Director: Prof. M. Hadi Amini
Biography: M. Hadi Amini is an Assistant Professor at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences, College of Engineering and Computing at Florida International University. He is the founding director of Sustainability, Optimization, and Learning for InterDependent networks laboratory (www.solidlab.network). He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2019, where he received his M.Sc. degree in 2015. He also holds a doctoral degree in Computer Science and Technology. Prior to that, he received M.Sc. degree from Tarbiat Modares University in 2013, and B.Sc. degree from Sharif University of Technology in 2011.
His research interests include distributed machine learning algorithms, distributed optimization, federated learning, interdependent networks, and cyber-physical-social resilience and cybersecurity. Application domains include smart cities, transportation networks, healthcare, and energy systems. Hadi is a Senior Member of IEEE, and a life member of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-HKN), the honor society of IEEE. He served as President of Carnegie Mellon University Energy Science and Innovation Club; as technical program committee of several IEEE and ACM conferences; and as the lead editor for a book series on ‘‘Sustainable Interdependent Networks’’ since 2017. He also serves/has served as Associate Editor of Data Science for Communications (Frontiers in Communications and Networks) and International Transactions on Electrical Energy Systems. He has published more than 150 refereed journal and conference papers, and book chapters. He edited/authored eight books. He is the co-recipient of the best paper award from “2019 IEEE Conference on Computational Science & Computational Intelligence”, 2021 best journal paper award from “Springer Nature Operations Research Forum Journal”, the Excellence in Teaching Award from FIU School of Computing and Information Sciences in 2020, best reviewer award from four IEEE Transactions, the best journal paper award in “Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy”, and the dean’s honorary award from the President of Sharif University of Technology. (Homepage: www.hadiamini.com)
Contact: amini [at] [cs] [dot] [fiu] [dot] [edu]
Office: Modesto A. Maidique Campus, CASE 238A
Phone: (305) 348-9936
Homepage: www.hadiamini.com
ORCID | LinkedIn | ResearchGate | Twitter
Ph.D. Fellow: Luiz Pereira
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- Dissertation Title: Optimal Transport for Machine Learning: from Federated Learning to Complex Network Resilience
Selected Accomplishments:
- 2022-2025 Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need Ph.D. Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education
- 2021 Best Journal Paper Award”, Operations Research Forum
- FIU Worlds Ahead Graduate, Magna Cum Laude Graduate, Dean’s High Achievers Society, BGS Honor Society
- 2020 DHS CAESCIR Undergraduate Fellowship
- 2021-2022 DHS CAESCIR Ph.D. Fellowship
Ph.D. Student: Yasaman Saadati
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Dissertation Title: Feature Representation Learning: From Generalized to Personalized Federated Learning
Ph.D. Fellow: Ervin Moore
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(co-advised by Prof. Shabnam Rezapour)
Selected Accomplishment:
- 2022-2023 DHS CAESCIR Ph.D. Fellowship
- 2024 DHS AMDIRE Ph.D. Fellowship
- 2024-2025 DHS SLA Fellowship
Ph.D. Student: Md Jueal Mia
Ph.D. Student: Badhan Chandra Das
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(co-advised by Prof. Yanzhao Wu)
Ph.D. Fellow: Ruth Hammond
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Selected Accomplishment:
- 2023 NSF Bridge to Doctorate Fellowship
Ph.D. Fellow: Anthony Devesa
(co-advised by Prof. Leonardo Bobadilla)
solid lab Ph.D. Alumni (Four students as of 2024)
Dr. Ahmed Imteaj (Ph.D., Summer 2022; M.Sc., Fall 2021)
- First Employment: Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
- Dissertation Title: Distributed Machine Learning Algorithms for Resource-Constrained Heterogeneous IoT Environments
Ph.D. Defense: Summer 2022
M.Sc. En Route to Ph.D.: Fall 2021
Selected Accomplishments:
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- “2022 Real Triumphs Graduate” in the FIU Summer-2022 Commencement Ceremony
- Master’s in Computer Science from FIU with the recognition of the “Outstanding Master’s degree graduate Award”
- “2022 Outstanding Student Life Award” (the Graduate Scholar of the Year Award), the Division of Academic and Student Affairs at FIU
- “2021 Best Graduate Student in Research Award” from the School of Computing and Information Sciences at FIU
- “Best Paper Award” from the IEEE CSCI’19 conference
Dr. Leila Zahedi (Ph.D., Summer 2022; M.Sc., Fall 2021)
- Employment: Senior Data Scientist, Johnson Controls –> Senior Data Scientist, AT&T
- Dissertation Title: An Evolutionary Optimization Algorithm for Automated Classical Machine Learning
Selected Accomplishments:
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- “2022 Outstanding Student Life Award” (the Graduate Leader of the Year Award), the Division of Academic and Student Affairs at FIU
- “Dissertation Year Fellowship” from University Graduate School, FIU, 2022
- Several scholarships from Anita Borg Institute and the National Foundation of Science to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC17, GHC19) and Richard Tapia Conference (TAPIA19, vTAPIA20)
Dr. Khandaker Mamun Ahmed (Ph.D., Summer 2024)
- Employment: Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Sciences, Dakota State University
- Dissertation Title: Computer Vision for Anomaly Detection: From Centralized to Distributed Learning
