AIoT-Sys REU • UC Irvine
Faculty mentors for the 2026 program
AIoT-Sys brings together faculty across computing, engineering, and health sciences to mentor undergraduate research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things systems.
The 2026 mentor team and project directions below are based on the current faculty–student matching roster. Research scope may evolve as each student works with their mentor and research group.
2026 AIoT-Sys mentor
Amir Rahmani
Nursing & Computer Science
Project direction
StressKit: iOS stress modeling with iPhone and Apple Watch sensor data
Graduate mentor: Mahyar Abbasian
REU student: Ana Carthikeyan
2026 AIoT-Sys mentor
Camilo Velez Cuervo
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Project direction
Autonomous magnetotactic underwater microrobot with wireless power and onboard magnetic sensing
Graduate mentor: Naji Tarabay
REU student: Terrance Wong
2026 AIoT-Sys mentor
Solmaz S. Kia
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Project direction
LLM-driven pendulum control toward agentic AI for robotics
Graduate mentor: Mohammadreza Rostami
REU student: Derek Devaney
2026 AIoT-Sys mentor
Unnat Jain
Computer Science
Project direction
Sensorless force sensing for the CRAFT V2 tendon-driven robotic hand
Graduate mentors: Aditya Mittal and Sagar Patil
REU student: Prajacta Bagayatkar
2026 AIoT-Sys mentor
Ian G. Harris
Computer Science
Project direction
RFID credential emulation and access-control security testing with Flipper Zero
Graduate mentor: None
REU student: Christine Oladapo
2026 AIoT-Sys mentor
Amir AghaKouchak
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Project direction
Machine-learning forecasts of food insecurity from climate, conflict, vegetation, and price data
Graduate mentor: Jesse Duku
REU student: Aleksandr Andriyan
2026 AIoT-Sys mentor
Christine King
Biomedical Engineering
Project direction
RecoverySense: wearable sensing and personalized machine learning for craving detection and timely EMA prompts
Graduate mentor: Arman Danesh
REU student: James Resto
2026 AIoT-Sys mentor
Nalini Venkatasubramanian
Computer Science
Project direction
Edge-based multimodal structural surveillance for intelligent dam monitoring
Graduate mentor: Mayuresh Muley, UCI MCS
REU student: Jay Shenbagam
2026 AIoT-Sys mentor
Sergio Gago-Masague
Computer Science
Project direction
DeixisCoach: real-time wearable detection of unclear references during teaching
Graduate mentors: Manuel Eduardo Segura and Jason Lee Weber
REU student: Janine Kyle Bokingkito
2026 AIoT-Sys mentor
Sharad Mehrotra
Computer Science
Project direction
Real-time building occupancy estimation from WiFi connectivity using learned models
Graduate mentor: Sahil Makhijani
REU student: Henry Jin
Explore the IoT-SITY mentor archive
This directory preserves faculty who mentored earlier IoT-SITY cohorts. Some faculty continue with AIoT-Sys and therefore also appear in the 2026 team above.
UCI Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science (ICS)
Sangeetha Abdu-Jyoti
Department: Computer Science
Research Area: Systems, Networks, Data
Applicable Research Interest: Systems & ML, Resilient networking
Lab: https://ics.uci.edu/~sabdujyo/
Elaheh (Eli) Bozorgzadeh
Department: Computer Science
Research Area: Devices, Architecture
Applicable Research Interest: Computer Architecture and IoT Design
Lab: https://www.ics.uci.edu/~eli/
Alfred Chen
Department: Computer Science
Research Area: Applications, Security/Privacy, Policy
Applicable Research Interest: Autonomous Vehicles, Security, Networking
Lab: https://ics.uci.edu/~alfchen/
Nikil Dutt
Department: Computer Science
Research Area: Devices, Architecture
Applicable Research Interest: Computer Architecture and Design Embedded Systems
Lab: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~dutt/
Sergio Gago-Masague
Department: Computer Science
Research Area: Systems, Networks, Data
Applicable Research Interest: User-centric software design, tracking/monitoring technology, real-time data collection, data analytics, m-health, serious games, ML, and rapid prototyping.
