The Team Behind the AI Automotive Innovation Challenge
Dr. Ziad Kobti
Professor & Director, School of Computer Science
Dr. Ziad Kobti is the Director of the School of Computer Science at the University of Windsor and a Professor specializing in artificial intelligence and computational modeling. He earned his PhD in Computer Science from Wayne State University in 2004 and has led the School since 2012, fostering innovation in research, education, and industry partnerships.
He currently serves as President of the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association and as the Windsor Site Leader for SHARCNET. Dr. Kobti’s research focuses on evolutionary computation, multi-agent simulations, decision support systems, and social network analysis, with applications spanning healthcare, safety systems, and complex societal modeling.
Dr. Masoud Akhshik
Research Associate & Program Manager, Automotive AI Innovation Challenge
Dr. Masoud Akhshik is an interdisciplinary researcher and program manager specializing in artificial intelligence, robotics, and sustainability. With dual PhDs in Environmental Studies and Nanobiotechnology and a postdoctoral fellowship in AI and Robotics from the University of Windsor, Dr. Akhshik brings a unique blend of technical expertise and leadership to applied research initiatives.
As Program Manager of the Automotive AI Innovation Challenge, he oversees project coordination, industry collaborations, and student mentorship, fostering an environment where academic research meets real-world automotive innovation. Dr. Akhshik has successfully helped secure and run over 2.1 million in Research Funding, published extensively in AI, robotics, nanotechnology and environmental studies, and is passionate about building diverse, inclusive teams that drive technological advancement and workforce development in Ontario.
Reem Al-Saidi
Hackathon Mentor
Reem Al-Saidi is a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Windsor. Her research focuses on privacy-preserving machine learning, with a particular emphasis on large language models (LLMs) for health and genomic data. Her current work explores secure data sharing and publishing through deep learning–based synthetic data generation.
Guiding students as the mentor for Challenge 3, offering expertise and direction throughout the competition.
Mahshad Hashemi
Hackathon Mentor
Mahshad Hashemi is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of Windsor, specializing in artificial intelligence, graph neural networks (GNNs), large language models (LLMs), and recommender systems. Her research focuses on cell type prediction, biomarker discovery, and ligand–receptor modeling through heterophily-aware graph and hypergraph architectures. She is passionate about bridging cutting-edge AI methods with real-world applications in data-driven domains.
Mentor for Challenge 1 of the AI Automotive Innovation Hackathon, providing guidance and support to participating teams.
Salma Aly
Hackathon Mentor
Salma Aly is an entrepreneur PhD student at the University of Windsor. Her research interests are Software testing, Reinforcement learning, and Generative AI. She received her M.Sc. in computer science from The American University in Cairo, Egypt, in 2022.
Her master's was focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision. She has taken several roles in the industry, such as AI Engineer, Intelligent Automation Consultant, and Data Analyst.
Mentor for Challenge 1 of the AI Automotive Innovation Hackathon, providing guidance and support to participating teams.
Farzaneh Kazemzadeh
Hackathon Mentor
Farzaneh Kazemzadeh is a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Windsor. Her research focuses on trustworthy AI, particularly on privacy-preserving machine learning, with applications in genomics and social networks. Her current work explores memorization and privacy risks in large language models.
Guiding students as the mentor for Challenge 3, offering expertise and direction throughout the competition.
Wardah Saleh
Hackathon Mentor
Wardah Saleh is currently a Ph.D. student in the School of Computer Science at the
University of Windsor and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB), where she is on study leave.
She earned both her B.Sc. in Computer Science & Engineering and M.Sc. in Computer Science (Computer Network and Architecture) from AIUB, graduating with the highest academic distinctions. Her research interests include VANET (Vehicular Ad hoc Networks, 5G technologies, IoT (Internet of Things), network security and AI (Artificial Intelligence). She also holds professional certifications such as CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) and CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional).
Assigned as mentor for Challenge 4, supporting teams in exploring innovative AI solutions in automotive systems.
Ali Farooghi
Hackathon Mentor
Ali is a Ph.D. researcher specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs). With 4 years of experience, his work focuses on representation learning and contextual embeddings, particularly fine-tuning LLMs to capture and apply domain-specific knowledge.
Guiding students as the mentor for Challenge 3, offering expertise and direction throughout the competition.
Soroush
Hackathon Mentor
Soroush is a Ph.D. candidate and research assistant at the School of Computer Science, University of Windsor. His work spans multiple areas of AI, including computer vision, voice processing, and natural language processing. His current research focuses on advancing privacy and security in AI, particularly within distributed systems.
Mentor for Challenge 1 of the AI Automotive Innovation Hackathon, providing guidance and support to participating teams.
Younes
Hackathon Mentor
Younes is a Ph.D. student and research assistant who began his program at the School of Computer Science in Fall 2023. His primary research focuses on learning-based optimization, a type of self-optimizing system in cloud computing.
Assigned as mentor for Challenge 4, supporting teams in exploring innovative AI solutions in automotive systems.
Sadra
Hackathon Mentor
Sadra is a current PhD student in the School of Computer Science at the University of Windsor, where his research focuses on applying deep learning models to biomedical challenges, with a particular emphasis on drug response and genomics. He completed his Master of Science in Computer Science at the same department in 2024. Following his master’s, he joined Roche as a Bioinformatics Research Intern, where he developed generative AI models for early cancer detection.
Serving as the mentor for Challenge 2, helping students navigate research and development during the hackathon.
Steven Rice
Hackathon Mentor
Steven’s career bridges game development and industrial innovation. He has led the creation of robotics and vision simulation platforms, building digital twins to validate manufacturing concepts and accelerate development cycles. His current research explores the next generation of these systems, applying agentic AI to digital twins and robotic systems. Passionate about the intersection of AI and real-time simulation, Steven is focused on shaping the future of smart mobility.
Serving as the mentor for Challenge 2, helping students navigate research and development during the hackathon.
