Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics

Group Leader: Dr. Sanjay Ranka

Sanjay Ranka is a professor in the Department of Computer Information Science and Engineering at University of Florida. His current research interests are High Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence for health care and transportation. He teaches courses on data science (three course curriculum), data mining and parallel computing. From 1999-2002, he was the Chief Technology Officer at Paramark (Sunnyvale, CA). At Paramark, he developed a real-time optimization service called PILOT for marketing campaigns. PILOT served more than 10 million optimized decisions a day in 2002 with a 99.99% uptime. Paramark was recognized by VentureWire/Technologic Partners as a top 100 Internet technology company in 2001 and 2002 and was acquired in 2002. He has also held positions as a tenured faculty positions at Syracuse University and as a researcher/visitor at IBM T.J. Watson Research Labs and Hitachi America Limited. He is a fellow of the IEEE and AAAS, and a past member of IFIP Committee on System Modeling and Optimization. He is an associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing and an associate editor for ACM Computing Surveys, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Sustainable Computing: Systems and Informatics, Knowledge and Information Systems, and International Journal of Computing. He is also an editorial board member of Applied Sciences (Compuing and Artificial Intelligence). Additionally, he is a book series editor for CRC Press for Bigdata. In the past, he has been an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems and IEEE Transactions on Computers. His work has received 12200+ citations with an h-index of 54 (based on Google Scholar).

Mission

Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics have the potential for profound advancement in smart city planning, intelligent transportation operations and safety. Our preliminary work has been successful in achieving these outcomes. Our goal is to broaden the scope of our effort and relationships to improve the impact on real-world usage of technologies and software.

Focus

We live in an era of real-time gathering of information and its dissemination. The size of the digital universe is estimated to be around 50 Zettabytes today and expected to double every two years. The growth of exploitable data has the potential to trigger disruptive changes in the transportation sector and is having a profound impact in urban planning, intelligent mobility, and safety.

Vehicle loop detectors that have traditionally been deployed at intersections to detect the passage of vehicles have high deployment and maintenance costs; and are not always useful for observing the movements of pedestrians and scooters. The use of other modalities, such as video and lidar has great potential to improve accuracy and timeliness in the detection of vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. Additionally, data can be collected from interactions of vehicles with onboard units (that mimic the behavior of future connected vehicles). As part of the I-Street Trapezium project we are collecting one or more of the above modalities at 27 intersections in Gainesville. This information is then synthesized to create a real-time city-wide traffic palette that can is used to improve traffic safety and operations and stored in a data warehouse. This data is then used by artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques for real-time incident detection, vehicle classification, space-time trajectories, near-misses and travel-time distributions of vehicles and pedestrians while maintaining individual privacy.

We are developing signalized intersection control strategies and sensor fusion algorithms for jointly optimizing vehicle trajectories and signal control for a mixture of autonomous vehicles and traditional vehicles at every intersection. This approach uses short-range communication for autonomous vehicles and radar-based detection of traditional vehicles. These strategies are currently being field tested on actual signals at the Florida DoT’s TERL facility in Tallahassee and intersections in the City of Gainesville.

We are also working on developing algorithms and software to collect and process real-time General Bikeshare Feed Specification (GBFS) data feeds to infer real-time micromobility trips. This information will enable us to conduct spatio-temporal analysis for micromobility usage, model and forecast future micromobility demand by using machine learning, and provide suggestions for short-term and long-term transportation planning.

