Dr. Chao Chen's Research Team

Master Students (since 2020):

Samiya Qasmi (August 2025 - )
Thesis area: Federated Learning on IoT Devices

Presentation:
- H. Memon and S. Qasmi, "Precipitation Prediction: Using Federated Learning on IoT Devices," [pdf] poster presentation at the 28th PFW Annual Student Research and Creative Endeavors Symposium (March 2025)

Hira Memon (August 2025 - )
Thesis area: Speaker Verification on the Edge

Project: Efficient and Secure Speaker Verification on IoT Devices (January 2025 - April 2025)
Sponsored by: PFW ETCS Faculty Research Seed Grant: Fostering Innovation and Collaboration

Presentation:
- "Efficient Speech Recognition on IoT Devices," [pdf] poster presentation at the 28th PFW Annual Student Research and Creative Endeavors Symposium (March 2025)

Fairuz Haq (August 2024 - )
Thesis area: Privacy-Preserving Medical Data Classification using Homomorphic Encryption

Presentation:
- "Enhancing Privacy in Medical Data Classification with Homomorphic Encryption," [pdf] poster presentation at the 28th PFW Annual Student Research and Creative Endeavors Symposium (March 2025)

Maleeha Sheikh (August 2024 - August 2025)
Co-Advisor: Dr. MD R. Haque (Computer Science Department)
Thesis: Investigating Human Values and Linguistic Patterns in Mental Health Chatbots, August 2025. [link]

Presentation:
- "Perceived Empathy in AI: Investigating Human Values in Mental Health Chatbot," [pdf] poster presentation at the 28th PFW Annual Student Research and Creative Endeavors Symposium (March 2025)

Jacob Bushur (August 2022 - May 2023, currently Test Equipment Engineer with BAE Systems)
Thesis: Hardware/Software Co-Design for Keyword Spotting on Edge Devices, May 2023. [link]
Sponsored by PFW Office of Graduate Studies Graduate Research Assistantship and Google Cloud Research Credits Program

Publication and Presentation:
- J. Bushur and C. Chen, "Neural Network Exploration for Keyword Spotting on Edge Devices," Future Internet, vol. 15, no. 6: 219, 2023. [link]
- Jacob Bushur's poster presentation "Hardware/Software Co-Design for Keyword Spotting on Edge Devices" [pdf] at the 26th PFW Annual Student Research and Creative Endeavors Symposium (April 2023) won the Deans Choice Award, placed 1st in the Graduate category, and won the PFW Sigma Xi Graduate Student Research Award.

Jonathan Shilling (October 2020 - December 2021, currently Principal RF Hardware Design Engineer with CommScope)
Thesis: Impact of Noise and Nonlinearity on Analog Self-Interference Cancellation in In-Band Full-Duplex Communications, December 2021. [link]
Sponsored by PFW 2021 Post COVID JumpStart Tenured Faculty Grant

Publication and Presentation:
- J. Shilling and C. Chen, "Evaluating Analog Self-Interference Cancellation for In-Band Full-Duplex Wireless Communication," Journal of Communications, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 256-266, April 2023. [link]
- J. Shilling and C. Chen, "Impact of Noise and Nonlinearity on Analog Self-Interference Cancellation in In-Band Full-Duplex Communications," in Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Communications, Circuits and Systems (ICCCAS 2022), pp. 75-82, May 13-15, 2022, Singapore. [link] (awarded Excellent Oral Presentation of the ICCCAS 2022 virtual conference)

Saideep Kotasthane
- Project: Multi-Level AI-Assisted Robotic Navigation System
  ECE 49600: Computer Engineering Projects Honors course, Fall 2025
  Sponsored by PFW Honors Research and Creative Endeavors Scholarship
  
  Summary: The primary objective of this project is to design, implement, and evaluate a physical robotic prototype that features a multi-level navigation architecture integrating intelligent edge computing, real-time sensor interfacing, and basic voice control. The system employs an embedded processor for AI-based perception, decision-making, and voice recognition, alongside a microcontroller for low-level control tasks and peripheral sensor integration. The robot will be capable of autonomous navigation, situational awareness, and dynamic obstacle avoidance in a controlled environment.
- Project: Zanda Claus 2.0: AI Inspired Future of Autonomous Exploration
  Sponsored by the 2025 PFW Undergraduate Summer Research Grant
  
  Summary: This project aims to enhance the current design of the autonomous robot car by developing an AI-powered vehicle capable of self-learning route navigation, dynamically optimizing paths between GPS beacons, and operating with minimal external input.

Saideep Kotasthane and Sankalp Sinha
Project: Advanced Embedded Systems for Autonomous Robot Car
ECE 49600: Computer Engineering Projects Honors course, Spring 2025
Sponsored by PFW Honors Research and Creative Endeavors Scholarship for both Saideep Kotasthane and Sankalp Sinha

Summary: This project develops an autonomous robot car with precise navigation and control capabilities. This is achieved through the integration of multiple sensor inputs, custom control algorithms, sensor fusion techniques, voice command recognition, and basic object recognition.

Presentation:
- "CARSS Controlled Autonomous Robot by Saideep and Sankalp," poster presentation at the 28th PFW Annual Student Research and Creative Endeavors Symposium (March 2025) [pdf]

Jacob Bushur (BSCPE, May 2022)
Project: Exploring the Scalability of Distributed Computing Network
Chapman Scholar Senior Capstone Project, 2021-2022

Summary: There are two main goals for this project: First, explore the power of distributed computing networks in computationally intensive problems. Second, create a distributed computing network through HTCondor using the computer labs in the ETCS building. This network is also configured with BOINC allowing it to contribute to the World Community Grid.

Publication and Presentation:
- J. Bushur and C. Chen, "Exploiting Raspberry Pi Clusters and Campus Lab Computers for Distributed Computing," International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 41-54, June 2022. [link]
- Jacob Bushur's poster presentation "Exploring the Scalability of Distributed Computing Networks" [pdf] at the 25th PFW Annual Student Research and Creative Endeavora Symposium (April 2022) placed 3rd in the Undergraduate category.

Jacob Bushur (BSCPE, May 2022) and Austin Holman (BSCPE, December 2021)
Project: Guardian IoT Monitoring System
Sponsored by Purdue University Technical Assistant Program Small Business Innovation Voucher Program, 2021

Summary: In this project, we worked with Guardian Machine Protection, LLC, to design, implement, and test a hardware and software prototype of the Guardian Internet of Things (IoT) remote machine monitoring system, with the goal of achieving streamlined data sampling, display and analysis.
Read a summary of the project in the Office of Sponsored Programs 2020-2021 Annual Report