Publications

In home decoration, an artwork with a particular combination of colors can convey a positive mood that improves psychological health. In our work, we leverage emotion to color mapping techniques and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to generate artwork that brings a room into a more positive mood. We create a unique workflow to extract the color scheme from a room photo, convert it to an…

In the aftermath of stock market crash due to COVID-19, not all sectors recovered in the same way. Recently, a stock price model is proposed by Mahata et al. (2021) that describes V- and L-shaped recovery of the stocks and indices, but fails to simulate the U- and Swoosh-shaped recovery that arises due to sharp fall, continuation at the low price and followed by quick recovery, slow…

For a small portion of U.S. schoolchildren and their teachers, going to school online was the norm even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a mass shift to remote learning. Finding conventional schooling ill-suited to their needs, this diverse group turned to virtual schools in an effort to distance themselves from harms they associate with the traditional school experience, balance their…

Public and private organizations alike compute statistics from personal data. These statistics are used for a wide array of purposes, such as informing federal, state, and local policymaking, distributing humanitarian aid during crisis situations, and informing the public about social, economic, and health trends in the population. However, statistical uses of personal data can harm…

We undertake a longitudinal study with high temporal recording density, capturing daily electroencephalograms (EEG) of an individual in an in-situ setting for 370 consecutive days. Resting-state EEG retains a high level of stability over the course of the year, and inter-session variability remains unchanged, whether the sessions are one day, one week, or one month apart. On the other hand,…

The increasing capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI), has led researchers and visionaries to think in the direction of machines outperforming humans by gaining intelligence equal to or greater than humans, which may not always have a positive impact on the society. AI gone rogue, and Technological Singularity are major concerns in academia as well as the industry. It is necessary to…

How do people come to believe conspiracy theories, and what role does the internet play in this process as a socio-technical system? We explore these questions by examining online participants in the "chemtrails" conspiracy, the idea that visible condensation trails behind airliners are deliberately sprayed for nefarious purposes. We apply Weick's theory of sensemaking to examine the role of…

Visual data exploration enables analysts to identify trends and patterns, generate and verify hypotheses, and detect outliers and anomalies. However, the overwhelming number of decisions required in visual data exploration presents a barrier to discovering useful, action-able insights from data. To address this challenge, in this dissertation, we investigate how automated assistance via…

Curiosity of the human mind and the possibility of settlement in other planets to decrease the likelihood of human extinction have acted as a catalyst in the colonization mission of the planet Mars. Exploration, colonization and human missions to the planet are being supported by many public space agencies. Although there are several factors like toxic soil, low gravity, radiation exposures…

Energy is critical infrastructure, and addressing cybersecurity issues in the energy sector is challenging. Cloud computing has advanced from being a data storage solution to a complex system that enables resource management, workforce management, scalability, flexibility, managing operational expenses, etc. The energies sector relies heavily on critical infrastructure and cloud usage. Hence,…

The outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in late 2019 brought severe devastation to the world. The pandemic spread across the globe, infecting more than ten million people and disrupting several businesses. Although social distancing and the use of protective masks were suggested all over the world, the cases seem to rise, which led to worldwide lockdown in different phases. The rampant…

Algorithms engineered to leverage rich behavioral and biometric data to predict individual attributes and actions continue to permeate public and private life. A fundamental risk may emerge from misconceptions about the sensitivity of such data, as well as the agency of individuals to protect their privacy when fine-grained (and possibly involuntary) behavior is tracked. In this work, we…

As the number of users getting acquainted with the Internet is escalating rapidly, there is more user-generated content on the web. Comprehending hidden opinions, sentiments, and emotions in emails, tweets, reviews, and comments is a challenge and equally crucial for social media monitoring, brand monitoring, customer services, and market research. Sentiment analysis determines the emotional…

Medical Cyber-Physical Systems (MCPS) are complex, location-aware, networked systems of medical devices that can be used as a piece of the healing center to give the best medical care to patients. Hence, they integrate human, cyber, and physical elements. Since MCPSs are life-critical and context-aware, they are significant to the healthcare industry, which is prone to data breaches and cyber-…

Exoplanet detection is an extremely active research topic in astronomy. Researchers in the past have attempted to detect exoplanets using conventional methods like Radial Velocity, Transit Method, Gravitational Microlensing, Direct Imaging, Polarimetry, Astrometry, etc. While the approaches undertaken for all these studies vary, many of the research works conducted are based on the change in…

Thanks to modern technological advances, we now enjoy seemingly unlimited access to information. Yet how did information become so central to our everyday lives, and how did its processing and storage make our data-driven era possible? This volume is the first to consider these questions in comprehensive detail, tracing the global emergence of information practices, technologies, and more,…

Technological advancement has contributed immensely to human life and society. Technologies like industrial robots, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are advancing at a rapid pace. While the evolution of Artificial Intelligence has contributed significantly to the development of personal assistants, automated drones, smart home devices, etc., it has also raised questions about the…

Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the most powerful platforms that incorporates several other technological components within itself. The IoT ecosystem comprises devices, communications, protocols, analytics, cloud, automation, etc. Its magnitude keeps on increasing with the addition of tools and services. While IoT has many advantages like connectivity, efficiency, and convenience, it is a…