Projects

Name	Title, Department	Phone Number	Email	Area
Akcali, Elif	Associate Professor, Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering	352.294.7726	akcali@ufl.edu
Abd-Elrahman, Amr	Associate Professor, Geomatics	813.757.2283	aamr@ufl.edu
Agarwal, Nithin	Director, UFTI T2 Center	352.273.1674	nithin.agarwal@ufl.edu
Aghdashi, Behzad	Director, McTrans Center	352.294.3095	saghdashi@ufl.edu
Ahuja, Ravindra	Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering	352.334.7283 x 315
AitSahlia, Farid	Visiting Assistant Professor, Finance Insurance & Real Estate	352.392.5058	farid1@ufl.edu
Anton, Stephen	Associate Professor and Chief, Division of Clinical Research Department of Aging and Geriatric Research	352.273.7514	santon@ufl.edu
Anumba, Chimay	Professor, College of Design, Construction, & Planning		anumba@ufl.edu
Arnold, David	Associate Chair for Research, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	352.392.4931	darnold@ufl.edu
Ashkanazi, Glenn	Clinical Associate Professor & Health/Med Area Head, College of Public Health and Health Professions	352.273.5266	Glenna@phhp.ufl.edu
Baciak, James	Associate Professor, Nuclear Engineering Program	352.273.2131	baciak.mse.ufl.edu
Balaban, Canan	Associate Director, Florida Energy Systems Consortium		cbalaban@ufl.edu
Barmpoutis, Angelos	Associate Professor, Digital Worlds Institute	352.294.2042	angelos@digitalworlds.ufl.edu
Barooah, Prabir	Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering	352.294.0411	pbarooah@ufl.edu
Bauer, Russell	Professor, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology	352.273.6140	rbauer@phhp.ufl.edu
Bejleri, Ilir	Associate Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning	352.294.1489	ilir@ufl.edu
Bhunia, Swarup	Professor & Steven Yatauro Faculty Fellow, Director, Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	352.392.5989	swarup@ece.ufl.edu
Biron, Zoleikha	Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	352.392.5965	z.biron@ece.ufl.edu
Bobda, Christophe	Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	352.294.2024	cbobda@ece.ufl.edu
Bolch, Wesley	Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering	352.273.0303	wbolch@ufl.edu
Bridge, Jennifer	Associate Professor, Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering		jennifer.bridge@essie.ufl.edu
Burns, James	Professor Emeritus, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering		burns@ise.ufl.edu
Chini, Abdol	Professor, M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management		chini@ufl.edu
Christou, Evangelos	Professor, Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology	352.294.1719	eachristou@hhp.ufl.edu
Classen, Sherrilene	Professor and Chair, UF Department of Occupational Therapy	352.273.6817	sclassen@phhp.ufl.edu
Connaughton, Dan	Professor, Associate Dean for Faculty & Staff Affairs, Department of Sport Management	352.294.1600	danc@hhp.ufl.edu
Costin, Arron	Assistant Professor, M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management	352.273.2121	aaron.costin@ufl.edu
Crane, Carl	Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering	352.219.6433	ccrane@ufl.edu
Davidson, Michael	Associate Director of the Florida Bridge Software Institute, Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering	352.294.7835	michael@ce.ufl.edu
Dempere, Luisa Amelia	Director, Research Service Centers	352.864.2200	ademp@eng.ufl.edu
Denslow, David	Emeritus Professor and Research Economist, Bureau of Economic and Business Research		denslow@ufl.edu
Dixon, Warren	Ebaugh Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering	352.846.1463	chair@mae.ufl.edu
Du, Jing	Associate Professor, Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering	352.294.6619	eric.du@essie.ufl.edu
Du, Lili	Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering	352.294.7805	lilidu@ufl.edu
Eisenschenk, Stephan	Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Neurology	352.273.5550	stephan.eisenschenk@neurology.ufl.edu
Elefteriadou, Lily	Director, UFTI & Barbara Goldsby Professor, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering	352.294.7802	elefter@ce.ufl.edu
Erez, Amir	W.A. McGriff, III Professor, Warrington College of Business	352.273.0339	amir.erez@warrington.ufl.edu
Eugene, Wanda	Post Doctoral Researcher, Computer & Information Science & Engineering		weugene@ufl.edu
Fang, Yuguang	Distinguished Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	352.846.3043	fang@ece.ufl.edu
