Marvin Andujar, Ph.D., joins CISE at the University of Florida as an Associate Instructional Professor. Andujar holds a doctorate in human-centered computing from UF. His research focuses on using Brain Computer Interface (BCI) and artificial intelligence methods to improve the attention retention of students with ADHD.
Prior to joining CISE, Andujar was an assistant professor at the University of South Florida, where he taught courses in computer architecture and BCI. His teaching focus is human-computer interaction, computer organization and BCI.
He also researched adapting P300 methods to create abstract paintings with brain activity to enhance attention levels. He worked on brain-controlled drones for drones’ movement controls and to improve the user’s cognitive and affective states. He aims to expand his teaching in neural interfaces at the national level and to advance BCI and HCI.
Sumit Kumar Jha, Ph.D., earned his doctorate and master’s degrees in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on the interpretability, control and robustness of artificial intelligence systems, as well as emerging computing paradigms for developing more efficient and reliable approaches to artificial intelligence.
His work combines formal methods with foundation models and neuro-symbolic approaches to address challenges in national security, autonomous systems, cybersecurity and other mission-critical domains.
Jha’s research has been supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Energy, the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the National Science Foundation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Office of Naval Research.
His research on trustworthy and efficient artificial intelligence has been presented at leading conferences. He has received the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program Award, multiple best-paper awards and several best-paper nominations.
Yuanyuan Lei, Ph.D., joins the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) at the University of Florida as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2025. Yuanyuan earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Texas A&M University.
Her research focuses on natural language processing (NLP), large language models (LLMs), machine learning and artificial intelligence. She specializes in knowledge-aware language modeling, enhancing LLMs using diverse forms of knowledge to improve text-based narrative understanding and discourse analysis. Her work aims to develop new algorithms and systems that expand LLMs’ capabilities in knowledge understanding and knowledge-intensive reasoning. She is also interested in NLP/LLMs + X research, integrating NLP models and LLMs into various domains such as science, engineering, law and healthcare.
Lei has been recognized for her academic excellence through prestigious honors, including being named a Rising Star in Data Science by the University of Chicago and a Future Research Leader in Artificial Intelligence by the University of Michigan.
Jingwei Sun, Ph.D., joins CISE as an assistant professor. Sun earned his doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Duke University.
His research centers on efficient and trustworthy edge intelligent systems, including on-device adaptation, collaborative intelligence and robust artificial intelligence at the edge. A key achievement includes the first efficient finetuning of a 7B-parameter Llama-2 model on smartphones with user data, enabling large-scale, private and personalized AI on mobile devices.
Sun’s research has been published in many prestigious journals and has been presented at leading conferences. He received the Best Paper Award at the AAAI Spring Series Symposium in 2024.
He also brings extensive industry collaboration experience, having led projects with NVIDIA, Lenovo and Accenture. His research has been integrated into NVIDIA’s federated learning platform NVFlare. He said he is excited to join CISE for its strong culture of interdisciplinary research and innovation and looks.
He plans to advance his vision of making personalized AI accessible to all.
Hoang-Dung Tran, Ph.D., joins CISE as an assistant professor. He earned his doctorate in computer science from Vanderbilt University in 2020.
His research focuses on the verification, validation and robust design of autonomous cyber-physical systems with learning-enabled components. His areas of expertise include reachability analysis and the robustness certification of deep neural networks (DNNs), formal verification of autonomous systems, safe and robust DNN training and real-time verification and motion planning for distributed CPS. He is also interested in robust control, stability analysis of nonlinear control systems and networked control systems.
Before joining UF, he was an assistant professor in the School of Computing at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he co-directed the NIMBUS Lab and led the Verification and Validation for Assured Autonomy Group.