About Me
Rupal Agarwal is a Ph.D. candidate in the Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. She is a member of the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Group, working under the supervision of Dr. Shaun Canavan. Before starting her Ph.D., she completed her M.S. in Computer Science at USF, where she explored how EEG and peripheral physiological signals could be used to understand human emotions in her thesis with Dr. Marvin Andujar.
Rupal's research brings together computer vision, machine learning, and affective computing. She studies how AI can read patterns from expression, body language, gaze, EEG, and physiological signals to understand human behavior in context. She enjoys finding creative ways to combine these signals so that computers don’t just see data, but also capture the “story” behind it. More specifically, she is interested in developing context-aware, automated tools that can support early detection and assessment of neurodevelopmental conditions.
She is a researcher who is passionate about learning new things and creating empathic AI systems that feel less like
machines and more like helpful companions in healthcare and education. Her long-term goal is to design AI that is
accessible, fair, equitable, and useful to people from all walks of life - bridging the gap between cutting-edge
research and real-world impact.
Research Interests
Machine Learning
Computer Vision
Affective Computing
Brain-Computer Interfaces
Human-Computer Interaction
Research Application Areas of Interest
Healthcare
Education
