Menu

RESEARCH TEAM

HILAB Director


CV    -    Bio

Ibrahim Demir

Michael A. Fitts Presidential Chair in Environmental Informatics and Artificial Intelligence
Professor, River-Coastal Science and Engineering
Faculty Affiliate, ByWater Institute
Tulane University

Office: Paul Hall 204
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @demiribr, @uihilab

Open Positions


Students and Postdocs

We are always looking for students and postdocs with strong programming skills, interested to work on Artificial Intelligence, Web Systems, Mobile Applications, GIS, Graphic Design, AR/VR Applications, and more.. Applicants to NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) and NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowships (EAR-PF) are welcome to contact us for support.

We have several openings for Masters and PhD Graduate Research Assistantships and interns for our lab.

Researchers and Postdocs


Yusuf Sermet

Associate Research Professor, PhD
[email protected]

Omer Mermer

Associate Research Professor, PhD
[email protected]

Ram Sajja

Postdoctoral Research Scholar, PhD
[email protected]

Carlos Ramirez

Postdoctoral Research Scholar, PhD
[email protected]

Samrat Shrestha

Research Associate, MS
[email protected]

Likith Kadiyala

Research Associate, MS
[email protected]

Gabriel Vald

Research Associate, MS
[email protected]

Graduate Students


Bekir Z. Demiray

Graduate Assistant, PhD, Informatics
[email protected]

Samiul Islam

Graduate Assistant, PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering
[email protected]

Vinay Pursnani

Graduate Assistant, PhD, Informatics
[email protected]

Fang Qi

Graduate Assistant, PhD, Computer Science
[email protected]

Ugur Satilmis

Graduate Assistant, PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering
[email protected]

Ege Duran

Graduate Assistant, MS, Civil and Environmental Engineering
[email protected]

Dilara Kizilkaya

Graduate Assistant, MS, Computer Science
[email protected]

Moaiz Abrar

Graduate Assistant, MS, Computer Science
[email protected]

Uditha Karunarathne

Graduate Assistant, MS, Computer Science
[email protected]

Moiyyad Sufi

Graduate Assistant, MS, Data Science
[email protected]

Undergraduate Students


Kaiden Mullinix

Undergraduate Student,
[email protected]

Collaborators and Visiting Students & Scholars


Collaborators
  • Yazeed Alabbad, 2024-present, Research Scholar
  • Jerry Mount, 2019-present, Assistant Research Scientist
  • Ahmet N. Ozcivan, 2024-present, Postdoctoral Scholar
  • Ali Rahmani, 2025-present, PhD, Informatics
  • Gregory J. Ewing, 2025-present, PhD, CEE

Students
  • Elnaz Saadatmand, 2025-present, MS (remote), CEE
  • Eveline Gonzalez, 2025-present, MS, Informatics
  • Kento Sugiyama, 2025-present, High School (intern)
  • Eddie Zhang, 2024-present, High School (intern)
  • Arush Gunukula, 2025-present, High School (intern)

