People
Laboratory Director
Ziho Kang
Dr. Kang is a tenured Associate Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. His background spans human factors, human-integrated systems engineering, and data analytics.
His work focuses on discovering significant patterns in spatio-temporal data, especially human eye movement networks, and using those patterns to evaluate performance, predict behaviors, and inform human-centered system design.
- Application areas include air traffic control, weather forecasting, aircraft piloting, healthcare, marketing, and virtual reality.
- Email: zihokang@ou.edu
Current Student Researchers
Junehyung Lee
Ph.D. student. June's work includes classifying visual scan path sequences using Dynamic Time Warping, multidimensional scaling, and DBSCAN.
He continues his doctoral research in the lab with support from the NSF CAREER award and FAA collaborations.
Jingan Peng (PJ)
Ph.D. student. PJ's work focuses on analyzing multimodal data from virtual reality experiments, including fNIRS, eye tracking, and behavioral data.
He is still exploring his doctoral research direction, with particular interest in using multimodal data to understand user states and improve system design and interaction, especially in autonomous driving and AI agents in VR environments.
Open positions
The lab is not recruiting new students through Fall 2026. If you are interested in our research projects and are currently at the University of Oklahoma, you may contact Dr. Kang.
Alumni Highlights
Students who previously conducted research at the HFS laboratory.
Ricardo Palma Fraga
- Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Oklahoma (2024)
- Ricardo worked on visual scanning patterns, verbal protocol analysis, expert controller strategies, conflict mitigation, and virtual reality applications across FAA-related projects and the NSF CAREER effort.
- After completing his Ph.D. in 2024, he continued with the lab as a postdoctoral researcher in 2025.
- In Fall 2025, he joined South Dakota Mines as an Assistant Professor.
Saptarshi Mandal
- Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Saptarshi received his B.Tech in Industrial Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, India in 2011. After graduation, he worked in PwC India as a consultant for a year and a half. He joined the HFS lab in 2015. His work at the HFS Lab involves analyzing eye tracking data applicable to air traffic control using different mathematical tools such as Graph Theory and the Markov process. He received his M.S. degree (received Best ISE M.S. Thesis Award) in Dec. 2016 and started his Ph.D. in Jan. 2017.
- Saptarshi won the Best Student Paper Award in Aerospace TG at the 2016 Human Factors and Ergonomics Conference.
- Saptarshi developed various methods to analyze the eye tracking data for the Ph.D. study.
- Dr. Saptarshi Mandal is currently working at Microsoft Corporation.
- Email: Saptarshi.Mandal-1@ou.edu
Salem M. Naeeri
- Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Fellowship
- Salem's M.S. thesis topic is on characterizing human errors during aircraft maintenance.
- Salem's Ph.D. topic was on the multimodal and correlation analysis of eye movement characteristics and fatigue between novices and experts for a piloting task using B-52 combat aircraft.
- Dr. Salem Naeeri is currently working as a data analyst in Dallas, TX.
- Email: Salem.M.Naeeri-1@ou.edu
Austin Graham
- Ph.D. student in Computer Science (Advisor: Dr. Christian Grant)
- Austin is a Ph.D. student under Dr. Christian Grant in the Department of Computer Science. His interests involve human computer interaction, particularly focusing in machine learning and the effects human expertise can have on the design of data pipelines. Previous work has also included large scale recommender systems and alternative uses for Generative Adversarial Networks. He received a B.S. in Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma and is concurrently finishing an M.S. in Computer Science. Austin has been a research assistant in the HFS lab to assist on data analytics through machine learning. Austin has ventured out to create his own company.
- Email: austin.graham@ou.edu
Melissa Rosa Plata
- M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Melissa received B.S. from UPRM (ABET accredited). She previously worked for two pharmaceutical companies: Fresenius Kabi and Eli Lilly and Company. Proficient in editing and creating Standard Operating Procedures, in GDP and GMP, ISO regulations and OSHA standards. She joined HFS Lab in May 2018. Melissa received the Directors Graduate Scholarship award for 2018-2019. She is bi-lingual in English and Spanish.
- Melissa received her M.S. thesis on Universal Design for Learning and multimodal training.
- Email: mrp@ou.edu
Uchenna Kelvin Egwu
- M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Kelvin conducted research in various topics within area of human factors. He is currently working as an environmental permits specialist at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
- Email: kelvin.egwu@ou.edu
Jamie Jezier
- Research Assistant (Fall 2018)
- Undergraduate student
- Jamie assisted the research and document preparation of the FAA COE project. Jamie is currently working at Gore-Tex.
