CV

Welcome to my Curriculum Vitae

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ORC ID –> 0000-0002-4841-4398

Personal Statement

Computing technology is becoming more integral to every walk of life with every passing day. Tools are being created on a daily basis to support human tasks and need improvement, re-imagining, and replacing. There are multiple areas of computing inquiry with humongous unexplored areas, and wide explored areas to which ones’ imagination can be put to bare. Sparking the imaginations of others with technical leadership while pursuing technical improvement with scientific discovery is what I am doing with my career. <!– —

Teaching Statement

WHY?

With skills and experiences across a large number of years in technology why teach? For the strengthening, transmission, and improvement of ideas, techniques and knowledge. Working in tech has shown me that being stuck with a non-adaptive skill-set is to ones’ detriment. As a lecturer one is introduced to new ideas and motivations through students, and in turn is able to do the same for them.

HOW?

As a teaching assistant and lecturer I have found people learn best through doing, and learn best from someone who has practical knowledge, experience and skill. In a classroom I like to get students attention, introduce them to new best practices, and guide them on their own learning journeys. As a professor one must guide and support while providing motivation, inspiration and spirit. In technology I have worked as an IT administrator, software engineer, lecturer, contractor and researcher. I can speak to many types and levels of jobs in the area and guide students toward the type of career they desire. As a professor I like to see the application of learning. Throughout my classes practical work, applicable to my industry experience will be assigned. Students should leave a class I have taught knowing how a specific area of interest will propel them toward their goals, while having practiced the skill. Although my PhD is in Computer Science, I focused on Affecting Computing – getting computers to understand human emotion. My work was the design, development and evaluation of a web application that enables teacher reflective practice. The study helped me learn there are many gaps between actual student engagement and teach perceived student engagement. As a goal, I believe it necessary to develop a continual feedback and reflective practice to tailor learning experiences for the students present in a class.

WHAT?

Computing technology is becoming more integral to every walk of life with every passing day. Tools are being created on a daily basis to support human tasks and need improvement, re-imagining, and replacement. There are multiple areas of computing inquiry with humongous unexplored areas, and wide explored areas to which ones’ imagination can be put to bare. Being able to spark imaginations and placing people on the right path toward scientific discovery is what I intend to do with my career. –> <!– —

Research Statement

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Work History

2020-2026

Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at University of Miami Health System

2025-now Research Fellow \& AI expert [-] Lead research into use of LLMs and VLMs to support the practice of eye clinicians.

GeneNetwork at UTHSC

2023-2025 Research Fellow \& AI expert [-] Develop optimal way to improve GeneNetwork and UTHSC genetics, genomics and informatics research with affective, human-centered computing and AI.

2022-2023 AI Consultant [-] Develop and implement AI/ML/Causal research for GeneNetwork project

Strathmore University @iLabAfrica Research Center

2020-2022 Research & Academic Director [-] Initiate masters degree program in Data Science and Analytics (DSA) [-] Accepted initial cohort into DSA program [-] Teach python to DSA students [-] Teach Advanced AI & Machine Learning to computer science PhDs [-] Technical and professional advisor for onsite professional training cohort [-] Published a journal paper and won two grants

AfroValley

2021 Software Architect Contractor

2010-2019

Solomon Ventures LLC & Tint Right Colour Enterprise

2019 Solution/System Architecting, Development, and Consulting [-] Architecture developed for a revolutionary housing portal for Kenya, by Kenyans.

Techno Brain Group LLC

2019 Product Manager, Identity Management (IDM) Business Unit [-] Developed a new architecture to revamp twelve (12) year old software offering. [-] Lead the development of a proof of concept implementation of the architecture, personally building several services. [-] Led interaction with client, a country technology representative in the office of the president. [-] Consulted, planned and tested migration of company wide software DevOPs.

IBM Research

2016-2018 Research Scientist [-] Investigate identity and security on blockchain using biometrics. [-] Research and implementation of state-of-the-art cancelable biometric techniques to create a pastoral identity solution to aide developing and war torn countries with emergency identity management.

2015-2016 Research Post-doc [-] Further explored computer vision techniques for tracking and uniquely identifying dark-skinned children in a classroom under hardware and network resource constraints. [-] Published patent.

