Students and Trainees
Dr. Qin has mentored more than 150 students and trainees across postdoctoral, graduate, undergraduate, and Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) stages, spanning Old Dominion University, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Spelman College, and Tuskegee University. The list below summarizes mentees by stage and institution.
Old Dominion University (2024 – present)
Current PhD Students
- Mohammad Aman Ullah Al Amin — Computer Science, Fall 2024 – present.
- Ashish Acharya — Computer Science, Fall 2025 – present.
- Ursula Senam Nkonu — Biomedical Sciences, Spring 2025 – present.
Current MS Students
- Anton Rasmussen — Computer Science, Spring 2025 – present.
- William P. Poston — Summer 2026 – present.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (2016 – 2024)
Postdoctoral Scholars
- Haobo Guo — Computational genomics (2017–2020).
- Emine Guven — Computational genomics (2016–2017).
PhD Students
- Parisa Hatami — Biomedical image analysis and aging (2022–2024).
- Shyla Hardwick — AI applications in biomedical data (2022–2023); AIM-AHEAD PhD Research Fellow.
- Mohammad Aman Ullah Al Amin — AI and computational biology (2022–2024).
- Syed Tareq — COVID-19 data analysis (2021–2022).
- Daniel Mailman — Protein structure prediction with AlphaFold (2021–2022).
- Mehran Ghafari — Biomedical image analysis (2016–2021).
MS Students
- Intinan Uddin — AI-based analytics (2022–2024).
- M.D. Jubair Pantho — Data science and computational applications (2022–2024).
- Milan Artis — Machine learning for network intrusion detection (Thesis, 2022–2024).
- Landen Bauder — Coronavirus genome analysis (2022–2023).
- Cristian Rudas — Deep learning of biomedical images (SFS scholar, 2022–2023).
- Robert Johnson — Cybersecurity applications (SFS scholar, 2022–2024).
- Chase Carroll — Machine learning and cybersecurity (SFS scholar, 2022–2024).
- Jacob Motley — Advanced data analysis in social-media sentiment (SFS scholar, 2022–2023).
- Taylor Day — Deep learning for lifespan prediction (Thesis, 2021–2022).
- Timothy Davin Swarfford — COVID-19 genomic analysis (2021–2022).
- Ryan Wedell — GISAID SARS-CoV-2 clade fitness estimation (2021–2022).
- Jarod Wright — Deep learning in viral dynamics (2021–2022).
- Edward Clawson — Permutation-based association test for triplet association (2020–2021).
- Luis Cooper — Prototype of an autonomous lawn mower (2020–2021).
- Paul Smith — Deep learning of electronic health records (2019–2020).
- Caleb Powell — Plant image digitization (Thesis committee, 2018–2020).
- Justin Clark — Deep learning of microscopic images (2018–2019).
- Zach McCoy — Ecological networks and big data (2017–2018).
- Jonah Hall — Geospatial big data applications (2017–2018).
- Lawrence Taylor — Network analysis software development (2017–2018).
- Alex Hagman — Machine learning on cancer drug responses (2017–2018).
- Stephanie Honore — Computational genomics and web servers (2016–2017).
- Thomas MacKenzie — Genomic computing research (2016–2017).
- Niket Jaiswal — Database and web-server design (2016–2017).
Undergraduate Researchers
- Selin Kaplanoglu — Honors research in computational biology (2022–2023).
- Bennett Bowden — COVID-19 tweet sentiment analysis (2021–2022).
- Derek Campbell — Quantum computing applications (2021–2022).
- Megan Doman — Machine learning of COVID-19 data (2019–2021).
- Cody Whitt — Graph-based lifespan estimation (2021–2022).
- Trevor Peyton — Deep learning of biomedical images (2019–2021).
- Dakila Ledesma — Computational genomics, herbarium sheets (2018–2020).
- Trinity Young — COVID-19 research (2020–2021).
- Morgan McKenna — COVID-19 genomic data (2020–2021).
- Erin Ward — COVID-19 genomic research (2020–2021).
- Allison Hart — COVID-19 genomic analysis (2020–2021).
- Cole Calbaugh — Gene-network-driven deep learning (2020–2021).
- Christopher Collins — Machine learning of COVID-19 data (2019–2020).
- Jay Patel — Cell object segmentation with deep learning (Honors thesis, 2019–2020).
- William Baker — Herbarium data digitization (2018–2019).
- Kathryn Rouse — Network aging studies (Honors thesis, 2016–2018).
- Brittany Campbell Dugger/Thomas — Computational genomics (2016–2018).
- Victoria Mak — Computational genomics applications (2017–2018).
