Dr. Zahra Nili Ahmadabadi Awarded $250k by AFRL

Dr. Zahra Nili Ahmadabadi, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was awarded a $250,000 grant from Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for her project on developing a sound modeling system that enables physics-based machine learning models for sound source detection purposes. Sound without doubt is one of the most essential modalities that can help any artificial intelligence system to obtain critical knowledge about their surroundings. However, auditory systems in robots are considerably less advanced than their visual sensing mainly due to the challenges coming from multi-path sound, atmospheric and ground effects, etc. This project will address those challenges by developing models that can accurately predict and leverage the physics of sound wave propagation in real-life environments and use them for detection purposes."