Ferraro, Christopher	Professor, Concrete Materials Research		ferraro@ce.ufl.edu
Fishwick, Paul	Faculty, Computer and Information Science and Engineering	352.392.1414	fishwick@cise.ufl.edu
Fortes, Jose	Professor and AT&T Eminent Scholar, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	352.392.9265	fortes@ufl.edu
Gheisari, Masoud	Assistant Professor, Rinker School of Construction Management		masoud@ufl.edu
Giang, Wayne	Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering	352.294.7729	wayne.giang@ise.ufl.edu
Gilbert, Juan	Chair, Computer & Information Science & Engineering	352.562.0784	juan@ufl.edu
Golant, Stephen	Emeritus Professor, Geography Department	352.294.7505	golant@ufl.edu
Guan, Yongpei	Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering	352.392.1464	guan@ise.ufl.edu
Guo, Rui	Lecturer, Department of Engineering Education	352.294.7816	rui.guo@ufl.edu
Hale, Matthew	Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering	352.294.0436	matthewhale@ufl.edu
Hamilton, Trey	Professor, Civil and Coastal Engineering	352.392.9537 x 1509	hrh@ce.ufl.edu
Hearn, Donald	Professor Emeritus, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering	352.294.7727	Hearn@ise.ufl.edu
Helmy, Ahmed	Professor, Computer and Information Science and Engineering	352.392.1200	helmy@ufl.edu
Hiltunen, Dennis	Professor, Civil and Coastal Engineering	352.392.9537 x 1468	dhilt@ce.ufl.edu
Hochmair, Hartwig	Associate Professor, Geomatics	954.577.6317	hhhochmair@ufl.edu
Hu, Yujie	Assistant Professor, Geography Department	352.294.7514	yujiehu@ufl.edu
Yong, Huang	Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering	352.392.5520	yongh@ufl.edu
Jacobs, Kim	Director of Industry Engagement, Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering	352.392.6795	kmjacobs@eng.ufl.edu
Jain, Eakta	Assistant Professor, Department of Computer & Information Sciences & Engineering	352.294.6653	ejain@ufl.edu
Jamison, Mark	Gerald L. Gunter Memorial Professor, Warrington College of Business; Director, Public Utility Research Center	352.392.2929	mark.jamison@warrington.ufl.edu
Jang, Myoseon	Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Engineering	352.846.1744	mjang@ufl.edu
Javier D. Donna	Assistant Professor of Economics, Department of Economics	352.392.0151	jdonna@ufl.edu
Jiang, Peng	Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering	352.392.2189	pjiang@che.ufl.edu
Jones, Griffith	Emeritus Clinical Associate Professor	352.665.5819	gjones@coe.ufl.edu
Kaber, David	Department Chair & Dean’s Leadership Professor in the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Florida	352.294.7700	dkaber@ise.ufl.edu
Kalyanaraman, Sriram	Professor, Journalism and Communications	352.392.0500	sri@jou.ufl.edu
Koppal, Sanjeev	Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	352.392.8942	sjkoppal@ece.ufl.edu
Kury, Theodore	Director of Energy Studies, Public Utility Research Center (PURC)	352.392.7842	ted.kury@warrington.ufl.edu
Liu, Rui	Assistant Professor, M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management	352.273.1168	liurui@ufl.edu
Lok, Ben	Director, Virtual Experiences Research Group; Professor, Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering	352.294.6556	lok@cise.ufl.edu
Manjunatha, Pruthvi	I-STREET Testbed Manager and Research Assistant Professor		pruthvim@ufl.edu
Mann, William	Chair, Occuppational Therapy	352.273.6817
Manuel, Michele	Professor, Materials Science and Engineering	352.846.3780	mmanuel@mse.ufl.edu
Marsiske, Michael	Professor, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology	352.273.5097	marsiske@phhp.ufl.edu
Masters, Forest	Associate Dean for Research and Facilities, Professor, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering	352.392.0946	asters@eng.ufl.edu
McNealy, Jasmine	Associate Professor, Department of Telecommunication; Associate Director, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project	352.846.0226	jmcnealy@jou.ufl.edu
Miller, Steven A. E.	Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering	352.392.0886	saem@ufl.edu
Mohamed, Ahmed	Assistant Professor, Geomatics	352.392.3465	amohamed@ufl.edu
Mohebbi, Mehri	Research Faculty	352.294.7823	mmohebbi@ufl.edu
Mohseni, Kamran	W. P. Bushnell Endowed Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering	352.273.1834	mohseni@ufl.edu