- Zaihab Bukhari — Computational genomics (2017–2018).
- Anna Hulsey — Telemedicine projects (Honors, 2017–2018).
- Caleb Powell — Plant image collection using mobile devices (2017–2018).
- Mackenzie Davenport — Data networks (Thesis, 2016–2017).
- Stephen Clark — Metric proficiency in education (Honors, 2016–2017).
- Kierra Parker — Metric proficiency at Spelman (Honors, 2016–2017).
REU Participants (NSF-funded sites at UTC)
Summer 2024 — 11 students:
Andrea Fabian Navarro (UT San Antonio); Atilia Thomas (Virginia State); Ava Robillard (Cornell);
Abigail Chen (Vanderbilt); Khoi Le (Brown); Elijah Turman (Troy); Austin Nicolas (Grinnell);
Osayenmwen Omozusi (UI Chicago); Abigail Beman (UT Austin); Thea Nicholson (Xavier University of Louisiana);
Jordan Clifford (Arizona State).
Summer 2023 — 13 students:
Abdul Haq Ayantayo (Wayne State); Ada'Jiah Burton (Fisk); Amaya Caudel (Austin Peay);
Alyssa Jesse Hugo (UNT); Cameron Jones (Tuskegee); Collin Matthews (UA Huntsville);
Dominic Radcliffe-Hines (DePaul); Jane Gorman (Catholic University); Kalon Jones (Tuskegee);
Luis Urias Miranda (Shenandoah); Schuyler Brennan (U. Delaware); Yixuan Cheng (Berkeley City College);
Yuyang Wu (UC Berkeley).
Summer 2022 — 14 students:
Jocelyn Chu (Brown); Kristen Fulford (Mansfield U. PA); Kaiya Jones (Tuskegee);
Lucas Morley (Pittsburgh); Amara Pardo (Rutgers-Newark); Vanessa Ramos (Jarvis Christian);
Saksham Saksena (Vanderbilt); William Torres (Adelphi); Melanie Trouse (UT Knoxville);
Li An Tsai (Georgia Tech); Judeah Wallace (Tuskegee); Chris Zhuang (UT Austin);
Sophia Huang (Thomas Jefferson HS); Anyliah Whitfield King (Norfolk State).
Summer 2021 — 15 students:
Koray Alp (Miami); Daniel Bosah (Bronx CC, CUNY); Monique Christian (Norfolk State);
Grace I. Dearden (Cornell); Nicole M. Ely (Florida Polytech); Gus Lipkin (Florida Polytech);
Trinity S. Foley (Brown); Tiffany Harvey (UTC); Landon L. Kehr (Taylor U.);
William A. Pleasant (Georgia Tech); Kayla Redmond (Mississippi U. for Women);
Jeffrey M. Richards (East Tennessee State); Connie Sun (Arizona); Will Torres (Adelphi);
Jason J. Wang (Kentucky).
Summer 2020 — 12 students:
Quenisha S. Baldwin (Tuskegee); Jamaree S. Moore (Norfolk State); Isimeme Udu (Spelman);
Tamjeed Azad (Columbia); Taya Marie de Blonk (UTC); Gitapun J. Jur (UTC); Kaan Alp (Emory);
Chloe Pryor (Georgia Tech); Cleo C. Falvey (UMass Boston); Erin M. Dahl (Pacific U.);
Zoe H. Zimmerman (Emory); Serena Hollis (Ashland).
Summer 2019 — 12 students:
Mackenzie Pugh (Tennessee Tech); Jonathan McMillan (Saint Louis); Antonio Cheshier (Fisk);
Emily Sterner (Shippensburg); Kwame Forbes (UVI); John Ali (Morehouse); Jeffrey Bryant (Tuskegee);
Sophielle Silvers (Norfolk State); Junyoung Kim (Rhodes); Ashly Powell (UVI);
Dakila Ledesma (UTC); Dell Zimmerman (UTC).
Spelman College (2009 – 2016)
Mentored approximately 64 undergraduate researchers at Spelman, including three honors theses; at least nine students subsequently pursued PhD training in STEM.
Selected Undergraduate Researchers
- Maya Jones — Differential gene expression in cisplatin-treated ovarian cancer cell lines (RISE, 2015–2016).
- Keyana Scott — Network robustness and cellular aging (Independent study, ASPIRE, BIO386, 2014–2016).
- Jessica D. Corley — Role of network configuration on aging (HHMI scholar, 2015–2016).
- Taylor Williams-Hamilton — Aging and stem cells (Independent study, 2015–2016).