2015 Intern [-] Implemented and demoed a real-time computer vision application to track dark-skinned children in a classroom under hardware and network resource constraints.

Clemson University

2009_2015 Graduate Researcher [-] Research, development and publishing in Affective computing, human centered computing and biometrics [-] Organize and mentor research experience for undergraduates program [-] Research lab list: Affective Computing (AC) Lab Human Centered Computing (HCC) Lab, Biometric and Pattern Recognition (BPR) Lab [-] Create a platform to support teacher’s reflective practice in the classroom based on student engagement [-] Develop a grammer using voice XML to enable vocal interaction for an online shopping app [-] Developed an Amazon-like voice-enabled website to help the elderly shop more easily [-] Research and improve 2.5D finger surface recognition using computational intelligence [-] Research and publish on periocular biometric identification in the visible and infrared spectra

Graduate Teacher [-] Teach class and lead laboratory on computing fundamentals

2001-2009

L-3 Communications MIS

2009 System Integration Lab Manager Acted as a systems integration lab manager by organizing and building, from the ground up, a SIL with the help of warehouse personnel and test engineers to simulate the internals of an aircraft system to be deployed for the U.S. Airforce.

2009 Project Engineer Performed a subset of the duties of a Project Engineer (overall engineering lead, management of incoming product and warehouse personnel, overseeing project shipping and receiving, while interacting and working with sub-contractors to build solutions for our clients).

2006-2008 Software Engineer II As a developer I designed and implemented client-server enterprise software to control aircraft hardware, built development management scripts, and added to an existing internal web platform

Auburn University

2004-2005 Information Technology (IT) Lead and Manager, Student Athlete Support Services (SASS) [-] Chief architect for in-house student check-in software [-] managed multiple computer labs [-] hired & groomed a 4 person staff, each of whom had the duel role of lab manager and developer [-] managed over 100 computer, interfacing and meeting the needs of Athletic counselors and student-athletes alike

2004 IT Lead Assistant & Developer, College of Science and Math (COSAM) [-] provided windows and mac system administration, trouble shooting and support [-] co-developed software for genetic sequence experimentation

2002-2003 IT support, Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE) [-] Managed multiple computer labs and equipment [-] provided windows, mac, and linux system administration, trouble-shooting and support

2001-2003 Mentor, College of Engineering [-] Tutor Engineering physics I, II and computer science years 1-3

Teaching Experience

Auburn/Clemson University

2003, 2004, 2012 Computer Science - Applications, Department of Computer Science [-] Oversee computer science lab assignments [-] Teach basic MS office application usage [-] Teach lab and grade assignments

Education

Degree and Year

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science, 2009-2015
Masters of Software Engineering (MSWE) 2003-2006
Bachelor of Science (BS) in Computer Engineering 2000-2003

School

Clemson University PhD, Clemson, South Carolina USA
Auburn University MSWE, Auburn, Alabama USA
Auburn University BS, Auburn, Alabama USA

Research

Dissertation --> EngageME the design and implementation of a reflective tool for evaluating student engagement
Research Project --> Evaluating Exits using Computational Intelligence and Pedestrian Escape Panic model

Awards, Grants \& Honors

Patents

• 2018 Oct 18 - US20180300830A1 - Configuring classroom physical resources
• 2018 Nov 11 - US20180315145A1 - Managing school systems on a blockchain
• 2019 US 2019/0378142 A1 - Biometric token for Blockchain
• 2020/2021 (Applied/Granted) – US10922588B2 - Identification and/or verification by a consensus network using sparse parametric representations of biometric images
• 2018/2020 (Applied/Granted) – US10713963B2 - IManaging lifelong learner events on a Blockchain

Publications

Books \& Chapters

1. Daily, S., James, M. T., Cherry, D., Porter, J.J., Darnell, S.S., Isaac, J., and Roy, T. Chapter 9 - Affective Computing: Historical Foundations, Current Applications and Future Trends. In T. Bennett (Eds.), Emotions and Affect in Human Factors and Human-Computer Interation, pp 213-231. Academic Press, 2017.
2. Darnell, S.S., Mack, N., Jackson, F., Alnizami, H., James, M., Ekandem, J., Alvarez, I., Andujar, M., Moon, D., and Gilbert, J.E. (2014). Chapter 92: Human-Computer Interfaces for Speech Applications. In. T.F. Gonzalez, J. Diaz-Herrera & A. Tucker (Eds.), Computing Handbook, 3rd ed. (1), (3rd ed. pp.92:1-92:15) CRC Press.

