IDEAS Lab

Research

We strive to improve the human condition by advancing our understanding of socio-technical systems. Our approach involves conducting use-inspired research at the intersection of systems biology and artificial intelligence. Specifically, we test hypotheses by constructing mathematical/computational models and evaluating them with data via the development and application of rigorous–often novel–machine learning and AI methods.

We leverage this AI-in-the-loop framework to study the structure and function of living systems: from cellular-level processes like transcriptomic networks to population-level processes like public health responses to epidemics. Our approach necessitates close collaborations with laboratory, medical, field, and public health researchers. As a result, our research spans a broad range of topics in complex systems and network science, including: systems biology, mathematical epidemiology, forecasting and predictive modeling, public health policy design and evaluation, bioinformatics and multi-omics, socio/biological network dynamics, and artificial intelligence.

To represent our diverse interests and common research drive, we call the lab IDEAS: Information Dynamics and Emergence in Adaptive Systems.

Our Team

Undergraduate Students, Interns, and Coops

Harish Akula, Vitali Bahatyrevich, Scott Biggs, Priyanka Gujar, Saumya Gupta, Sowmya Muthlaya, Matthew Runyan, Sanika Thakur, Janmejay Vyas.

Masters Students

Rushali Mohbe.

PhD Students

Jesseba Fernando, Wan He, Sharaj Kunjar, and Tamanna Urmi.

Professors of the Practice

Laurent Audoly and Vito Quaranata.

Staff

Amy Berg (Executive Assistant), Shalini Karthyk (Bioinformatician), and James Sheldon (Software Engineer).

Research Scientists

Shantanu Jain, Arzu Tugce Guler, Brennan Klein, and _Ayan Paul.

Past members

High School: Nitish Kaza (Northeastern), Meghan Hill (SFI), Sergio Mata (SFI), and John Chan (UT Austin).

Undergraduate, Interns, and Coops: Daisha Joseph (Northeastern), Ezra Levy (Northeastern), Georgia Christensen (Northeastern University), George Chrisafis (UVM), Sophia Navarre (UVM), Haedi DeAngelis (SFI), Cody O’Ferrall (SFI), Gilia Patterson (SFI), Patrick Hunt (UT Austin), and Garrett Johnson (UT Austin).

Research Assistants George Echeverria (Northeastern).

Masters: Deven Gokhale (UVM) and Tandin Dorji (UVM).

PhD: Chia-Hung Yang (Northeastern) and Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi (Northeastern).

Postdoctoral Researchers Munik Shrestha (Northeastern) and Brennan Klein (Northeastern).