Faculty & Staff

Dr. Jean King is an active neuroscientist and Peterson Family Dean of Arts & Sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Previously Dr. King was the Vice Provost of Biomedical Research and Professor of Psychiatry, Radiology, and Neurology (with tenure) at UMass Medical School, where she had been a faculty member since 1994.  Together with other administrative leaders at WPI, Dean King has launched new undergraduate and graduate programs in Learning Science, Neuroscience, Interactive Media and Game Development, and AI and has expanded undergraduate research opportunities.  Dr. King’s ...

I work with Dean Jean King, where our research is broadly focused on identifying and studying neurobehavioral mechanisms of mental illness and developing effective interventions.  We currently use functional MRI (fMRI) to identify the neural correlates of mindfulness based stress reduction as part of a stage IIa randomized clinical trial, and fMRI data combined with related clinical measures to develop machine learning based early predictors of severe depression and suicidality.  I developed a transgenerational social stress based rodent model of postpartum depression/anxiety, and related ...

 My research is in human-computer interaction and human-AI interaction. One focus of my research is on next-generation interaction techniques, such as brain-computer interfaces, physiological computing, textile sensing, radar sensing, and reality-based interaction. My students and I design, build and evaluate interactive computing systems that use machine learning approaches to adapt and support the user’s changing cognitive state and context. I also investigate novel paradigms for designing with accessibility in mind, particularly for the Deaf community. Much of my work also explores ...

I specialize in user experience and decision-making research, focusing on uncovering the intricacies of human cognition to understand the factors that enhance or impede the effective use of information technologies.Since people predominantly use their eyes to process information, I utilize eye-tracking technology to study user reactions to product and service designs. For example, I analyze eye movement data to evaluate user engagement with various content, ranging from embedded information on organizational websites to complex details, such as diagnosis and treatment options, in medical ...

Angela Incollingo Rodriguez is an assistant professor of Psychological & Cognitive Sciences and Neuroscience. She directs the Stigma Eating & Endocrinology Dynamics (SEED) Lab and collaborates on interdisciplinary research initiatives throughout WPI and around the globe.Dr. Rodriguez's research program harnesses an integrated biopsychosocial approach to identify psychosocial predictors and mechanisms that drive health behaviors, overall health, and health disparities. Her mixed-methods research occurs at the intersection of social phenomena (such as weight stigma), biomarkers ...

I enjoy teaching because it allows me to interact with students who have the potential to make the world a better place using technology. I continually innovate in my courses to ensure students enjoy the learning experience, learn the key concepts and skills related to information systems through real world examples, have an opportunity to learn from each other, learn to present themselves as professionals, and most importantly learn to use or develop technology to make a difference. WPI provides a learning environment that allows me to accomplish these principles with its emphasis in theory ...

Emmanuel Agu is currently a professor in the computer science department at WPI having received his Masters and PhD in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His research interests are in the areas of computer graphics, mobile computing, and wireless networks. He is especially interested in research into how to use a smartphone as a platform to deliver better healthcare. In collaboration with researchers at WPI and at UMass Medical School, he is currently working on NIH-funded research project to create a mobile application for chronic wound care ...

My research is interdisciplinary and spans the fields of bioinformatics of complex diseases, computational genomics, systems biology, and biomedical data analytics. We bring expertise in machine learning, data mining, and massive data analytics to study molecular mechanisms underlying genetic disorders, such as cancer, diabetes, and autism, and deadly infections, such as pandemic flu. Our approaches benefit from integrating multi-omic, systems, and structural biology data. We also develop hardware-optimized algorithms to understand the evolution of animal and plant genomes on the large scale. ...

Richard Lopez is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology in the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies at WPI. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology, social neuroscience, and Open Science practices applied to functional neuroimaging. He also directs the Social Neuroscience of Affective Processes (SNAP) Lab. In the SNAP Lab, Professor Lopez and his students utilize tools in modern neuroscience (e.g., fMRI) and longitudinal modeling of behavior to better understand how human beings align their thoughts and emotions with goals they are pursuing—with ...

Carolina Ruiz is the Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Harold L. Jurist ’61 and Heather E. Jurist Dean's Professor of Computer Science. She joined the WPI faculty in 1997. Prof. Ruiz’s research is in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Mining, and their applications to Medicine and Health. She has worked on several clinical domains including sleep, stroke, obesity and pancreatic cancer. Prof. Ruiz and her research group have developed novel, high-performing machine learning methods, including deep learning networks, for analyzing physiological sleep data; and machine ...

The research program led by Dr. Haichong (Kai) Zhang focuses on the interface of medical robotics, sensing, and imaging, and to develop a novel biomedical imaging systems that delineates both anatomical and physiological properties of a biological tissue that have been inaccessible. In addition, we will develop robotic assisted imaging systems as well as image-guided robotic interventional platforms, where ultrasound and photoacoustic (PA) imaging are two key modalities to be investigated and integrated with robotics.The scope of innovation includes (1) co-robotic imaging, where a robotic ...