Computer Science

In collaboration with Dr. Albert Ribes-Zamora and Dr. Maia Larios, Biology Department.

Protein Search Engine
This project builds from previous work identifying motifs of amino acids in protein domains. We want to link structural, evolutionary, and ontological information along with high-intensive computational analyses, including mining the genome to establish more functional and structurally driven protein domain definitions.

Characterizing Viral Communities Carried by Mosquitos in Houston
Mosquitos are known vectors for viral diseases. This project aims at learning more about the viral strains carried by mosquitos. Collected samples from locations in Houston are catalogued by species using morphological characteristics and DNA barcoding. Using metagenomics, a method that computationally analyzes entire sequenced genetic samples, viral sequences are identified.

Given the potential negative impacts of technology and machine learning in society, we leverage UST strong liberal arts and Catholic identities to address these issues. We have partnered with Dr. Elham Mousavidin (Business School) and Dr. Mirela Oliva (Department of Philosophy) to investigate, develop, and evaluate a framework for incorporating ethical principles such as transparency and fairness into algorithms used in analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Computational tools and methods are applied to disciplines such as art, literature, history, and philosophy. Digital humanities dates back to the 1940s with the pioneering work of Jesuit scholar Fr. Roberto Busa, who created the Index Thomisticus, a computer-generated concordance of St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae.

In collaboration with Dr. Andrew Hayes, Department of Theology, who works on ancient texts written in Syriac around the IV century, this project conducts meta-analysis of the corpus of the poetry of St. Ephrem the Syrian using natural language processing (NLP) and other computational linguistic methods.

In the realm of Medieval History, a project with Dr. Francesca Guerri, Assistant Professor of History, aims at developing computational approaches along with visualization interfaces to explore and disseminate the life and works of Matilda of Tuscany (XI century). Written in Latin, Matilda’s letters illustrate critical historical events related to the Papacy and the role of women in politics and governance in the Middle Ages.

Another area of significance and value is the application of technology to solve intractable social issues. Despite recent developments in information archival and sharing, driven by connected cell phones, IoT-enabled services, and sensors, their potential has yet to be fully leveraged for addressing social issues. Among areas of interest are quality of life improvement with a humanistic approach and modern integrated farms, for addressing food security, improve farming processes, reduce energy consumption and waste, and foster sustainability.