Alumni


Graduate Students (with thesis)
  • Ali Rahmani, 2023-2025, PhD, Informatics
  • Carlos Ezaro, 2021-2025, PhD, CEE (now Postdoc)
  • Ram Sajja, 2022-2025, PhD, ECE (now Postdoc)
  • Gregory J. Ewing, 2019-2025, PhD, CEE (now Engineer)
  • Zhouyayan Li, 2020-2024, PhD, CEE (now AI Scientist)
  • Yazeed Alabbad, 2019-2023, PhD, CEE (now Assistant Professor)
  • M. Ali Sit, 2019-2023, PhD, Informatics (now Data Scientist at PWC)
  • Enes Yildirim, 2017-2022, PhD, CEE (now GIS Coordinator at Iowa DNR)
  • Zhongrun Xiang, 2017-2022, PhD, CEE (now Principal Data Scientist, Capital One)
  • Yusuf Sermet, 2015-2020, PhD, ECE (now Researcher at UIOWA)
  • Carlos Erazo Ramirez, 2019-2020, CEE, MS (now PhD student at UIOWA)
  • Haowen Xu, 2015-2019, PhD, CEE, UIOWA (now Postdoc at ORNL)
  • Enes Yildirim, 2015-2017, MS, CEE, UIOWA (now PhD student at UIOWA)
Graduate / Full-time Students (non thesis)
  • Gabriel Vald, 2023-2025, MS, Informatics
  • Samrat Shrestha, 2023-2025, MS, CS
  • Uditha Karunarathne, 2023-2025, MS, CS
  • Eveline Gonzalez, 2023-2025, MS, Informatics
  • Deepika Mitta, 2024-2025, MS, Data Science
  • Moiyyad Sufi, 2024-2025, MS, Data Science
  • Harshal Lele, 2024-2025, MS, CS
  • Likith Kadiyala, 2023-2025, MS, CS
  • Vinay Pursnani, 2023-2024, MS, CS
  • Talat Satilmisoglu, 2022-2024, PhD, CEE
  • Anchit Dave, 2022-2024, MS, CS
  • Beyza Cikmaz, 2022-2024, MS, Urban Planning
  • Maeve Q Reynen, 2022-2023, MS, Sustainable Development
  • Stewart Sankey, 2023, MS, CS
  • Jacob Nemec, 2022-2023, BS, EES
  • Samiul Islam, 2022-2023, MS, Urban Planning (now PhD student at UIOWA)
  • Amitha George, 2022-2023, MS, CS, UIOWA
  • Nikhil Singh, 2021-2022, MS, CS, UIOWA (now developer at Electronic Arts)
  • Vahid E. Akhlaghi, 2020-2022, PhD, BA, UIOWA (now Postdoc at GATech)
  • Ashani Vaidya, 2021-2022, MS, CS, UIOWA
  • Zeeshan Ahmed, 2021, MS, CS, UIOWA (now Software Engineer at Antech Diagnostics)
  • Bekir Demiray, 2021, MS, CS, UIOWA (now PhD student at UIOWA)
  • Muneeb Shahid, 2021, MS, CS, UIOWA (now developer at USC Alzheimer Research Institute)
  • Isha Panvalkar, 2020, MS, CS, UIOWA
  • Muhammed Sit, 2017-2019, MS, CS, UIOWA (now PhD student at UIOWA)
  • Shobhit Narain, 2019, MS, CS, UIOWA (now Software Engineer at Google)
  • Peng Chen, 2017-2019, MS, CS (non-thesis)
  • Zhongyang Guan, 2017-2018, MS, CS, UIOWA (now Developer at Tuniu.com)
  • Dichha Rai, 2016-2017, MS, CS, UIOWA (non-thesis)
  • Mudathir Yahia, 2016-2017, MS, CS, UIOWA (now PhD student at UIOWA)
  • Suleyman Uslu, 2016-2017, MS, CS, UIOWA (now PhD student at IUPUI)
  • Haider Hameed, 2015-2017, MS, CS, UIOWA (now Software Engineer at Amazon)
  • Osman Sonmez, 2012-2013, PhD, IIHR, UIOWA (now Prof at Sakarya Univ)
Professionals
  • Jerry Mount, 2019-2025, Assistant Research Scientist
  • Ahmet N. Ozcivan, 2024-2025, Postdoctoral Scholar
  • Baran Kaynak, 2023-2025, Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar
  • Sumeyye Kaynak, 2023-2025, Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar
  • Ozlem B. Yesilkoy, 2021-2024, Postdoctoral Researcher
  • Dinesh J. Samuel, 2023-2024, Postdoctoral Researcher
  • Chris M. Murphy, 2023, Application Developer
  • Serhan Yesilkoy, 2021-2023, Postdoctoral Researcher
