Throughout 2020, Hardik Gohel, a UHV assistant professor of computer science, made significant contributions on both a global and local front.
Most notably, the World Health Organization recently included two of Gohel’s collaborative research publications in its global literature database.
The first article proposes intelligent, early diagnostic tools to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic and provide personalized point of care. The second article introduces Artificial Intelligence-supported biosensing technologies which can be used for early-stage COVID-19 diagnosis and in the support of intelligent health care management.
Gohel says the articles have three major, broad impacts: aiding in the fight against COVID-19; advancing critical development of digital health care resources; and fostering a diverse, globally competitive science, technology, engineering and mathematics health care workforce.
“It feels extremely motivating to see our research efforts are recognized by such a specialized agency,” Gohel said of the WHO recognition, asserting that artificial intelligence and data science are transforming the future of health care.
At home, Gohel looks forward to supporting UHV’s continued growth as a destination university with extensive STEM programs and participation.
UHV recently received a $198,028 Department of Defense National Defense Education STEM grant in collaboration with Alabama A&M University and Navajo Technical University that will support the training of students in research and development. Gohel will lead the project at UHV as principal investigator.
Gohel also serves as the faculty advisor for the recently formed student chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – the world’s largest professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. In November, he was elevated to an IEEE senior member. Only 8 percent of IEEE members in all over the world have this prestigious grade. He is the first IEEE senior member in the history of UHV.
Throughout the summer of 2020, Gohel presented his research as keynote speaker in four virtual webinars with several major Indian universities, including Parul University, Rashtriya Raksha University - National Security and Police University of India, AP Goyal Shimla University and Savitribai Phule Pune University.
The webinars allowed Gohel to highlight UHV’s efforts in smart digital health care, energy systems advancement, cybersecurity and advanced computing. Several UHV graduate students were also presented as speakers to the webinars and discussed research they conducted with Gohel and providing an invaluable opportunity to meet and talk virtually with many different types of science professionals.
“It’s an important and strategic move for UHV to be connected to these international institutes and organizations as we look to expand our programs in STEM areas,” Gohel said. “I am looking forward to conducting more research in the field of artificial intelligence, digital health care, cybersecurity, and the advanced computing community.”
In addition to his research, Gohel organized a virtual data science bootcamp in summer 2020 for high school students. The bootcamp highlighted UHV’s courses in data science and artificial intelligence.