People – iMAPLE

CORE FACULTY

David Han

Professor

David Han is the inaugural holder of the Bruce Eisenstein Endowed Chair and professor of electrical and computer engineering. He is an ASME Fellow and an IEEE senior member. Dr. Han received his B.S. degree from Carnegie Mellon University and M.S.E. degree from the Johns Hopkins University. He completed Ph.D. degree at the Johns Hopkins University under the supervision of Andrea Prosperetti. He has previously held positions as a research and faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Army Research Laboratory, and the University of Maryland at College Park, and has additionally served as Distinguished IWS Chair Professor at the US Naval Academy. He spent over 11 years as program officer at the Office of Naval Research and served as its Deputy Director of Research, overseeing the Discovery and Invention portfolio of over $900 million from 2012 to 2014. He also served as Associate Director for Basic Research in Machine Intelligence and Robotics in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense Research & Engineering from 2014 to 2016, helping to oversee an over $2 billion annual research portfolio. Han has authored or coauthored over 120 peer-reviewed papers, including four book chapters.

Email: dkh42@drexel.edu

Phone: 215-895-5814

CURRENT MEMBERS

Amirreza Rouhi

Ph.D. Student

I am currently pursuing my Ph.D. degree at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Drexel University, under the supervision of Professor D. Han. I am interested in deep learning problems as well as their applications in computer vision. I am also interested in other machine learning problems like feature selection, dimensionality reduction in high-dimensional data, and ensemble learning. During my M.Sc. degree at the Polytechnic University of Milan, I have done research in the field of feature selection in highly sparse data (Single Cell Hi-C data) and Cell Stage prediction. At iMaPLe, I do research on object detection, classification, and identification using computer vision techniques.

Solmaz Arezoomandan

Ph.D. Student

I am working towards a Ph.D. in Machine Learning Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel under the supervision of Dr. David Han. I received my B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Sadjad University. My previous research was focused on Genetic Algorithms and their application in optimizing power allocation in CDMA cellular systems. My research interests lie in machine vision, machine learning, and deep learning. As a researcher at iMaPLe, I am interested in using machine learning techniques to solve real-world computer vision problems. Apart from my academic studies, I enjoy photography, especially landscape photography in my favorite mode, black and white. Persian calligraphy is my other favorite activity in my free time.

Knut Peterson

Ph.D. Student

I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University under Dr. David Han’s supervision. I received my B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 2021, and my M.Sc. in Robotics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2023. During my M.Sc. I also worked as a Software Engineer at Superlative Technologies Inc, a DoD Contractor for the U.S. Transportation Command. In my research I hope to explore different approaches to autonomous perception and decision making, and especially how learning techniques can be more effectively used in robotics applications. Apart from research, I have a wide variety of hobbies ranging from blacksmithing to solving Rubik’s Cubes.

Priontu Chowdhury

Ph.D. Student

I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University under the supervision of Dr. David Han. I received my B.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Constructor University, situated in Bremen, Germany. During that time, I have also worked as a Software Engineer for the Motorsport department at Bosch Engineering GmbH (Bosch Motorsport). Later, I worked at the Process Data Systems Engineering department of ZEISS Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (ZEISS SMT) in the area of Data Quality Management. I did my thesis in collaboration with Bosch Motorsport, where the research involved the use of network simulation. As part of the research, I studied algorithms that could maximize data throughput on the Bosch Telemetry System when implemented during a race. My research interests involve signal processing and applied deep learning, and at iMaPLe I wish to explore the conjunction of both in acoustic scene understanding and source localization.

Hadi Khorsand

Ph.D. Student

I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University, under the supervision of Dr. David Han. I earned my B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Noshirvani University of Technology in 2019 and my M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology in 2022, where I focused on machine learning and telecommunication systems. My research interests include machine learning, computer vision, and their practical applications. At iMaPLe, I am eager to leverage deep learning and machine vision to address real-world challenges.

Quoc Thinh Vo

Ph.D. Student

I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University under Dr. David Han’s supervision. I received both my B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Computer Engineering from Drexel, with my Master’s thesis – also supervised by Dr. Han – focused on Machine Learning and Edge ML techniques for underwater and airborne acoustic signal classification, innovating Transformer architectures and Knowledge Distillation. I also work in Software Engineering, with a focus on the reliability, scalability, and automation of Developer Tools, Platforms, and Infrastructure. My current research at iMaPLe involves acoustic scene understanding, underwater sound source localization and its applications. Outside of work, I enjoy reading, cooking, playing soccer, and building mechanical keyboards.

Joe Woods

Ph.D. Student

I am pursuing my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Drexel University under the supervision of Dr. David Han. Within the lab, I am currently researching underwater acoustic source localization. My main research interests include machine and deep learning with limited compute such as on edge devices, as well as ML & AI applications in healthcare. Before coming to Drexel, I received my B.S. in Computer Engineering from The College of New Jersey in May 2024, during which I did work in computer vision and perception on edge devices. I have also worked internships at Crestron Electronics and Millennial Software, doing home automation and machine learning R&D, respectively. Outside of research I enjoy playing tennis, snowboarding, and reading (mostly sci-fi and fantasy).

Zaid Mayers

M.Sc. Student

I am currently pursuing my M.S. in Machine Learning Engineering at Drexel University. I received my B.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning from Presidency University in India. At iMaPLe, I am actively involved in drone operations and data acquisition, where I collect and preprocess both imagery and metadata to support machine learning research conducted by Ph.D. students in the lab. My current work contributes to building high-quality datasets for training object detection models, and I am exploring opportunities to assist with training YOLO-based architectures. My broader research interests include Large Language Models (LLMs), model optimization, and enhancing generalization in real-world applications. Outside of research, I enjoy flying drones, watching anime, and playing video games.

Azmain Yousuf

B.Sc. Student

I am an undergraduate pursuing a double major in Electrical And Computer Engineering at Drexel University. Within the lab, I am working on developing a Long Range Drone detection dataset that will be used to train and improve performance of YOLO-based architectures. I have worked internships at Exelon Inc. and Kulicke and Soffa, working on grid modernization projects, control systems and software development. Outside of classes, I am heavily involved with Drexel Engineers Without Borders, leading the club as the President up to June of 2026, where I have worked on designing solar power systems and irrigation system automation. I’m especially drawn to machine learning research—fascinated by the emergent properties of artificial neurons and their potential to power transformative applications in computing, vision, and robotics. Outside of these, I enjoy watching movies, cooking, photography, reading and going on long walks listening to a podcast or audio book.

ALUMNI