  • Dixon Vimalajeewa, 2021, Postdoctoral Researcher (NGI Explorer)
  • Andre D. L. Zanchetta, 2017-2018, Software Developer
  • Samuel Debionne, 2015-2017, Software Developer
Part-time Students / Researchers
  • Kevin Song, 2023-2025, High School (intern)
  • Mike Zeng, 2024-2025, High School (intern)
  • Sanzida R. Setu, 2024-2025, MS, URP
  • Delicious R. Kaba, 2024-2025, MS, CEE
  • Quazi Ruku, 2024-2025, MS, Geoinformatics
  • Ella M. Thompson, 2024-2025, BS, CBE
  • Z. Betul Sit, 2024-2025, BS, CS
  • Ishan Dhanani, 2023-2024, BS, Data Science
  • Reuben Sonnenschein, 2024, BS, CS
  • Muhammed Cikmaz, 2022-2024, High School (intern)
  • Colin Hu, 2024, High School (intern)
  • Rundransh Pathak, 2024, High School (intern)
  • Shirley Xiong, 2024, High School (intern)
  • Ege Duran, 2022-2024, BS, CEE
  • Eslim Rana Emiroğlu, 2023-2024, BS, CS
  • Cori Ann G. Grant, 2022- 2024, BS, DS
  • Anish Jain, 2023, High School (intern)
  • Satvik Sandru, 2023, High School (intern)
  • Riya Patil, 2023, High School (intern)
  • Jacob P. Nemec, 2022-2023, BS, EES
  • Joshua Qin, 2022-2023, High School (intern)
  • Zitong Wang, 2022-2023, High School (intern)
  • Jiaqi Zhao, 2022, High School (intern)
  • Sahil Bhatia, 2022, High School (intern)
  • Mehmed Sahin, 2022, High School (intern)
  • Shiva Goli, 2022, High School (intern)
  • Qiuayu Gu, 2022, BS, CS
  • Beyza Cikmaz, 2021, BS, UP
  • Kane Templeton, 2021, MS, CS
  • Ryan Skrzypek, 2021, BSE, CSE
  • Kevin Nguyen, 2021, BA, Business
  • Serena Chen, 2021, High School (intern)
  • Luana Liao, 2021, High School (intern)
  • Vaibhav Mishra, 2020, High School (intern)
  • Ishan Goyal, 2021, High School, (intern)
  • Edgar Babajanyan, 2020-2021, High School (intern)
  • Indrani Ghosh, 2020-2021, MS, CS
  • Zachary Macke, 2019-2020, BS, CS
  • Zhouyayan Li, 2019-2020, BS, CEE (intern)
  • Takumi Niwa, 2019, BS, ECE (intern)
  • Arman Habib, 2019, MS, CEE (intern)
  • Joshua Feuerstein, 2019-2020, High School (intern)
  • Anthony Maggio, 2019, High School (intern)
  • Aman Manazir, 2018-2019, High School (intern)
  • Akshat Gautam, 2018-2019, High School (intern)
  • Anson Hu, 2018-2019, High School (intern) (now BS at MIT)
  • Runxiong Dong, 2019, MS, CS (now at Amazon)
  • Yifan He, 2019, MS, Computer Science (part-time)
  • Bekir Zahit Demiray, 2018, MS, CS (intern)
  • Jeremy M. Ferguson, 2018, High School (intern)
  • Flavia K. R. Hauss, 2018, BS, CEE (intern)
  • Omar Bin Salameh, 2018, BS, CS (part-time)
  • Tsutomu Fujisawa, 2017, BS, CS (intern)
  • M. Ali Sit, 2015-2017, BS, CS (intern)
  • Mary B. Windsor, 2015-2017, IIHR (part-time)
  • Paul E. Villanueva, 2016, BS, part-time (intern)
  • Bomo Shen, 2014-2016, BS, CS (now at OmniVista Solutions)
  • Ian Wold, 2014-2015, BS, CS (part-time)
  • Yusuf Sermet, 2014, BS, ECE (intern)
  • A.T.M. Saleh, 2014, part-time (remote)
  • Darnell K. Melvin Jr., 2014, BS, ISU (part-time)
  • Ramil Agliamzanov, 2013, BS, ECE (intern)
  • Rachel Cortez, 2013, BS, CEE (part-time)
  • Skeel Lee, 2013, part-time (Google SOC)
  • Hemant Singh, 2013, part-time (Google SOC)
  • Nikhil Upadhye, 2013, part-time (Google SOC)
  • Eric Osgood, 2012-2013, MS, MIE
  • Jake Maschoff, 2012, BS, CEE
  • Aaron Fisher, 2011, BS, CS