- Faith J. Lyons — Aging-related human diseases (HHMI scholar, 2015–2016).
- Maya Bryant — Computational study in gene robustness using gene-expression data (2015–2016).
- Camrie J. Hendking — Aging and human diseases (Honors research student, 2015–2016).
- Mason Dana, Justice Echols, Kierra Parker, Faith Kirkland, Erin Johnson, Imani-Michelle White, Bongeka Zuma, Michala Mercer, Christina Fennell — Various topics (BIO386, 2015–2016).
- DeAndra Jones — Mathematical evaluation of yeast longevity genes (2014–2015).
- Courtney Lett — Effect of network configuration on aging dynamics (Math RAMP, 2014–2015).
- Kayla Moore — Flow-cytometry study on oxidative stress and aging (RISE scholar, 2014–2015).
- Maya Kirkland — Maximum-likelihood analysis of yeast lifespan (RISE scholar, 2014–2015).
- Zhane Cruickshank — Network robustness and cellular aging (BIO386, 2014–2015).
- Brittany Jackson — Network configuration and cellular aging (Math RAMP, 2013–2014).
- Mislie C. Jean-Baptiste — Network clustering for copy-number variations (Independent study, ASPIRE, 2012–2014).
- Ashlee Beverett — Genetic variation and yeast oxidative-stress responses (BIO233, 2013–2014); ROS and aging (2012–2013).
- Ariel Harden — Genetic variation and yeast oxidative-stress responses (BIO233, 2013–2014).
- Deja Heckard, Kaitlyn Jackson — Pathogenicity-associated genes in yeast (BIO233, 2013–2014).
- Cayla Lowe, Corinthia Wilkerson — Microbial analysis of orange juice and lemonade (BIO233, 2013–2014).
- Anique Thompson, Tara Martin — Metric systems and transportation distance effects (BIO233, 2013–2014); metric proficiency and scientific literacy (BIO380, 2012–2013).
- Amanda Alexander — Statistical genomics (Math RAMP, Honors thesis, 2012–2013).
- Palpasa Manandhar — Reliability network modeling (Math RAMP, 2012–2013).
- Jayden Le Blanc, Jessica Rogers — ROS and aging (2012–2013).
- Daria Clegg — Genomics investigation of health disparities (ASPIRE scholar, 2012–2013).
- Alannah Mack, Kofi Khamit-Kush, Kasha Price — Metric proficiency and attitudes (BIO380, 2012–2013).
- Lindsay Parnell — Oxidative stress and genome integrity (Honors thesis, 2011–2012).
- Morgan Maite — Wild isolates of yeast and microbes (Independent study, 2011–2012).
- Yamisha Rutherford — Lifespan extension of pcp1 null mutation (Independent study, 2011–2012).
- Brittni Wilson — TOR pathway in cellular aging (Independent study, HHMI scholar, 2010–2012).
- Megan Magee — Quantitative analysis of yeast aging process (Independent study, 2010–2012).
- Janella Wynter — Yeast lifespans and geldanamycin/radicicol effects on aging (Summer research, 2011–2012).
- Shyla Hardwick — Isolation and characterization of Mycobacteriophage sp. Faith 1 (BIO491i, 2009–2010); yeast lifespans (Summer 2011–2012).
- Andrea Brown — Reliability model of cellular aging (Math major, Independent study, 2011–2012).
- Hilary Cooks — Bioinformatics project using Python (ASPIRE, 2011–2012).
- Alice Story — Molecular evolution, gene networks, and cellular aging (BIO320, 2010–2011).
- Erika Dommond — Network model of cellular aging (Math major, HHMI scholar, 2010–2011).
- Dominique Parker, Meighan Parker — Oxidative stress and cellular aging (Independent study, 2009–2011).
- Joi Gaddy — Comparative genome analysis in Bacillus genomes (ASPIRE scholar, 2010–2011).
- Alisha Caliman — Oxidative stress on cellular aging (RISE scholar, 2010–2011).
- Jasmine Halcome, Devany Brown — Bacillus Genome Database (ASPIRE scholars, 2010–2011).
- Leondra Patrice McGahee, Kiara Brown, Courtney Dill — Simulation of infectious-disease emergence (2010–2011).
- Kenee Daffin — Effects of protein electrostatic properties on protein interactions in yeast (BIO320, 2009–2010).
- Corin White — Support-vector machines for predicting longevity genes (BIO320, 2009–2010).
- Charita Montgomery, Whitney Payton — Aging and gene networks (BIO320, 2009–2010).
- Lolade Bolaji — R and biostatistics (Volunteer, 2009–2010).