Samira Pouyanfar

Samira Pouyanfar earned her master’s in artificial intelligence from Sharif University of Technology – the top technology and engineering university in Iran. After working two years in the industry, she decided to pursue her dream of a Ph.D.

At FIU, Samira led several graduate students working on the Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model (FPHLM). A multi-million-dollar project funded by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and used by the State of Florida, FPHLM uses a computer model to assess hurricane risks and to project annual expected insured residential losses in Florida. Samira also led a research collaboration with Farelogix, where she developed new data models to optimize airline revenue management for the company and help it generate dynamic offers for customers.

Samira also completed an internship at the Volkswagen Research Lab in Silicon Valley, where she proposed applying deep learning, a novel technology in artificial intelligence, to self-driving cars. The project led to a patent, which is pending.  Her research on multimedia and artificial intelligence has been featured in 30 high-quality journals and conferences and has been cited over 250 times by researchers worldwide.

Samira helped launch the Computer Science Graduate Student Association at FIU, where she served as vice-president. In addition to receiving numerous awards and scholarships, Samira is  an accomplished gymnast and swimmer.

Samira has accepted a senior-level data science position at Microsoft in Seattle. She will be one of 70 data scientists companywide on the data and intelligence team.

By Millie Acebal
Director of Marketing & Communications
College of Engineering & Computing