![REU: [ Machine Learning | Analytics | XR ] + Health | Firefighting](https://reuaihealth.wp.txstate.edu/files/2022/02/cropped-homepage-icon-1.png){kind=icon}
Damian Valles, Ph.D. – Principal Investigator
Associate Professor of the Ingram School of Engineering and Faculty Director of the High-Performance Engineering (HiPE) research group. The HiPE group focuses on computational research solutions in engineering fields that require high-performance computing (HPC), machine learning, embedded systems, and visualization. Engineering designs have also expanded with other STEM and health science fields. Dr. Valles’ work has focused on the applications of emotion classification for children with ASD and the firefighting data collection design. The HiPE group recently inherited virtual and augmented visualization research and development equipment.
Ting Liu, Ph.D. – Co-Principal Investigator
Dean of Graduate Studies at Texas A&M University-San Antonio and Professor of Counseling, Health, and Kinesiology. Dr. Liu’s research interests focus on applied and translational research of great significance to children with autism spectrum disorder, their families, and professionals who work with this population. She has supervised over 3,500 hours of undergraduate and graduate student volunteer, internship, and practicum time each summer. Dr. Liu has a track record of involving undergraduates in her research and ensuring they are integral to her research team. She has provided supervision and guidance to more than 300 undergraduate and graduate students in various capacities, including their theses, culminating projects, independent studies, internships, and fieldwork. Many of her students have published peer-reviewed journal articles, presented at national conferences, and been accepted to the master’s and doctoral programs. Furthermore, Dr. Liu has made significant contributions to the academic community by establishing a student organization and serving as its lead faculty advisor. She also initiated a peer-mentoring program to foster a sense of connection among students, faculty, and mentors, assisting students in integrating into the program and university community, offering support to help students meet academic expectations, and contributing to the retention of minority students.
Maria Resendiz, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Associate Professor in the Communication Disorders Department in the College of Health Professions. Dr. Resendiz runs the Bilingual Language Acquisition Brains (BLAB) Lab research group, focusing on providing evidence-based speech-language therapy to populations with limited access to speech-language pathologists locally and internationally. Dr. Resendiz has collaborated with Engineering and other Health Professionals to create resources and identify practices to make speech-language therapy accessible. Dr. Resendiz’s collaborations have focused on creating an app that utilizes advanced machine learning and facial recognition with computer vision algorithms and a dataset collected in the BLAB Lab to help people with ASD. The app identifies the emotion of the conversational partner so people with ASD can have successful social interactions. She collaborates with Austin Smiles and Instituto Salvadoreno Rehabilitacion Integral (ISRI) [Salvadoran Institute for Integral Rehabilitation]. She also researches best practices for providing speech therapy to children who have received cleft palate in countries where speech-language pathology is not a profession.
Semih Aslan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of the Ingram School of Engineering. Dr. Aslan has worked as a Senior FPGA Design Engineer with Motorola LTE Division and as a post-doctoral researcher at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Dr. Aslan worked with minority students for over ten years as a full-time instructor on the west side of Chicago. Dr. Aslan is the founding director of the System Modeling and Renewable Technology (SMART) Lab at the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State. His research interests include renewable energy, sensor modeling, signal conditioning, embedded systems, and hardware optimization.
Rachel Koldenhoven Rolfe, Ph.D., ATC
Assistant Professor of Health and Human Performance and faculty co-director of the Clinical Biomechanics & Exercise Science Laboratory. Dr. Koldenhoven Rolfe’s research focuses on biomechanical assessment of gait and functional movements, biofeedback interventions to address biomechanical alterations, rehabilitation techniques, and populations with a history of lower extremity injuries. Dr. Koldenhoven Rolfe has mentored 15 graduate students completing a culminating project or thesis during her first five years at Texas State University. All students who have submitted abstracts to state and national conferences have been accepted for poster or oral presentations. One student presented at an international conference, and one has been accepted into a Ph.D. program.
Yumeng Li, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Health and Human Performance and Biomechanics and Sports Medicine Laboratory faculty director. Dr. Li has supervised more than 20 graduate and undergraduate students in research projects, theses, independent studies, and culminating projects at four universities in Canada and the United States. In addition, Dr. Li advised two undergraduate students who eventually received research grants from the University of Georgia. Dr. Li believes that the learning experience goes beyond the classroom and often invites students to the research laboratory to assist with ongoing research projects, which can significantly enrich the quality of undergraduate education.
John Farrell III, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Health and Human Performance and faculty co-director of The Clinical Biomechanics & Exercise Physiology Laboratory. Dr. Farrell’s research program focuses on developing appropriate exercise testing and prescriptions for persons with multiple sclerosis to manage both physical disability and cognitive impairment. This includes developing and evaluating adapted exercise modalities for those with a severe physical disability. During his first year, Dr. Farrell worked with three undergraduate students on three separate systematic reviews to inform the students’ future graduate theses. All three of these students were accepted into graduate programs for the Fall of 2021.
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation 2022-2024