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Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

Our Department

The Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DSAI) at the McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics, UTHealth Houston, is dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence and data-driven methods to transform healthcare and biomedical research. Our faculty and students develop cutting-edge approaches in machine learning, natural language processing, imaging informatics, and privacy-preserving computation. DSAI serves as a hub for innovation, discovery, and translation of AI into real-world healthcare practice.


VISION STATEMENT: Empowering healthcare everywhere with transformative AI.


MISSION

We aim to transform healthcare by:

Advance Discovery

Advance Discovery

Develop and apply innovative AI and data science methods to accelerate biomedical and clinical research.

Transform Care

Transform Care

Translate AI into tools that improve diagnosis, treatment, and healthcare delivery.

Educate Leaders

Educate Leaders

Train the next generation of professionals at the intersection of AI and medicine.

 

 

Core Values

  • Innovation: Driving breakthroughs in AI and data science for healthcare.
  • Collaboration: Building strong partnerships across disciplines and institutions.
  • Integrity: Upholding the highest standards of scientific and clinical rigor.

 

Research Centers and Labs

The Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence hosts two flagship research centers:

FACULTY


Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD
Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD

Professor

Chair, Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

Omer Anjum, PhD
Omer Anjum, PhD

Assistant Professor

Research Areas: Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, AI System Design

Licong Cui, PhD
Licong Cui, PhD

Associate Professor

Research Areas: Ontologies and Terminologies, Big Data analytics, Neuroinformatics

Yu-Chun (Daniel) Hsu
Yu-Chun (Daniel) Hsu

Faculty Associate

Research Areas: Neuroimaging, Physiological signal processing, Machine learning for clinical diagnosis ...

Ming Huang, PhD
Ming Huang, PhD

Associate Professor

Research Areas: Machine Learning and Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing and Large Language Models, Data Mining ...

Jun Jiang, PhD
Jun Jiang, PhD

Assistant Professor

Research Areas: Computational Pathology, Biomedical Image Analysis, Artificial Inteligence, Data Mining

Yejin Kim, PhD
Yejin Kim, PhD

Assistant Professor

Research Areas: Data Mining, Machine Learning, Computational Phenotyping

Hongfang Liu, PhD
Hongfang Liu, PhD

Professor

Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence and Informatics in Healthcare, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics ...

Laila Rasmy Bekhet PhD
Laila Rasmy Bekhet, PhD

Assistant Professor

Research Areas: Deep Learning, Predictive Modeling, Biomedical Data Mining

Kirk Roberts PhD MS
Kirk Roberts, PhD, MS

Associate Professor

Research Areas: Natural Language Processing, Question Answering, Clinical Information Extraction

Xiaoyang Ruan, PhD
Xiaoyang Ruan, PhD

Assistant Professor

Research Areas: Predictive modeling, Deep phenotyping, Explainable AI, and Precision Medicine

Shayan Shams, PhD
Shayan Shams, PhD

Assistant Professor

Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning & Machine Learning, Big Data, High Performance Computing

Toufeeq Ahmed Syed, PhD
Toufeeq Ahmed Syed, PhD

Associate Professor

Research Areas: Precision Education and Innovations, Education Informatics and Technology, Online platforms and Cloud ...

Yi-Ching Tang, PhD
Yi-Ching Tang, PhD

Faculty Associate

Research Areas: Bioinformatics/Computational Biology, Integrative OMICS for drug discovery, Machine Learning

Lishan Yu, PhD
Lishan Yu, PhD

Assistant Professor

Research Areas: Data mining and analysis, Machine learning, Biomedical informatics

GQ Zhang, PhD
GQ Zhang, PhD

Professor

Research Areas: Clinical Informatics, Health Data Science and Big Data, Ontologies and Metadata Management

Updated: 9/22/2025