton, scrabble, loves to write short poems, blogs and watches documentaries.

Supervisor is Dr. Harry Nguyen & Dr. Rosane Minghim 

Khanh-Tung Tran holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Ho Chi Minh University of Technology, Vietnam. With a background in academia and industry, he has enriched his skills and knowledge through research roles at WARA Media and Language (Sweden) and FPT Software (Vietnam). He has been working on large-scale research projects, under the guidance of Assoc. Prof. Johanna Björklund, Asst. Prof. Harry Nguyen, Dr. Xuan-Son Vu, and Dr. Duy Khuong Nguyen. His research interests include sound signal processing, spatio-temporal models, and multimodal machine learning.

Supervisor: Dr. Harry Nguyen 

Dung, also known as Robert is a first year PhD, working with Dr. Harry Nguyen (UCC).Dung holds a BSc in Computer Science from Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam. He also worked at AI Centre at FPT Software for two years. 

His research work title Medical Training Analytics Framework with Enhanced Feedback using Reliable AI methods. 

In his spare time, Dung enjoys reading, going to the gym and hanging out with his friends. 

I am a first-year PhD student in the SFI Centre for Research Training in Artificial Intelligence in University College Cork. I obtained my bachelor’s degree in computer science in University of Glasgow and worked as a research assistant in National University of Singapore prior to joining the CRT-AI funded PhD programme. My supervisor is Dr Harry Nguyen and my current research topic is Geographical Mapping and Sustainable Impact Assessment AI. In my spare time, I enjoy doing martial arts.

Supervisors: Dr. Harry Nguyen & Professor Barry O’Sullivan 

I am a Ukrainian citizen residing in Western Ukraine’s Chernivtsi city. I completed my education as a Computer Engineer at Yuriy Fedkovich Chernivtsi National University, where I also received a master’s degree in Engineering with a focus on IoT Technologies and Cyber-physical Systems. I spent a semester studying in Germany as an exchange student, and during my master’s degree, I studied in Austria. In between my studies, I participated in the Work and Travel program in the United States. Overall, my academic pursuits have been diverse, spanning multiple countries and areas of study, providing me with a well-rounded education and valuable life experiences.

Since my bachelor’s study, I have engaged in various scientific endeavors focused on advanced computing, such as attending the ECODAM and IEEE International Conference on Electronics and Information Technologies. In addition to this, I worked in an IT company as a 3D artist, creating visualizations for mobile video games. My varied interests have helped me acquire the ability to work in different roles effectively. During my research, I designed a genetic algorithm for producing reversible circuits, which are more energy-efficient and less prone to faults than traditional circuitry.

Presently, I am collaborating with Professor Sabin Tabirca to create a medical resource scheduling application specifically for operating theatres in surgical procedures. By merging my expertise in evolutionary computing for optimal solutions and deep learning prediction models, we are developing an automated and efficient scheduler suitable for implementation in hospitals. In my leisure time, I have a keen interest in learning Japanese and playing the piano. I enjoy listening to new audiobooks focused on self-help or science fiction, and I have a passion for movies with profound meaning. 

Supervisors: Professor Sabin Tabirca & Professor Mark Corrigan (CoMH UCC)

Nicola Rossberg is a first-year PhD candidate at University College Cork. In 2023 she received her MSc in Data Science Cum Laude from Tilburg University. During her Master’s program she conducted research in the areas of Natural Language Processing and Deep learning. Her Master’s Thesis, “Explainable Multiclass Classification using Deep Neural Networks for Orthopaedic Applications” was completed under the supervision of Dr. Andrea Visentin and in co-operation with University College Cork. In her free time she enjoys reading and spending time exercising. She is especially fond of rowing and lifting weights.

Supervisors: Professor Barry O’Sullivan & Dr. Andrea Visentin 

Akasha Shafiq currently pursuing a PhD.

Akasha Shafiq is a PhD researcher at University College Cork, specializing in differential privacy. Her research is focused on designing and validating privacy-preserving mechanisms that protect individual privacy while ensuring data utility. Akasha holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from COMSATS University, Islamabad, where she was part of the Network Security Research Group, and she was recognized as one of Business Post’s Tech 30 under 30 in 2024.

Her current work combines theoretical and practical approaches to differential privacy, particularly in fine-tuning privacy parameters like epsilon to optimize the privacy-utility balance. Akasha’s research spans applications in secure data sharing, IoT environments, and machine learning, where she emphasizes empirical validation and addresses the challenges of deploying differential privacy solutions in real-world settings.

Supervisor: Dr Paolo Palmieri

My name is Samaksh, you can call me Sam for short. I am a doctoral researcher in the field of artificial intelligence at CRT in AI. I have worked on building recommender systems, predictive analytics for classification and regression problems, federated learning for energy modelling of battery electric vehicles, and using machine learning for product matching tasks. My interests are towards human-compatible AI systems, explainable AI, constraint programming and optimization problems, federated learning, and applied machine learning. My supervisors are Dr. Steve Prestwich and Dr. Andrea Visentin (UCC).

Daniella Traynor recently graduated with a first-class honours degree in Digital Humanities from University College Cork and was awarded UCCDH student of the year. Her final year project ExploringSHUA focused on using deep maps to explore socioeconomic changes in urban areas. Her artefact was nominated for the 2021 Global DH awards for best data visualisation. Since then, she has assisted the department in academic research projects while simultaneously working on part-time data projects and various contracts in technical consultancy. Daniella has owned and run a web development company for 5+ years and did her undergraduate work experience with Google. She is now a full-time PhD student with the CRT-AI. Her research aims to bring forward the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence into Digital Humanities, with her thesis focusing on methods for preserving and promoting cultural heritage. Her supervisors are Professor Claire Connolly,  Dr. Rosane Mingham and Dr. Orla Murphy.