Institute for Future Intelligence (IFI)

Charles is the founder of IFI. He was elected by the Board of Directors on August 26, 2020 as the inaugural President and CEO of IFI, responsible for raising funds, developing technology, and building partnerships. He also serves as the Chief Scientist. An award-winning scientist, he has over 25 years of experience in STEM research and education in America and Europe, including several years of training on materials and drug discovery based on computational physics and chemistry. On the research avenue, he has authored or co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed journal papers. He is currently working on artificially intelligent algorithms that can be used to create design tutors and assistants embedded in CAD+CAE software in the fields of renewable energy, materials design, and drug discovery. On the development avenue, he is the creator of AIMS (Artificial Intelligence for Molecular Sciences), Energy2D, iFlow, Infrared Explorer, and Quantum Explorer, and a co-developer of Aladdin, Infrared Street View, and Telelab. These innovative products have benefited countless users from around the world. His work has also generated broad impacts beyond education. For instance, Energy2D, an interactive multiphysics tool that simulates heat and mass transfer in complex systems based on numerically solving coupled Navier-Stokes Equation, Heat Equation, Radiation Equation, and Newton's Equation of Motion, has been used in more than 90 research papers by other scientists and engineers as a simulation tool. Similarly, Aladdin is also becoming a tool for designing renewable energy solutions, as evidenced by several papers published in Solar Energy (the official journal of the International Solar Energy Society). Throughout his career, Charles has directed more than 15 research grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. More information about him can be found on his Github page.

Dylan is a Senior Vice President and a principal scientist at IFI. He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University and has over 20 years of experience with fluorescence-based instruments, reagents, and applications working on commercialization of both research-use-only and diagnostic instruments as well as medical devices and therapeutics. He has served as PI, co-PI, or senior personnel on numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Homeland Security. His current work at IFI focuses on integrating computational science, data science, and artificial intelligence into life sciences and biotechnology in a culturally relevant and responsive way to transform biological and biomedical research and education. As a Native Hawaiian, he has also been involved in projects aiming to promote science education and workforce development in both his residency state Massachusetts and his home state Hawaii.

Osman ia a Senior Vice President and a principal scientist at IFI. He has a broad academic background including engineering physics (BS, PhD), theoretical physics (MS), nuclear engineering (MS), and computer science (MS). He completed two master’s degrees and a doctoral degree within three calendar years from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Yaşar has been one of the pioneers of high performance computing and served as the President of Intel Supercomputer Users Group. He helped scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory of U.S. Department of Energy develop parallel algorithms to tackle grand challenge problems in engine combustion, molecular dynamics, plasma ignition, and radiation hydrodynamics. He also pioneered the computational approach to STEM and teacher education and founded the world’s first computational science undergraduate degree program at the State University of New York. He helped half a dozen universities establish similar programs. Through funds from the National Science Foundation, he developed a computational pedagogical content knowledge (CPACK) framework for teacher education and trained more than 1,200 teachers. On behalf of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Yaşar testified before the U.S. Congress about his efforts in computational thinking education. Dr. Yaşar has published about a hundred peer-reviewed articles and a dozen computer codes that have been used by the auto industry in America (GM, Ford, and Cummins Engine) and home appliances manufacturers in Türkiye (Arçelik), as well as U.S. Navy and National Laboratories (Brookhaven, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Sandia). Because of these achievements, he was recognized in his original country Türkiye as one of the top 25 national icons in 2005.

Kenny is the CFO at IFI. He is responsible for accounting, human resources, supplies procurement, and grant management. His prior professional experience includes finance, accounting, tax preparation, and IT support. He received a B.S. in economics-finance from Bentley University.

Jane is a junior at University of Hawaii Manoa pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. She has experience doing research projects with robots, and internships researching and developing emerging web designs. She is excited to learn more about local language models, RAGs, agents, and antibody engineering..

Hongling is a PI-Track Research Scientist at IFI. She holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in China. Throughout her academic journey, she has published over 10 journal papers and served as a reviewer for top journals, including Solar Energy and Renewable Energy. Before joining IFI, Hongling worked as a Research Scientist at AiVacua Inc. and as an adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. At IFI, she is responsible for engineering software development and applications, curriculum development in science and engineering education, educational research with national partners and schools, grant applications and fundraising, and project management.

Xiaotong is a Principal Software Engineer at IFI. He graduated with a Master of Science degree in computer science and a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering, both from New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is currently working on Aladdin, AIMS, and Telelab using full-stack technology. Since joining IFI in 2021, he has been a co-author for seven peer-reviewed journal papers.

Aarman is a high school student who loves to code. He has a huge passion in AI. He has completed four Kaggle Courses related to machine learning and data science and have created impressive projects using generative AI. He also enjoys programming in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and using React to create Web pages. Currently, he teaches programming and is working on building image classification models. He also builds an exciting project related to an AI tool that teachers can use to enhance their classes.

Andriy is a software engineer and data scientist at IFI, working on the NexLAB project that aims to support learning and research by linking data across experiments and providing visual analytics for scientific inquiry. He recently graduated from Minerva University with a Bachelor's Degree in computer science, arts, and humanities. Andriy is originally from Ukraine.

Koa is a junior at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. She has a strong interest in robotics and is currently working on NexLab projects to build her skills with large language models (LLMs) and local AI systems.

Kai is a current Junior at the University of Oregon pursuing a bachelor's degree and a career in computer science. He will collaborate on the AgTech and NexLab projects with IFI to develop his programming skills, possibly becoming a data scientist along the way.

Jacob is the Director of Data Science Education at IFI, responsible for integrating data science into the science curriculum across the board. He is a researcher, educator, data analyst, and musician working in STEM education, with a focus on data science. In his work he supports research, implementation, and administration of programs for middle and high school youth, and designs and leads professional development for educators. In 2023, Jacob graduated with a master’s in data analytics from Northeastern University’s Roux Institute. Prior to entering STEM education in 2019, Jacob received a BA in music from Grinnell College and a PhD in musicology from McGill University, and worked as an adjunct music history instructor for several years. He is a lifelong classical singer, and brings his musical background to work on data sonification.

Shannon is a Learning Scientist and the Director of Assessment and Evaluation at IFI. She holds a Master Degree on middle school math and science education from Wesleyan College and a Ph.D. degree in science education from the University of Georgia. Before joining IFI, she was a middle school science teacher in Taiwan and an assistant professor at Spelman College. She has served as the PI or co-PI of three NSF-funded projects and worked on an HMMI project for promoting interdisciplinary learning of science in historically black colleges. She has published more than 20 peer-reviewed journal papers.