Our Team
CAAI promotes an environment and culture of experimentation, exploration, and career development
Faculty and Staff
Dr. Cody Bumgardner
Director - Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence, Assistant Dean - Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in the UK College of Medicine
As a computer scientist in medicine, Cody Bumgardner’s primary interest is in the advancement of distributed systems, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. Prior to his current appointment, he held several technology leadership positions including Director of Enterprise Systems and Development, Chief Technology Architect, and Director of Research computing. In addition to a twenty-year career in technology architecture and operations, he has led numerous research efforts including international research federations in privacy-preserving data collection, contract support of national research infrastructure, and the development of clinical and research data management systems across laboratory, imaging, and genomic domains. He enjoys working on innovative projects at the intersection of AI, medicine, and distributed computing.
Dr. Ken Calvert
Advisor - Research and Industry
Dr. Calvert is a distinguished computer scientist with a strong foundation in both academia and industry. He currently serves as an Advisor at CAAI, consulting on strategic initiatives and mentoring staff. From 1979 to 1984, Dr. Calvert was a member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey. He served as a faculty member in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech from 1991 to 1998. In 1998, he joined the UK faculty, where he became Department Chairperson in 2007. Recognized for his contributions to the field, Calvert was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2012. From 2016 through 2019, Dr. Calvert served at the National Science Foundation in the position of Division Director for the Division of Computer and Network Systems, in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. In that capacity he was responsible for a $230M annual research budget, including research programs in Networking, Computer Systems, Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace, Cyber-Physical Systems, Smart and Connected Communities, Education and Workforce Development, and other priorities. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, he has established a legacy of leadership and innovation in computer science.
Melissa Rowe
Advisor- Technology Industry
Melissa Rowe serves as an industry advisor consulting on strategic initiatives and mentoring staff. With 30 years of experience in the technology industry, she has worked for start-ups, mid-sized companies, and large global corporations, including Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, and Dell. She has served in a variety of leadership and individual contributor roles throughout her career, encompassing business development, marketing, strategic planning, and product development. With a career focus on the public sector, she has subject matter expertise in health, human services, unemployment, workforce, and economic development. Melissa’s superpower of seeing opportunity and patterns in complexity has enabled her to develop first to market solutions, new businesses, and key partnerships across her career. A fifth generation from Kentucky’s Appalachian region, she is passionate about bringing economic and health equity to all people regardless of their geographic location, gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status.
Caylin Hickey
Cloud Engineer
Caylin started working for UK as a student in late 2011 documenting websites for the College of Nursing and later as an intern for the UK IT Enterprise Architects team. Upon his graduation in 2013, he began working for UK IT full time. In late 2015 his group was approached to help automate genomics processing for UK Healthcare running private, proprietary pipelines. This became clinically functional over the following years and in 2017 he transitioned to UK Healthcare, first on a grant for the Department of Pathology and later as an employee of the Clinical Lab. He has started and assisted with several projects related to genomics, digital pathology, clinical laboratory methods, tracking systems, and routine data manipulation. He started working with CAAI helping with management of the DGX cluster and other various *nix system administration troubleshooting. He is a motivated problem solver, taking on projects to refine and improve functionality or expand features.
Samuel Armstrong
Software Engineer
Samuel is the Technical Lead for the CAAI and a part-time Ph.D. student in Computer Science. Since the center’s inception in 2023, he has been actively involved in nearly every project, contributing to advancements in AI applications within healthcare. He began as an undergraduate intern at the Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI) under Dr. Cody Bumgardner. His early work focused on genomic data analysis and developing text-to-speech and audio-to-text applications. After graduating, he transitioned to a staff position as a programmer, where he played a critical role in research projects exploring the application of AI in medicine. When the Center was launched, Samuel was promoted to Technical Lead. In this role, he directs the efforts of a team of developers and undergraduate interns, contributing directly to the success of the Center’s projects and advancing the application of AI across Kentucky. Samuel’s research focuses on the intersection of AI and healthcare. His paper, “SmartState: An Automated Research Protocol Adherence System,” was recently accepted by the American Medical Informatics Association. This project is a key milestone in his academic journey and underscores his commitment to advancing AI-driven solutions for real-world challenges.
Mahmut Gokmen
Mobile Application & Software Engineer
Mahmut Gokmen is currently a PhD student at UK. His role primarily involves finding solutions to challenges in the medical imaging domain using deep learning techniques and AI models. Currently, he is working on vision models, which allows him to apply various image processing and analysis techniques across different domains, including CT scans, pathology, and MRI. His main contribution lies in bridging and integrating these diverse research areas with the latest advancements in machine learning and AI to produce meaningful and impactful results. His career began with microchip programming skills after graduating from university. He worked in research and development departments in the industry, and a few years later, decided to become a research assistant in Turkey to advance his research interests. Now, he is studying for his doctoral degree at UK. He excels at understanding and designing deep neural networks and AI models and dedicated an entire year to analyzing and designing AI models without any distractions, significantly enhancing his expertise.
