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Current Fellows

The Fellows Program launched its sixth cohort with four outstanding University of Miami students. Selected participants for the 2019-2020 session were:

	Chitra Banarjee Project:  Movement and Social Approach in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Mentors: Gang Ren, PhD | CCS Big Data Analytics & Data Mining Daniel S. Messinger, PhD  |  Professor of Psychology Bio: Chitra is an undergraduate at UM studying Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Mathematics (Applied Analysis) with a minor in Chemistry. She’s currently working under Dr. Daniel Messinger in the Interactive Behavior in Schools (IBIS) project to understand social movement and approach in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) through objective, continuous measurements. As a CCS fellow, she hopes to explore the potential of automated behavioral measurement for objectively describing the ASD phenotype through quantification of the social movement deficits characteristic of children with ASD in their interactions with their peers.
	Anthony Mario Bonacolta Project:  Single-cell Transcriptomic Sequencing of a Coral during the Bleaching Process Mentors: Ben Kirtman, PhD | Program Director, CCS Climate & Environmental Hazards and Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, RSMAS Javier del Campo, PhD  |  Assistant Professor, Department of Marine Biology and Ecology, RSMAS Bio: Anthony is a first year PhD student in Dr. Javier del Campo’s Marine Microbial Ecology and Evolution Laboratory in the Marine Biology and Ecology Department at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. His research focuses on the role of micro-eukaryotes and bacteria in marine organisms.
	Jia Geng Project:  Developing Deep Learning Models for Rotifer (Bachionus spp.) Detection and Classification Mentors: Amin Sarafraz, PhD  |  CCS Software Engineering and Research Assistant Professor, College of Engineering Daniel Benetti, PhD  |  Director of Aquaculture and Professor, Department of Marine Ecosystems and Society Bio: Jia is currently a PhD student in Marine Ecosystem and Society under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Benetti. He received his BS in Aquaculture from the Ocean University of China in 2015 and Graduate Certification in Data Science Foundations from North Carolina State University in 2019. His doctoral research centers on developing AI systems to automated live feed cultivation for fish hatcheries. During the CCS Fellows program, he hopes to apply deep learning models to achieve high accuracy rotifer detection and classification. His project website can be reached via GitHub: gengjia0214/AIRoti.
	Karna Nagalla Project:  Computational Approaches to Microbiome Alterations and Disease States Mentors: Sylvia Daunert, PhD  Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Lucille P. Markey Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Director, Dr. JT Macdonald Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute Director of Research, Center for Integrative and Complementary Medicine Gregory O’Connor, PhD  |  Post Doctoral Associate, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Bio: Karna is an undergraduate at the University of Miami studying Microbiology/Immunology and Applied Math with a minor in Chemistry and Electrical Engineering. He will be working under Dr. Sylvia Daunert and Dr. Gregory O’Connor to analyze human microbiome changes caused by various diseases and their progression. Through the CCS fellowship, he hopes to continue learning different analyses programs to analyze massive amounts of data as well as gain a further understanding of the human microbiome and its potential role in disease treatments.