Yunyi Zhang | Cognitive Sciences | Research Excellence Award

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Dr. Yunyi Zhang | Cognitive Sciences | Research Excellence Award

University of Wisconsin-Madison | United States

Dr. Yunyi (Icy) Zhang is a learning sciences researcher focused on embodied cognition, gesture, and visual representations in learning, with particular emphasis on statistics, data science, and computing education. Her work integrates cognitive developmental theory, experimental methods, and learning analytics to design evidence-based, scalable pedagogical approaches that enhance conceptual understanding across learners with varied prior knowledge. She has authored 13 scholarly documents with 61 citations across 52 citing documents and an h-index of 4, reflecting consistent impact across educational psychology and cognitive science. Her research advances theory-driven instructional design with strong relevance for technology-enhanced and equitable learning environments.

Citation Metrics (Scopus)

70

60

40

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Citations 61

Documents 13

h-index 4

Citations

Documents

h-index

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Featured Publications

Designing Interactive Learning Tools for Enhancing Computational Thinking in Middle School Students

– Computers & Education, 2024

Using Eye-Tracking Data to Inform the Design of Programming Tutorials

– Journal of Learning Analytics, 2024

Exploring Collaborative Problem Solving in Online Coding Environments

– Computers in Human Behavior, 2023

Improving Novice Programmer Engagement Through Gamified Learning Modules

– Journal of Educational Technology, 2023

Yousri Kessentini | Artificial Intelligence | Best Researcher Award

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Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yousri Kessentini | Artificial Intelligence | Best Researcher Award

Senior Researcher at Digital research center of Sfax, Tunisia

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yousri Kessentini is a computer science researcher and Associate Professor at the Digital Research Center of Sfax, Tunisia, where he leads the DeepVision research team. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Rouen, France, and specializes in deep learning, computer vision, and document image analysis. Dr. Kessentini has coordinated numerous national and international research projects and has received several awards, including honors from NVIDIA and the National Academy of Engineering. He is a certified Deep Learning instructor and an active contributor to the scientific community through publications, supervision, and editorial roles.

Publication Profile 

Scopus

Orcid

Educational Background 

Dr. Kessentini earned his Habilitation in Computer Science from the University of Sfax in 2021. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (2006–2009) and a DEA (postgraduate diploma) in Computer Science (2004) from the University of Rouen, France. He also obtained an engineering diploma in computer science from ENIS in 2003 and completed his secondary education with a Scientific Baccalaureate in Mathematics in 1998.

Professional Experience

Dr. Kessentini has accumulated rich academic and industrial experience over two decades. Since 2022, he has served as Associate Professor and Head of the DeepVision research team at CRNS. From 2017 to 2021, he was a senior researcher at the same center. Between 2013 and 2017, he was an assistant professor at ISIMA University of Monastir. He also held postdoctoral and graduate assistant roles in France, including at ITESOFT/LITIS and the University of Rouen. Since 2018, he has been a certified instructor and ambassador of the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute, reflecting his leadership in AI education and training.

Research Interests

His research spans a variety of deep learning applications, including document image recognition, handwritten text analysis, multi-script OCR, generative models, and satellite image fusion. Dr. Kessentini also explores the intersection of AI with healthcare, smart cities, and industrial automation. His recent projects involve federated learning for medical imaging, vehicle identity recognition, Arabic script analysis, and human action recognition through remote sensing and video surveillance.

Awards and Honors

Dr. Kessentini has received numerous accolades for his contributions to AI research and innovation. In 2025, he was selected for the prestigious U.S.-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Symposium by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He ranked first in Tunisia’s national recruitment competition for associate professors in 2022. He received best student paper awards at ICPR 2020 and MedPRAI 2020 and earned a Jury Recognition Award in Tunisia’s national innovation competition in 2019. His research excellence was also recognized by NVIDIA with a GPU Grant in 2018, the same year he was certified as an official instructor and ambassador.

Publications 

Title: Information extraction from multi-layout invoice images using FATURA dataset

Year: 2025

Title: STF-Trans: A Two-stream SpatioTemporal Fusion Transformer for Very High Resolution Satellites Images

Year: 2024

Title: MSdocTr-Lite: A Lite Transformer for Full Page Multi-script Handwriting Recognition

Year: 2023

Title: Spectral-Temporal Fusion of Satellite Images Via an End-to-End Two-Stream Attention With an Effective Reconstruction Network

Year: 2023

Title: Few Shots Are All You Need: A Progressive Few Shot Learning Approach for Low Resource Handwriting Recognition

Year: 2022

Conclusions

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yousri Kessentini stands out as a leading figure in the fields of artificial intelligence and computer vision. His consistent contributions to scientific innovation, mentorship, and international collaboration have had a significant impact across academia and industry. His work demonstrates not only technical excellence but also a strong commitment to applying AI for societal and industrial benefit. With an impressive track record of publications, project leadership, and academic service, he is highly deserving of recognition in competitive research and innovation awards.