Journal

1. S. Solomon Darnell, J. Sevilla. "3 Stages of a Pan-African Identity Framework for Establishing SSI with Blockchain". In Frontiers in Blockchain, vol. 4, pgs. 26, November 2021.
2. M.T. James, S.B. Daily, T. Roy and Shelby Solomon Darnell. "EngageMe: designing a visualization tool utilizing physiological feedback to support instruction". In: Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning 10 (2 2015).
3. Darnell, Shelby Solomon, "EngageMe: The Design and Implementation of a Reflective Tool for Evaluating Student Engagement" (2015). All Dissertations. 1790.
4. K. P. Hollingsworth, S. S. Darnell, P. E. Miller, D. L. Woodard, K. W. Bowyer and P. J. Flynn, "Human and Machine Performance on Periocular Biometrics Under Near-Infrared Light and Visible Light," in IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 588-601, April 2012.

Conference

1. M. Aminan, S. S. Darnell, M. Delsoz, et al., “GlaucoRAG: A Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Model for Expert-Level Glaucoma Assessment,” medRxiv, p. 2025.07.03.25330805, Jan. 2025. DOI: 10.1101/2025.07.03.25330805.
2. S. Darnell, R. Overall, A. Guarracino, et al., “Creating a biomedical knowledge base by addressing gpt inaccurate responses and benchmarking context,” Open Research Africa, vol. 8, no. 12, 2025. DOI: 10.12688/openresafrica.15854.1.
3. Nandakumar, K., Ratha, N., Pankanti, S., & Darnell, S. (2017, December). Secure one-time biometrie tokens for non-repudiable multi-party transactions. In Information Forensics and Security (WIFS), 2017 IEEE Workshop on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
4. Bore, N., Karumba, S., Mutahi, J., Darnell, S. S., Wayua, C., & Weldemariam, K. (2017, November). Towards Blockchain-enabled School Information Hub. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (pp. 19:1-19-4). ACM. 19:1-19:4
5. Shelby Solomon Darnell. 2014. EngageME: a tool to simplify the conveyance of complicated data. In CHI '14 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 359-362. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2559206.2574765
6. Daily, S. B., Meyers, D., Darnell, S., Roy, T., & James, M. T. (2013, July). Understanding privacy and trust issues in a classroom affective computing system deployment. In International Conference on Distributed, Ambient, and Pervasive Interactions (pp. 414-423). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
7. Roy, Tania; James, Melva T.; Gupta, Arindam; Darnell, Shelby S.; and Daily, Shaundra, "A Participatory Design Process for Developing a Tool to Visualize Classroom Engagement" (2013). Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS). 68.
8. Chattaraman V., Kwon WS., Gilbert J., Darnell S. (2012) Locus of Control in Conversational Agent Design: Effects on Older Users’ Interactivity and Social Presence. In: Nakano Y., Neff M., Paiva A., Walker M. (eds) Intelligent Virtual Agents. IVA 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7502. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
9. J.E. Gilbert and J.I. Ekandem and S.S. Darnell et.al., "Accessible Voting: One Machine, One Vote for Everyone". In: CHI’11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI Video Presentation. Vancouver, Canada, May 2011.
10. Darnell, S.S. et.al. “MyDASH: The Biometric Digital Dashboard”. in Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces for Automotive Applications (MIAA’11) at the 2011 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI’11) Palo Alto, CA, Feb. 2011, pp.53-56.

Technical and White Papers

1. Shelby Solomon Darnell. "Alleviating Escape Panic Using Evolutionary Intelligence". in Auburn University Theses and Dissertations. May 2006.
2. Carnahan, B., Muhdi, R., Fu, S.G., Darnell, S., Davis, J., Doziera, G., & Smith, A. "GENEVAC: Evolving Exits for Evacuation Models via Steady-State Genetic Search". in Technical Report: Auburn University CSSE 05-06.
3. Bazahnau, A., Ondula, E. and Darnell, S.S. “Blockchain and IOT - Using Raspberry Pi’s to test DApp feasibiltiy”. in IBM Research Africa Technical reports 2017.

Technical Skills