Motamedi, Sanaz	Lecturer, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering	352.294.7724	smotamedi@ufl.edu
Napoli, Nicholas	Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering		n.napoli@ufl.edu
Nishida, Toshikazu	Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	352.392.6774	nishida@ufl.edu
Ojika, David	Research Assistant Scientist, Department of Research Computing		davido@ufl.edu
Orazem, Mark	Distinguished Professor, Dr. and Mrs. Frederick C. Edie Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering	352.392.6207	meo@che.ufl.edu
Pardalos, Panos	Distinguished Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering	352.392.1464	pardalos@ufl.edu
Peng, Zhong-Ren	Professor, Urban and Regional Planning	352.294.1491	zpeng@ufl.edu
Pennington-Gray, Lori	Associate Director, Tourism Crisis Management Initiative	352.294.1657	penngray@hhp.ufl.edu
Phillips, Winfred	Professor and Executive Chief of Staff, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering	352.392.6620	wphil@ufl.edu
Purves, Duncan	Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy	352.294.0426	dpurves@ufl.edu
Rampazzi, Sara	Assistant Professor	352.392.1200	srampazzi@ufl.edu
Ranka, Sanjay	Professor, Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering	352.514.4213	ranka@cise.ufl.edu
Rao, Anil	anilvrao@ufl.edu	352.392.5523	anilvrao@ufl.edu
Ray, Sandip	Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	352.392.1605	sandipr@ufl.edu
Reisi-Gahrooei, Mostafa	Assistant Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering	352.294.6896	mreisigahrooei@ufl.edu
Ridgeway, Shannon	Engineer, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering		scer@ufl.edu
Riding, Kyle	Associate Professor, Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering	352.294.1628	kyle.riding@essie.ufl.edu
Ries, Robert	Professor, M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management	352.273.1155	rries@ufl.edu
Rosenbaum, Walter	Director Emeritus, UF Bob Graham Center	352.682.3226	tonyros@ufl.edu
Safikhani, Abolfazl	Assistant Professor, Statistics	352.273.2980
Sasahara, Fabio	Outreach and Training Team Lead, HCM Subject Matter Expert. McTrans Center	352 294-3094	fsasahara@ufl.edu
Schneider, Markus	Professor, Computer and Information Science and Engineering	352.505.1584	mschneid@cise.ufl.edu
Shechtman, Orit	Associate Professor, Occuppational Therapy	352.273.6817	oshechtm@phhp.ufl.edu
Sheng, Peter	Professor, Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment	352.392.9537	pete@coastal.ufl.edu
Silver, Chris	Dean, Design, Construction and Planning	352.392.4836 x 465	silver2@ufl.edu
Srinivasan, Siva	Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering	352.392.7807	siva@ce.ufl.edu
Steiner, Ruth	Professor and Director, Center for Health and the Built Environment	352.294.1492	rsteiner@dcp.ufl.edu
Taylor, Curtis	Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Student Affairs, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering		curtis.taylor@ufl.edu
Tepe, Emre	Assistant Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning	352.294.1487	emretepe@ufl.edu
Thai, My T.	Professor, Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering		mythai@cise.ufl.edu
Tran, Khiem	Associate Professor, Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering	352.294.3369	khiem.tran@essie.ufl.edu
Waisome, Jeremy	Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Computer & Information Sciences & Engineering		jwaisome@eng.ufl.edu
Wang, Yan	Assistant Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience (FIBER)	352.294.3376	yanw@ufl.edu
Washburn, Scott	Professor, Civil and Coastal Engineering	352.294.7806	swash@ce.ufl.edu
Winter, Sandra	Interim Director, Institute for Mobility, Activity, and Participation (I-MAP),	352.273.7486	smwinter@ufl.edu
Wu, Chang-Yu	Professor, Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences	352.392.0845	cywu@ufl.edu
Xue, Jiangeng	Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering	352.846.3775	jxue@mse.ufl.edu
Yan, Xiang "Jacob"		352.294.3094	xiangyan@ufl.edu
Yavuz, Tuba	Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	352.846.0202	tuba@ece.ufl.edu
Yoon, Yong-Kyu	Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	352.392.5985	ykyoon@ece.ufl.edu
Zhao, Xilei	Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering	352.294.7159	xilei.zhao@ufl.edu
Zwick, Paul	Professor, Urban and Regional Planning	352.392.0997 x 427	pdzwick@ufl.edu

Participants