Aaron Mullen
Software Developer
Aaron began working in the department that would become CAAI as an undergraduate intern. He worked throughout his junior and senior year until becoming a full-time staff member upon graduation. He is now pursuing a Master of Science in Data Science. Throughout his time at CAAI, he has worked in a variety of fields, such as website development, machine learning, and data visualization. He specializes in and has worked on projects in data science and machine learning methods like classification and time series forecasting. He has contributed to multiple CAAI projects, such as CLASSify, an online tool for easily performing machine learning classification and data analysis. He also works with the Rapid Actionable Data for Opioid Response in Kentucky (RADOR-KY) team to build forecasting models to predict future opioid overdose trends for different areas of the state of Kentucky.
Noah Perry
Software Developer
Noah has a background in software development, web service management, and data science. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Computer Science. At UK he studied covering a range of material from algorithm design, web and UI/UX design, and more. He works for the CAAI working primarily on website development and data science. Noah works with the Endless Forms group to work on establishing accessible medical standards for explanatory graphics through the Graphic Design Ontology and graphics compiled using its standards. He also works in data analysis with the All of Us Research Program and with UK Hospital in analyzing quality care metrics and patient care outcomes. Additionally, he works with the REDCap data capture platform to expand its capability, integrate CAAI platform software with the application, and assist others in using the platform.
Mitchell Klusty
Software Developer
Mitchell is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Computer Science. While completing his Bachelor of Science, Mitchell earned a Cybersecurity certificate from UK, thus gaining a strong foundation in secure systems design and analysis. As a software developer at CAAI, Mitchell’s knowledge of security is imperative to the operations of the department. In addition to cybersecurity, he continues to specialize in the development and application of Large Language Models (LLMs). He is the designer and lead developer of LLM Factory, CAAI’s innovative self-service LLM tool that empowers researchers and university members to leverage AI solutions efficiently. Mitchell’s passion for LLMs and his expertise in cybersecurity add value to CAAI.
Vaiden Logan
Software Developer
Vaiden is a Computer Engineering graduate from the University of Kentucky, currently pursuing a Master of Science in Computer Science. He focuses on LLMs, the DGX computing cluster, CAT-Talk, and LLM Factory. Previously, Vaiden worked on the FABRIC project in the Computer Science department, where he contributed to setting up a Named-Data Networking (NDN) network to move high-energy physics data. Vaiden's expertise lies in computer networking and he has extensive experience collaborating with computer scientists and data scientists. He is currently focused on leveraging LLMs for summarization tasks and designing systems that integrate AI for a variety of applications.
Evan Damron
Software Developer
Evan is from Lexington, KY and started at CAAI as an undergraduate intern with over a year of prior research experience. After completing his bachelor’s degree in computer science, he transitioned into a staff role and is now pursuing his master's degree. His primary focus is embodied AI, with the goal of enabling autonomous robots to engage in human-like interaction, especially in healthcare settings. By combining the conversational and reasoning abilities of large language models with conventional deterministic robotics approaches, Evan has significantly expanded the capabilities of the Temi robot. His work is helping to shape a future where robots contribute to providing more accessible, cost-effective healthcare without compromising quality.
Caroline Leach
Data Management Specialist
With a background in physics and experience in start-ups, ed-tech, and the non-profit world, Caroline brings an understanding of complex systems and offers an interdisciplinary perspective. As a Data Management Specialist, she explores and evaluates the potential of Large Language Models for educational and training applications. She collaborates closely with talented researchers, faculty, and engineers to develop innovative AI solutions. Highly organized with strong communication skills and educational expertise, she also writes documentation and supports promotional efforts. Currently pursuing her Master’s in Data Science at the University of Kentucky, Caroline is deepening her expertise in data-driven approaches and advanced AI methodologies. Being part of the CAAI team places her at the intersection of innovation and impact, and she finds it rewarding to help people develop and implement innovative AI technology.
Kristen Hankins
Project Specialist
Kristen Hankins is a Project Specialist with an academic foundation in the arts. Kristen earned a Master of Arts in Art History, with a thesis on the impact of André Breton’s French Surrealism on American animation and film. Before pursuing graduate studies, Kristen obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Arts Administration, complemented by minors in Art History and Music Theory/History. This multidisciplinary education allows the development of a comprehensive understanding of curation and management skills that are transferable within all fields. As a Project Specialist, Kristen excels in facilitating effective communication within complex experimental initiatives, navigating uncertainties, understanding the dynamic needs of each project, and cultivating a collaborative environment that drives ingenuity.
