Zahra Sajednia , Ph.D.

Professional Overview

Bio: Professor Zahra Sajedinia is an Assistant Professor in Data Science and Computer Science at Saint Mary’s College of California. Professor Sajedinia is a professor in the Business Analytics Department in the School of Economics and Business Administration at Saint Mary's College of California. She received her Ph.D. in Mathematical and Computational Cognitive Science from Purdue University in 2021, her MSc in Computer Science from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2015, and her BSc in Computer Science from Shahid Beheshti University in 2011. Her research interests include cognitive modeling, natural computing, responsible AI, multi-agent modeling, statistical inference and Bayesian analysis. At Purdue University, Dr. Sajedinia conducted research on novel neural network architectures and developed a computational model of human negotiation and visual problem-solving. Prior to joining SMC, she developed machine learning models and performed statistical analyses on behavioral experiments at the Honda Research Institute to understand how to improve the convenience of self-driving cars.

Courses Taught: 

• Leading Technologies in Innovating Business
• Data Analysis
• Advanced Data Analysis
• Quantitative Methods
• Statistics
• Probability for Data Science
• Design of Experiments

Publications:

Book Chapter

• Sebastien Helie, Sajedinia Zahra (2019), Simulating Cognitive Deficits in Parkinson’s Disease in Handbook of Multi-Scale Models of Brain Disorders: From Microscopic to Macroscopic Assessment of Brain Dynamics, (pp. 105-112). Springer.

Papers

• Sajedinia Zahra, Dong Mia, Krishnamoorthy Vidya, Huang Gaojian, Zheng Zhaobo, Misu Teruhisa, Akash Kumar (2022), Investigating Users’ Preferences in Adaptive Driving Styles for Level 2 Driving Automation, In Proceeding of 14th International ACM Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications (AutoUI 2022).
• Sajedinia Zahra, Pizlo Zygmunt, H ́elie Sebastien (2019) Investigating the Role of the Visual System in Solving the Traveling Salesperson Problem, In Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
• Sajedinia, Z., H ́elie, S. (2018). A New Computational Model for Astrocytes and Their Role in Biologically Realistic Neural Networks. Journal of Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, Volume, 2018.
• Sajedinia Zahra (2014). Artificial Astrocyte Networks, as Components in Artificial Neural Networks. In Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation Conference proceeding (pp.316-326).2 Springer International Publishing.
• Sajedinia Zahra, Wareham Todd (2014) On the Computational Complexity of the General Problem Solver. In 23th Annual IEEE Newfoundland Conference proceedings (NECEC 2014).
• Sajedinia Zahra (2013) Artificial Glia; a New Element in Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference Systems. In 22th Annual IEEE Newfoundland Conference proceedings (NECEC 2013).

Education

• PhD, Mathematical and Computational Cognitive Science. Purdue University, 2021
• Graduate certificate, Applied Statistics. Purdue University, 2021
• MS, Computer Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2015
• BS, Computer Science. Shahid Beheshti University, 2011