Lab: https://etad.calit2.uci.edu/
Ian G. Harris
Department: Computer Science
Research Area: Smart Infrastructure
Applicable Research Interest: Computer architecture and design embedded systems
Lab: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~harris/
Gillian Hayes
Department: Informatics
Research Area: Smart Communities
Applicable Research Interest: Computer-supported cooperative work, human computer interaction, ubiquitous computing
Lab: http://www.gillianhayes.com
Sang-Woo Jun
Department: Computer Science
Research Area: Systems, Networks, Data
Applicable Research Interest: Embedded systems, accelerators, memory/storage architecture
Lab: https://ics.uci.edu/~swjun/
Marco Levorato
Department: Computer Science
Research Area: Smart Communities and Smart Infrastructure
Applicable Research Interest: Artificial intelligence and machine learning, networks and distributed Systems
Lab: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~mlevorat/
Sharad Mehrotra
Department: Computer Science
Research Area: Smart Communities and Smart Spaces
Applicable Research Interest: Databases and data mining, multimedia computing, networks and distributed systems
Lab: https://www.ics.uci.edu/~sharad/
Nalini Venkatasubramanian
Department: Computer Science
Research Area: Smart Communities, Smart Infrastructure, and Smart Spaces
Applicable Research Interest: Multimedia computing networks and distributed systems
Lab: https://www.ics.uci.edu/~nalini/
UCI Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Mohammad Al Faruque
Department: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Research Area: Devices, Architecture
Applicable Research Interest: Cyber-physical systems, embedded systems, CPS security, electric vehicle, and smart manufacturing
Lab: http://aicps.eng.uci.edu
Tirtha Banerjee
Department: Civil & Environmental Engineering
Research Area: Applications, Security/Privacy, Policy
Applicable Research Interest: Wildfire Fire Modeling, Fluid Dynamics
Lab: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/banerjeelab-dev/tirtha-banerjee-ph-d/
Salma Elmalaki
Department: Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Research Area: Applications, Security/Privacy, Policy
Applicable Research Interest: Cyber-Human-Physical Systems, Pervasive autonomous IoT, Machine Learning and fairness
Lab: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/elmalaki/
Ahmed Eltawil
Department: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Research Area: Devices, Architecture
Applicable Research Interest: Design of system and VLSI architectures for broadband wireless communication
Lab: http://newport.eecs.uci.edu/~aeltawil/
Kuolin Hsu
Department: Civil & Environmental Engineering
Research Area: Smart Infrastructure
Applicable Research Interest: Remote sensing of precipitation and hydrologic system modeling, artificial intelligent and remote sensing techniques
Lab: http://engineering.uci.edu/users/kuo-lin-hsu
R. (Jay) Jayakrishnan
Department: Civil & Environmental Engineering
Research Area: Smart Infrastructure
Applicable Research Interest: Transportation system analysis
Lab: http://engineering.uci.edu/users/jay-jayakrishnan
Solmaz S. Kia
Department: Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Research Area: Smart Devices, Smart Infrastructure
Applicable Research Interest: Networked control systems, nonlinear control theory, robotics
Lab: https://solmaz.eng.uci.edu/
Fadi Kurdahi
Department: Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Research Area: Devices, Architecture
Applicable Research Interest: VLSI system design, design automation of digital systems
Lab: http://gram.eng.uci.edu/~kurdahi/
UCI Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences
Dr. Lisa Gibbs
Department: Medicine/Nursing
Research Area: Applications, Security/Privacy, Policy
Applicable Research Interest: Geriatric Medicine, Family Medicine
Lab: https://sites.uci.edu/geriatrics/dr-gibbs/
Amir Rahmani
Department: Nursing & Computer Science
Research Area: Applications, Security/Privacy, Policy
Applicable Research Interest: Healthcare AI, Embedded platforms for health
Lab: https://ics.uci.edu/~amirr1/
Julie Rousseau
Department: Medicine/Nursing
Research Area: Applications, Security/Privacy, Policy
Applicable Research Interest: Nursing, personalized healthcare, community-based research