Emily Collier
Data Management Specialist
As the previous Assistant University Archivist, Emily was a key implementor in developing the Web Archiving Program at the University of Kentucky’s Special Collections Research Center, establishing policies, workflows, and technical documentation that positioned web-born content as essential institutional records. Now, as Operations Lead at CAAI, Emily contributes to the translation of AI into real-world academic and clinical applications by managing high-level operations across a diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary projects. She serves as a primary liaison between faculty, researchers, and technical staff, guiding project intake, scoping, and development while designing strategic frameworks to support ethical, sustainable AI deployment. While the move from archives to AI may seem like a career pivot, it reflects an enduring interest in how institutions generate, manage, use, and preserve complex data over time. Emily brings a commitment to long-term usability, data integrity, and public benefit, ensuring that as AI reshapes research, its outputs remain meaningful and accessible over time.
Harrison Whaley
Content Strategist
Harrison is passionate about serving people through technology and media. He draws upon his experiences as a business owner of his company ThePhaseTwo Media to approach problems from various angles. Harrison aims to deliver content that yields results. Photography and videography are specializations of his. From weddings to real estate, Harrison has captured it all. CAAI’s successful media presence can be attributed to Harrison’s efforts. He has collected many hours of footage for tutorial videos of CAAI’s tools. Working directly with software developers and the general public, he showcases the work CAAI develops clearly and unambiguously. Harrison continuously brings fresh ideas to the table and has a keen eye for detail.
Ishanu Chattopadhyay, PhD
Assistant Professor- Internal Medicine
Dr. Ishanu Chattopadhyay’s research focuses on uncovering predictive structures in complex systems, leveraging a consistent set of core mathematical concepts to address diverse domains. His work aims to establish data-driven frameworks that yield actionable insights, spanning universal disease screening, pandemic forecasting, and societal modeling. Dr. Chattopadhyay’s work emphasizes scalable, robust, and generalizable AI tools, with high-impact publications and collaborations with stakeholders such as DARPA, NIH, and leading academic institutions. His research advances data science across healthcare, social science, and ecosystem modeling, demonstrating a commitment to the transformative potential of predictive AI in scientific discovery.
Buse Yaren Kazangirler
Artificial Intelligence Researcher
I graduated from Karabuk University Computer Engineering Department in 2019 and from Karabuk University Computer Engineering Master of Science in 2021. I also graduated from Anadolu University's Management Information Systems Department. I am pursuing my Ph.D. in Karabuk University Computer Engineering Department. I'm a person who loves my work, cares about details and loves research and development.
Dmytro Onishchenko
Senior Data Scientist
Data Scientist with more than 6 years of experience in developing complex machine learning pipelines to drive clinical research and personalized healthcare solutions.Areas of interest: Precision Medicine, Public Health, Bioinformatics, Generative Machine Learning Algorithms.
Current Interns
Danny Haughian
Undergraduate Intern
Dayne Freudenberg
Undergraduate Intern
Elizabeth Solie
Undergraduate Intern
Rowan Hallock
Undergraduate Intern
Former Team Members
Dr. Doyle Friskney
Advisor- Academic Technology
In Memoriam: Dr. Friskney was a leader in educational technology at the UK with a distinguished career spanning over 30 years. He served as an Advisor at CAAI, advising on strategic initiatives and mentoring staff. As an administrator at UK, he oversaw critical initiatives such as designing advanced learning spaces, implementing statewide higher education networks, and integrating technology into the academic and administrative systems. In addition to his administrative leadership, Dr. Friskney has been an adjunct faculty member in the College of Communication and Information, where he has taught courses in leadership and entrepreneurship. Dr. Friskney was passionate about advancing access to quality education and fostering innovation in higher education. He enjoyed mentoring students and collaborating across disciplines to create transformative educational experiences. He was dedicated to lifelong learning and exploring new applications of AI to revolutionize teaching and research.