- Email: jjezier@ou.edu
Abdulrahman M. Khamaj
- Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Fellowship
- Abdulrahman received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Jazan University, Saudi Arabia in 2011. He also received his M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in May 2015. His previous research was dedicated to measuring the distraction that in-vehicle infotainment systems cause to motorcycle riders. He joined the HFS lab in 2016. His work performs usability research of mobile weather applications.
- Dr. Abdurahman Khamaj is currently an Assistant Professor in Industrial Engineering at Jarzan University, Saudi Arabia.
Elizabeth M. Argyle
- Co-adviser: Dr. Randa Shehab
- Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Elizabeth obtained her Ph.D. in May 2016. Elizabeth has a background in human factors, and her research interests include human-computer interaction, situation awareness in sociotechnical systems, and decision making under uncertainty. She was fully supported by NOAA. She has been using eye tracking to assess the relationship between decision support automation and situation awareness in the weather forecasting domain.
- Dr. Elizabeth Argyle has been a Research Fellow in the Institute of Aerospace Technology at the University of Nottingham, UK.
Sarah McClung
- M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Sarah received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University in December 2013, and became a student at the University of Oklahoma in Fall 2015. Her work at the lab involved characterization and analysis of eye tracking data applicable to air traffic control. She received her M.S. degree in ECE and is currently running a private consulting business. She is still affiliated with the HFS lab assisting research when available.
- Sarah is currently working in Austin.
Lucas Cezard
- M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Part of the collaborative degree between OU and ISIMA, a French engineering school in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
- Cezard has a background in scientific computing and modeling. His interests include both modeling and data analysis. He received his M.S. degree in Dec. 2017. His thesis topic was investigating methods to increase the usability of haptic devices.
Lucas Mosoni
- M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Mosoni took part in the collaborative degree between OU and ISIMA, a French engineering school in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
- He received an equivalent to a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from ISIMA.
- Mosoni joined the CEDM lab within the scope of a Master's thesis at the end of Fall 2016 and his work involved the analysis of eye tracking data recorded during the use of an online healthcare application. His research included more specifically the study of patterns in the visual scan paths in order to determine different types of reading behaviors and to assess the comprehension of the information provided by the online healthcare application. He received his M.S. degree in Dec. 2017.
Amin G. Alhashim
- Ph.D. student
- Alhashim received his B.S. and M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia in 2005 and 2009 respectively.
- He participated in teaching several introductory Computer Science courses while at KFUPM until joining the Computer Science program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) in 2013.
Jiwon Jeon
- Research Assistant
- M.S. student in Data Science and Analytics
- Jeon received her B.S. from Seoul National University, and received her M.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 2016. Her previous research involved analysis on tubular tracking to collect the operational limit data and to secure productivity and safety. She joined the Data Science and Analytics program in Fall 2016. Her interest is in human factors and data analytics. She conducted research in deepwater horizon operations to analyze accidents and human risk. She is currently working as a consultant in data analytics in Dallas, TX.
Lauren N. Yeagle
- Research Assistant
- M.S. student in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Email: lauren.yeagle@ou.edu
- Lauren joined the HFS lab in Jan. 2017.
- She conducted research in Universal Design for Learning to increase the performance of FAA Academy candidates.
- Lauren won the Outstanding Senior Award and the George T. Gibson Industrial Engineering Scholarship.
Mattlyn R. Dragoo
- Research Assistant
- M.S. student in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Email: Mattlyn.R.Dragoo-1@ou.edu
- Mattie joined the HFS lab in Feb. 2017.
- She conducted research in Universal Design for Learning to increase the performance of FAA Academy candidates.
- Mattie won the Lindsey F. Harkness Endowed Scholarship.
Elizabeth N. Blanche
- Fellowship
- M.S. student in Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Email: elizabeth.blanche@ou.edu
- Elizabeth joined the HFS lab in Jan. 2018.
- Elizabeth is a B-1 Flight Systems Engineer AFLCMC/WWDNB located at Tinker Air Force Base. She is supported from her work to obtain an M.S. degree. Her M.S. thesis was in designing cockpit interfaces to reduce human error.
Rashmi Reddy Annadi
- Research Assistant
- M.S. student
- Rashmi joined the lab from May 2018 until December 2018. She received the Directors Graduate Scholarship award for 2018-2019.
Morgan Corn
- Research Assistant
- Editor/Research Assistant
- Undergraduate student pursuing a B.A. in English Literature and a B.B.A. in Supply Chain Management
- Morgan joined the HFS lab in 2016 and assisted in conducting research experiments and editing research documents. She is currently working at a supply chain management consulting company.