Big Data
Data Analysis
Artificial Intelligence Researcher
Human-Centered Design Expert
Dept of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Dr. Nirmalya Thakur is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Prior to joining the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, he worked as an Assistant Teaching Professor of Computer Science at Emory University for two years. He completed his PhD at the University of Cincinnati, where he received numerous accolades, including the Dean's Fellowship, the Distinguished Thesis Award, the Interdisciplinary Research Fellowship, the Risk Management Awareness Award, and the Engineer of the Month Award. His research interests include Big Data, Data Analysis, Human-Computer Interaction, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing. He has co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals and conferences, focusing on addressing critical societal challenges through innovative, data-driven, and impactful solutions.
His research lies at the intersection of technology and society, leveraging interaction data to tackle critical challenges in both physical and digital environments. His work includes developing advanced assistive technologies, such as human activity recognition, fall detection, indoor localization, and detection of cognitive impairment, to enhance healthy aging and independent living. In the digital realm, Dr. Thakur develops and applies cutting-edge models, including sentiment analysis, anxiety detection, toxicity analysis, and topic modeling, to analyze data from social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, uncovering trends in public health and global digital engagement. Explore the Research section to dive deeper into his innovative projects and their real-world impact.
Dr. Thakur has been recognized globally for his contributions to Computer Science. He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Young Scientist of the Year Award, the Young Innovator Award, and the Excellent Researcher of the Year Award. His work has been featured in prominent outlets such as IEEE TV, Yahoo News, and Business Insider. Dr. Thakur has advised and mentored several students who have co-authored papers in different international conferences such as the 26th HCI International Conference (HCII 2024) in Washington, United States, the 12th International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies (IHIET 2024) in Venice, Italy, the 25th HCI International Conference (HCII 2023) in Copenhagen, Denmark, the 5th International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE 2022) in Guilin, China, and the 7th International Conference on Human Interaction & Emerging Technologies: Artificial Intelligence & Future Applications (IHIET-AI 2022) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Visit the Awards and Advising sections to learn more about his accolades and the his commitment to mentoring the next generation of researchers.
He is also highly active in the global scientific community, serving as an editorial board member for leading journals, such as Plos One, Human Factors in Healthcare, Journal of Technology and Disability, and International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining. He has reviewed papers for different conferences and journals, and has contributed to over 25 international conferences as a technical committee member. To learn more about his professional activities, visit the Service section.
Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering
University of Cincinnati, USA
Specialization: Human-Computer Interaction
Thesis: A Human-Centered Activity Aware Framework for Adaptive Ambient Assisted Living
Advisor: Dr. Chia Y. Han
M.S. in Computer Science
University of Cincinnati, USA
Specialization: Human-Computer Interaction
Thesis: Framework for a Context Aware Adaptive Intelligent Assistant for Activities of Daily Living
Advisor: Dr. Chia Y. Han
B.Tech in Electrical Engineering
KIIT University, India
Professional Certifications
Oracle Certified Java Professional
Oracle Certified SQL Developer
Oracle Certified PL-SQL Developer
Dr. Thakur's research spans the fields of Big Data, Data Analysis, Human-Computer Interaction, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing, and he has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers in leading conferences and journals. His work leverages interaction data from people's everyday activities, both within smart home environments and on digital platforms like social media, to address critical societal challenges. By combining insights from these domains, his research focuses on enhancing individual and community well-being through innovative, data-driven, and impact-oriented approaches.
His research includes the development of assistive technologies to support healthy aging and independent living, such as human activity recognition, user-specific activity recommendation, affect recognition, indoor location detection, fall detection, identification of indoor navigational hazards, and detection of cognitive impairments from user interactions. These advancements aim to equip the future of smart home environments with personalized and adaptive support capabilities, paving the way for improved quality of life and fostering greater independence for individuals as they age.
His work also focuses on analyzing interaction data from digital platforms like social media to uncover patterns and trends that inform broader societal challenges. This includes gender-specific sentiment analysis, subjectivity analysis, topic modeling, anxiety detection, and toxicity analysis of social media conversations, such as those about COVID-19, Mpox, Disease X, and other matters of global concern.
In summary, by advancing knowledge, innovation, and discovery across multiple fields, Dr. Thakur's research leverages data from everyday interactions—whether in physical or digital environments—to drive solutions that address pressing societal needs.
(Impact factor from the Journal Citation Reports: https://jcr.clarivate.com/jcr/)