Selected Accomplishment:
- “2022 Best Graduate Student in Research Award” from the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at FIU
Namrata Saha (Ph.D., Summer 2024)
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(co-advised by Prof. Shabnam Rezapour)
- Dissertation Title: Coupled Reinforcement Learning for Resilient Interdependent Networks
solid lab Undergraduate and Master students
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Nathanael Gelin
(co-advised with Prof. Leonardo Bobadilla)
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Linza Gelin
(co-advised with Prof. Leonardo Bobadilla)
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Ronaldo Carrazco
solid lab Undergraduate and Master Alumni (as of 2024)
NSF REU Fellow: Isabella Peng
NSF REU Fellow: Hannan Shah
M.Sc. Research Assistant (part-time): Shamim Yazdani
Undergraduate REU Fellow: Emily Lofaro
Undergraduate REU Fellow: Alexander Delgado
Master Student, DHS CAESCIR Fellow: Samuel Muvdi
(co-advised with Prof. Jason Liu)
Undergraduate REU Fellow: Brian Rodriguez
Research Intern: Brhian Davila (Miami-dade College)
Undergraduate Research Fellow: Caio Moreti Koga
M.Sc. Student: Naadir Kirlew
M.Sc. Research Assistant: Aaron Turransky (Fall/Spring 2020)
Undergraduate Research Fellow: Luiz Pereira (March 2020-December 2020) [Currently a solid lab PhD student]
Undergraduate Research Fellow: Calvin Mark (Spring/Summer 2020)
First Employment/Position after Graduating from FIU: Software Engineer, Oracle
Research featured by FIU News, FIU CEC News, and FIU SCIS News (Link 1) (Link 2) (Link 3)
Undergraduate Research Fellow (Supported by NSF REU Program): Meleik Hyman (Spring-Fall 2020)
First Employment/Position after Graduating from FIU: Data Scientist at Starbucks
Research featured by FIU News, FIU CEC, FIU CEC LinkedIn, FIU SCIS, FIU SCIS LinkedIn
Undergraduate Research Fellow (Supported by NSF REU Program):
Raghad Alabagi (Summer 2021)
Raghad Alabagi is a rising junior in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona. She has had a passion for software at a young age and is now working towards her bachelor’s degree in both Software Engineering and in Mathematics. While attending the University of Arizona, she has made the dean’s list along with being accepted into a competitive program for STEM majors. She worked on federated learning algorithms for distributed decision-making.
Senior Design Team: “Distributed Machine Learning for Mobile Programmable Robots: From Programming to Distributed Intelligence” (Spring 2020)
News Coverage: “Students rise against the odds to complete their senior design project on machine learning for robotics” by FIU College of Engineering and Computing News and FIU School of Computing and Information Sciences News
Undergraduate Student: Glenda Gonzalez
Together with her teammate, she worked on her senior design project entitled “Distributed Machine Learning for Mobile Programmable Robots: From Programming to Distributed Intelligence”. As a part of this senior design project, students explored the potential deployment of machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms on mobile robots. To this end, they used programmable intelligent robots, implemented and expanded on built-in features of the robot such as obstacle avoidance, color classification, QR codes, and facial detection. Additionally, they explored the robot’s capabilities pertinent to computer science research and education, with the goal of determining whether it is a suitable platform for modeling distributed machine learning algorithms.
Undergraduate Student: Ricardo Boetto
Together with his teammate, he worked on his senior design project entitled “Distributed Machine Learning for Mobile Programmable Robots: From Programming to Distributed Intelligence”. As a part of this senior design project, students explored the potential deployment of machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms on mobile robots. To this end, they used programmable intelligent robots, implemented and expanded on built-in features of the robot such as obstacle avoidance, color classification, QR codes, and facial detection. Additionally, they explored the robot’s capabilities pertinent to computer science research and education, with the goal of determining whether it is a suitable platform for modeling distributed machine learning algorithms.
Research Experience for Teachers, Supported by NSF: The main goals of this program are to (1) build long-term collaborations between Kindergarten-through-12th grade (K-12) STEM teachers and the research community; (2) increase K-12 teachers’ knowledge of cutting-edge research topics; (3) build K-12 teachers’ technology competency through research and professional development programs; and (4) assist teachers in developing class curriculum based on their experience.
- Summer 2020: Zhaleh Hosseinian, Project Title: “A Mobile Application to Assist in Maintaining Social Distance and Illustrate COVID-19 Situations”
- Summer 2021: Marisa Behar and Yoandra Abad, Project Title: “Federated Learning Algorithms for Distributed Decision-making”
- Summer 2022: Todd Thompkins and Dr. Jamez R. Williams, Project Title: ” Developing Educational Modules and Course Plans to Teach Federated Learning to High School Students “
- Summer 2023: Mahmoud Kamel (Science teacher (Physics), MAST@FIU Biscayne Bay Campus) and Frederic Nau (Miami-dade County Public Schools, Chemistry & Physics Teacher)
Disclaimer: The first employment status after graduation of the alumni from the FIU solid lab is to the best of our knowledge. If there are any errors or updates, then please notify Dr. Amini via moamini@fiu.edu to update the information.
