Team

This project was developed by our group for the bioinformatics course. Below is a brief introduction to the team members.

Members

Sobhanian Mahdis:

Mahdis is a second-year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering with a strong research focus on environmental sensing and data-driven analysis. Her doctoral work centers on the development, deployment, and calibration of methane sensor networks to improve low-cost approaches to detecting greenhouse gas emissions. Motivated by a deep commitment to environmental protection and the health of the planet, she is especially interested in projects that connect engineering, sustainability, and real-world impact.

Amin Shirkhani

Amin is a fourth-year Ph.D. student working at the intersection of environmental engineering, aerosol science, public health, and infectious disease. His research focuses on airborne transmission of bioaerosols in indoor environments, rapid point-of-care detection of respiratory viruses, and in vitro toxicity assessment of airborne particles using lung-cell exposure systems. He has successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis in Spring 2026.

Wenyu Chu

Wenyu is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Miami. Her research focuses on the chemical analysis of seaweed and the detection of PFAS in environmental samples. She is particularly interested in using analytical and bioinformatics tools to better understand environmental contamination and chemical processes in natural systems. Through her work, she hopes to contribute to environmental monitoring and the development of more effective approaches for identifying harmful pollutants.

Emma Romaine:

Emma is an undergraduate student at the University of Miami studying Biology and Mathematics. She is interested in using data and computational tools to better understand biological systems. After graduating, she plans to work as a medical assistant and then apply to Physician Assistant school. Through this project, she gained experience using bioinformatics tools to analyze biological data.