BASE: Bridging AI, Systems, and Environment
Advancing AI frontiers through innovative research in agriculture and beyond
We're Hiring
Graduate Research Assistant (50% FTE)
AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Computer Vision. Immediate joining for Spring 2027.
BASE Lab Featured on WSIL Heartland News
Our team members Taminul Islam and Toqi Tahamid Sarker were featured on WSIL 3 Heartland News for their AI research supporting the SIU and Illinois Department of Natural Resources deer density study, which could help improve deer management in Illinois.
Research Focus
Computer Vision
Developing advanced techniques for visual data interpretation, including object detection, recognition, and image processing, to enhance automated visual understanding in diverse applications.
Deep Learning
Designing and optimizing state-of-the-art neural network architectures and algorithms to address complex problems across various domains, with a focus on improving performance and scalability.
AI for Agriculture
Applying artificial intelligence to agricultural challenges such as precision livestock management, crop health monitoring, and yield prediction, aiming to improve efficiency and sustainability in agriculture.
Federated Learning
Creating robust federated learning frameworks to handle non-iid data and resource constraints, ensuring effective and secure distributed learning across heterogeneous environments.
Recent Publications
BactSegNet: A Growth-Stage-Aware, Searched Instance-Segmentation Model for Salmonella and Escherichia coli Microcolonies in Pure-Culture Bright-Field Microscopy with a Food-Matrix Surrogate
Journal of Imaging, 2026
Malek Rababa, Namariq Dhahir, Anas AlSobeh, Amer AbuGhazaleh, Khaled R. Ahmed
MedSentiBERT: Distilling a Frontier-LLM Sentiment Labelling Policy into a Compact Clinical Classifier
IEEE 38th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI), 2026
Joseph Kalinzi, Khaled R. Ahmed
Mask-Guided Multi-Task Learning: Real-Time RGB Prediction of Plant Photosynthetic Efficiency at the Edge
Computer Vision for Biodiversity Monitoring and Conservation (CVBMC) Workshop at the International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR), 2026
Abdellah Lakhssassi, Taminul Islam, Cristiana Bernardi Rankrape, Naoufal Lakhssassi, Karla Gage, Khaled R. Ahmed
Latest News
KFVS12 Features BASE Lab's AI Deer-Counting Work
October 2026
KFVS12 covered SIU's effort to find better ways to track Illinois deer populations, comparing trail cameras, thermal-imaging vehicle surveys, and drones. BASE Lab PhD candidate Taminul Islam is developing AI software that detects and counts deer in thermal footage while avoiding double counts. Read the KFVS12 story
SIU News: Zoology and Computer Science Team Up for IDNR Deer Density Study
October 2026
SIU News highlighted a collaboration between the Center for Wildlife Sustainability Research and BASE Lab to help the Illinois Department of Natural Resources compare deer-density estimation methods. BASE Lab PhD students Toqi Tahamid Sarker and Taminul Islam built AI models for estimating deer distance in trail-camera images and for detecting and counting deer in thermal imagery, work accepted to an ECCV 2026 workshop. Read the SIU News story
Paper Published in Journal of Imaging
October 2026
Our paper 'BactSegNet: A Growth-Stage-Aware, Searched Instance-Segmentation Model for Salmonella and Escherichia coli Microcolonies in Pure-Culture Bright-Field Microscopy with a Food-Matrix Surrogate' by Malek Rababa, Namariq Dhahir, Anas AlSobeh, Amer AbuGhazaleh, and Khaled R. Ahmed has been published in MDPI Journal of Imaging. Read the paper
Paper Accepted at ICTAI 2026
October 2026
Our paper 'MedSentiBERT: Distilling a Frontier-LLM Sentiment Labelling Policy into a Compact Clinical Classifier' by Joseph Kalinzi and Khaled R. Ahmed has been accepted at IEEE ICTAI 2026.
Join Our Lab
Interested in pushing the boundaries of AI? We are always looking for talented individuals to join our team.
PhD Students
Conduct cutting-edge research in AI and Computer Vision.
Masters Students
Gain hands-on experience in advanced AI projects.
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