PhD in Big Data Analytics
Current Students
Jessica Elrefaei
Jessica's research focus is using AI for early disease diagnosis. Prior to joining the program, she developed healthcare analytics research as a senior data analyst. She holds a B.S. in Biology from San Francisco State University, an MBA from the University of North Florida, and an M.S. in Applied Business Analytics from Jacksonville University.
Shafayet Shariar Hossain
Shafayet's research revolves around applying AI to areas such as maternity health, care pathways, and healthcare affordability, utilizing a wide array of statistical and Machine Learning (ML) theories, including Deep Learning, Deep Imitation Learning, and Deep Reinforcement Learning. He has collaborated with Florida Blue, Moffitt Cancer Center, and Morsani College of Medicine, with the aim of enhancing healthcare outcomes and accessibility. He holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in Statistics.
Negar Maleki
Negar Maleki is a PhD candidate specializing in Big Data Analytics, with a focus on social media, healthcare, and Generative AI. She enjoys working with Machine Learning, Deep Learning (including NLP and GNNs), and OpenAI models. Negar has had the privilege of contributing to research in prestigious computer science and healthcare conferences and journals. She's passionate about applying ML/AI models to address real-world problems and has experience in experimental design, including crowdsourcing. Negar earned her master's and bachelor’s degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Tehran in 2020 and Shahid Beheshti University in 2018, respectively.
Motahareh (Bahar) Pourbehzadi
Motahareh's research and publications focuses on the dynamic realms of Healthcare, Cybersecurity, and Energy. Presently, her dedicated efforts revolve around her dissertation, where she emphasizes applied data analytics and context-aware fairness in healthcare applications. She holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering earned at Shiraz University of Technology between 2016 and 2021.
Sonal Prabhune
Sonal’s areas of research interest include Generative AI, Explainable AI, Data-centric AI, text mining, image processing and generation, data augmentation, big data analytics, and Causal AI. Her ongoing research is in Generative AI and Explainable AI using Large Language Models. Sonal graduated from Cummins College of Engineering, Pune, India, with a degree in Electronics and Telecommunications in 2001. She completed her Executive Master's in Business Analytics and Information Systems from USF Muma College of Business.