Faculty

Arsalan Heydarian
PhD Students

Arash Tavakoli
Arash Tavakoli is a Ph.D. candidate, originally from Iran, in Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at the LinkLab of the University of Virginia. He has earned his BSc. and MSc. in CEE from the Sharif University of Technology and Virginia Tech respectively. Prior to joining BRAIn Lab, he has been a geotechnical design engineer. Arash’s research interest lies on the intersection of psychology, transportation engineering, and computer science, where he implements psychological theories and experimental design together with affective computing and computer vision techniques to enhance human-autonomous vehicle interaction. In his free-time, Arash enjoys running, landscape photography, and practicing playing piano. If you have any questions or you need more information about his research please do not hesitate to reach out to Arash at at5cf@virginia.edu.

Alan Wang
Alan is a Ph.D. Student studying occupant behavior in the Link Lab at the University of Virginia. Specifically, he is interested in the development of a lighting-based system that will affect positive indoor behavioral outcomes such as: improved mood, privacy, productivity, and energy efficiency. Alan received his B.Arch. from the University of Southern California with a minor in Applied Computer Security.

Amir Ashrafi
Amir is a Ph.D. student of the Engineering Systems and Environment department in University of Virginia since Fall 2018. His research projects are revolve around using Computer Vision, Machine Learning and information visualization techniques through Augmented Reality in smart building environment. Amir received his bachelor degree in Information Technology Engineering at Sharif University of Technology from Iran.

Mahsa Pahlavikhah
Mahsa is a Ph.D. student at the Systems Engineering and Environment Department. The overarching aim of her research efforts is to make data visualization more interactive through augmented reality. She is using machine learning and data science techniques for annalysing data, and then using computer vision and information visualization techniques to make the results more understandable and interactable for the users. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, hanging out, painting, and watching movies. To find out more about Mahsa, please visit her Linkedin. To contact her, please e-mail her at mp3wp@virginia.edu.

Xiang Guo
Xiang Guo is currently a Ph.D. student advised by Professor Arsalan Heydarian at Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, University of Virginia. He received the B.S. and M.Sc. degree in transportation engineering from Beihang University, Beijing, China. Xiang’s research interests include human performance modeling, human–machine interaction, Virtual Reality and traffic safety. For more information, please visit his Linkedin or email xg3kb@virginia.edu.
Co-advised PhD Students

Michaela Barnett

Jianyu Su
Masters Students

Siavash Yousefi
Siavash is currently a M.Sc. systems engineering student advised by Arsalan Heydarian. He has received his B.Sc in Civil Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2017. Siavash’s research includes human-machine interaction, behavior tracking, and human behavior in built environment.
Undergraduate Students

Jacob Rantas
Hi, my name is Jacob Rantas. I’m a third year systems engineering and economics double major at the University of Virginia. I joined the Living LinkLab project last spring and have been working on it ever since. My work focuses on the physical organization and the consistent maintenance of the sensors.

Megan Lin
Megan is currently a third-year undergraduate in the Systems Engineering Department and has completed an application sequence in Chemical Engineering. Her research interests include human-machine interaction and system optimization. In her free time, she likes to learn about skincare, work on video editing, and help plan events. To contact her, email ml6cz@virginia.edu!