honors and awards

2023-2023

• Recipient of a Best Reviewer Award at the 2023 IEEE 24th International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration for Data Science (IRI) conference - A well-established reputed IEEE conference.

2021-2022

• Recipient of a best paper award (with a student) in the 37th International Conference on Computers and Applications (CATA 2022) for the paper titled “Facial Emotion Characterization and Detection using Fourier Transform and Machine Learning.”

• Listed in the top 2% of scientists in the world in both the "career (2021, 2022)" and "single year (2021 and 2022)" categories in the fields of "Networking & Telecommunications", "Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing," and "Information & Communication Technologies."

2018-2021

• Recipient of a 2018-2021 Distinguished Speaker award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The current term for this distinguished Speaker assignment is 2018-2021.

2019-2020

• Recipient of a 2019-2020 Research Assignment Award from UNC-Greensboro for the project entitled "deep understanding of biomarkers of age-related macular degeneration." The project is partially funded by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

2018-2019

• Recipient of a 2018-2019 Faculty First Summer Scholarship Support Award from UNC-Greensboro for the project entitled "Big data analytics and machine learning models for the classification of mixed fruits and vegetables."

• Nominated by the department for a 2018-2019 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award. UNC-Greensboro.

• Nominated by the department for a 2018-2019 College Teaching Excellence Award. UNC-Greensboro.

• Recipient of a Visiting Research Fellowship from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in summer 2018 and 2019. NCEAS is a world leader in ecological informatics and environmental data science.

2016-2017

• Recipient of a Visiting Faculty Fellowship from the Institute for Quantitative Methods and Theory at Emory University for the project entitled "Privacy-Preserving Predictive Model Using Factor Analysis for Neuroscience Applications." This fellowship supported my summer 2017 research at Emory University and several visits to the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at Emory University.

2016-2016

• Recipient of a Visiting Researcher award from the University of California at Irvine. Conducted research in data privacy and security using machine learning and Bayesian approaches. Summer 2016.

2014-2015

• Recipient of a Visiting Research Fellowship from the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute, Research Triangle Park, Raleigh, North Carolina. Spring 2014. 

• Nominated for the 2018-2019 College Teaching Excellence Award. UNC-Greensboro.

2013-2014 

• Recipient of a Visiting Scholar Award from the University of California at Berkeley. Received for a modern deep learning research. Funded by the Department of Statistics, University of California at Berkeley.

• Nominated for the 2013-2014 Alumni Teaching Excellence Awards, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

2012-2013 

• Recipient of a Research Assignment Award from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Received for a big data and machine learning research. Supported a semester salary with research leave. 2012-2013.

2012-2013 

• Recipient of a Summer Research Excellence Award from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Received for a machine learning research. Supported a summer salary. 2012-2013.

2011-2012 

• Nominated for the Distinguished Lecturer - Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society.

2010-2011 

• Recipient of an International Visiting Research Fellowship from University of Sydney, Australia. Received for a wireless sensor network research. Supported travel, accommodation, and living expenses. 2010-2011.

2009-2010 

• Recipient of a Dream-Large Visiting Scholar Award from University of Melbourne, Australia. Awarded for a wireless sensor network research. Supported my travel, lodging, and living expenses.

2010-2010 

• Recipient of a patent award for a encryption and key generation system entitled "Systems and methods for digital content security." Japan (Patent#: 4625841). Awarded - Nov. 12th, 2010.

2009-2009 

• Recipient of a patent award for a encryption and key generation system entitled "Systems and methods for digital content security." Australian (Patent#: 2005255946). Awarded - Oct. 15th, 2009.

2009-2009 

• Recipient of a patent award for a encryption and key generation system entitled "Systems and methods for digital content security." Singapore (Patent Number: 127427). Awarded – Sept. 30th, 2009;

2007-2008 

• Nominated for the Research Excellence Award, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

2006-2007 

• Nominated for the College Teaching Excellence Awards, Arts and Sciences, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

2005-2006 

• Elected Chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Central North Carolina Section (Region 3).

2004-2005 

• Nominated for the Alumni Teaching Excellence Awards, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

2002-2003 

• Elected Chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Central North Carolina Section (Region 3).

• Nominated for the 2002-2003 College Teaching Excellence Awards, Arts and Sciences, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

2000-2001 

• Nominated for the Distinguished Researcher, Tennessee State University. Nominated by the department of computer science.

1997-1998 

• Recipient of a Bilateral science and technology collaboration award from the Department of Industry, Science and Tourism, Australia for the project entitled “reduction of block-based transform video coding artifacts using improved Wiener filter.”