Dr. Jeffery Talbert
Chair- Department of AI and Health
Dr. Talbert was a Professor and Division Chief in Biomedical Informatics at the UK College of Medicine. He was the Director of the Institute for Biomedical Informatics, a campus-wide interdisciplinary home for biomedical informatics across the University. Since 2014, he has been an Associate Director of the UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) and was the Deputy Director of the Center for Rural and Underserved Health Research. These leadership positions in University-wide, interdisciplinary research centers facilitate identifying and developing research teams focused on clinical interventions, health services research, and public health informatics using large administrative and clinical databases. His research specialization is public health informatics, focused on the intersection of evidence-based policy and health care outcomes. Current research projects focus on big data approaches to reducing substance use disorder and designing analytic approaches to improve health outcomes for state Medicaid programs. His long-term career objective is to use big data informatics approaches to identify innovative policy solutions to prevent and treat substance use disorders. He has over 29 years of experience in health research, including serving as a research fellow for the US Congress, as a faculty member in Public Policy, Public Health, Pharmacy, and Medicine. Dr. Talbert currently works at the Medical College of Georgia Augusta University as the Chair of the Department of AI and Health.
Matthew Moseley
Systems Professional
2008-2009 Foreign Service Institute (DoS)
2002-2008 U.S. Navy
As a computer nerd in medicine, my primary interest is in aiding others to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. My current role is to assist the Director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence with providing the resources and tools that medical researchers need to perform their best by leveraging advancing technologies in AI and computation in general. In previous roles at UK, I oversaw the infrastructure used by the Center for Computational Sciences for 8 years and was a part of the Information Technology Services Network group for 3 years. Prior to coming to work at UK, I was a Systems Integrator for the U.S. Department of State (DoS) and was responsible for upgrading the computer networks at U.S. Embassies and Consulates around the world as part of the Global IT Modernization project (GITM.) During the four years I was in that role I performed my duties in the following cities: Moscow, Baghdad, Ciudad Juarez, Budapest, Matamoros, Kolonia, Majuro, and lastly Kabul. Before working for DoS, I was in the U.S. Navy, where I was trained as an Electronics Technician (ET) specializing in communications systems and later cross trained over as an Information Systems Technician (IT) before honorably finishing my 6-year commitment. All those endeavors have been influenced and guided by a keen interest and deep affection that I have held since I was 8 years old, towards all things that operate on zeros and ones.
Dr. Caner Özcan
Software Engineering Department Faculty - Karabuk University
Dr. Caner ÖZCAN was born in Karabük in 1986 and completed his primary, secondary and high school education in the same city. In 2008, he graduated from Yıldız Technical University, Department of Computer Engineering. In 2015, he completed his PhD studies and graduated and started to work as a faculty member at Karabük University, Department of Computer Engineering in January 2016. In 2017, with the support of Tübitak, he worked as a visiting professor at Purdue University in the USA for 10 months. His main research interests include image processing, machine learning, deep learning and remote sensing. He is a field editor in Jestech journal and a referee in many field journals and projects. Within the scope of Deneyap Technology Workshops, he prepared Software Technologies course contents and books for middle and high school students. In 2020, he received TUBITAK BIGG Entrepreneurship support and founded the artificial intelligence company named SimurgAI in Karabük University Technopark. He is a member of IEEE (2012-) and SPIE (2014-) scientific organizations. He provides consultancy services to various institutions in the fields of software, image processing and artificial intelligence. After September 2023, he worked as the Coordinator of Karabuk University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit for 10 months. He continues to work as a faculty member at Karabuk University Software Engineering Department. As of July 2024, he continues his research on AI in the field of health as a visiting professor at the University of Kentucky for 12 months with the support of Tübitak.
Alexandr Virodov
Biomedical Data Scientist Director Associate
Shiraz Amin
Software Engineer
Currently: BI Team Lead with Rumpke Waste and Recycling
Ryan Lindsey
Software Engineer
Currently: Software Engineer with Ascensus
Daniel Cotter
Masters Student: Semantic Enrichment of Streaming Healthcare Data
Currently a biomedical data engineer with Stanford University.
Dylan Gaines
Visiting Student: Vanderbilt University
Currently: BlackRock Investments
Wardah Saeed, MD
Practicum: University of Cincinnati
Currently: A researcher with Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Samuela Musasa
Undergraduate Intern
William Hands
Undergraduate Intern
Jacob Sobota
Data Science RA
Travis Nilest
Undergraduate Intern
Currently: Data Analyst for LG&E
Sam Quintero
AIM Fellow Intern
Fiaz Shah
Software Developer Intern
Kyle Andrei Lastimosa
Master's student
Currently employed by Booz Allen Hamilton
Jason Burr
Undergraduate Intern
Jack Tocash
Undergraduate Intern
Zach Bernard
Undergraduate Intern
Arimitsu Horikawa-Strakovsky
High School Intern
Mitchell McNeal
High School Intern
Michelle Alcantara
Undergraduate Intern
Nabeel Shah
Undergraduate Intern
Noah Brown
Undergraduate Intern
