PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

POSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATE

Ashley Babjac is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Georgia, Hoarfrost Lab. With a Bachelors in Statistics and PhD in Computer Science, her main interests involve applications of deep learning for novel biological discovery. Her experience is mainly in protein language modeling, explainable AI, graph theory/algorithm development and high performance computing. In her free time, she enjoys traveling around Europe, playing the piano and playing soccer/tennis. 

Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-babjac

Github: https://github.com/ashleybabjac

PhD STUDENT

I'm from Puerto Rico, a small island in the Caribbean. During my undergrad, I pursued a BSc in microbiology and conducted research in microbial ecology. Currently, I am a PhD student in Bioinformatics at UGA, and I joined the hoarfrost lab to integrate my interests in microbiology and computer science. At this moment, I'm working on the project "Foundation Models & Transfer Learning" focused on microbial communities in the ocean. Besides the lab, I spend my time running, reading, or listening to trashy girl music.

MS STUDENT

Liam is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Statistics, building on his Bachelor of Science in Biochemical Engineering. His research focuses on developing an AI model to predict the functionality of novel glycosyl hydrolases from read-length sequences. Additionally, he works as a student contractor for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Outside of his professional life, Liam enjoys playing Spanish guitar, DJing, and practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu. When he retires, he hopes to one day open a hybrid plant store, bookstore, and café in a scenic location like the Spanish countryside.

Personal website: https://www.liamkozma.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamkozma

Github: https://github.com/LiamKozma

Email: liam [at] liamkozma [d0t] c0m

PhD STUDENT

Hi, I am Preeti from India, pursuing my PhD in computer science thesis right now. My first cool project in Hoarfrost lab is creating a representative dataset encapsulating almost all metagenomes in the whole world! I am definitely looking forward to achieving more milestones with this lab. Outside this, I occasionally enjoy playing a good game of counter-strike to unwind!

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/preeti-chatterjee-b89415171/.

MS STUDENT

Shreyash Patel is an MS AI student at the University of Georgia. He is originally from Gujarat, India, and resides in Athens, Georgia. He is passionate about AI research. With a love for travel and meeting new people, he balances his academic work with his lively social life. He is currently exploring opportunities in AI.

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Hi! I'm Raul, I am currently pursuing a BSc in Computer Science with interest in the field of Machine Learning & High-Performance Computing. In my free time I enjoy running, competitive programming & playing chess.

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Hi! My name is Cate Eddlemon. I am a third-year biology major with the intention to attend PA school after I graduate. I enjoy running, traveling, and discovering new places to eat.

MS STUDENT

I am from India, and recently obtained a Master’s in Computer Science at UGA. I am working on functionally characterizing “microbial dark matter” enzymes using machine learning. I enjoy reading, playing volleyball, and swimming.

MS STUDENT

Ratish is a passionate Computer Science professional with a keen interest in applications of Machine Learning. A recent MS graduate in Computer Science at UGA.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ratish11     https://github.com/ratish11/

MS STUDENT

Master's in Computer Science at UGA | Deep Learning Enthusiast | Research Assistant @ Hoarfrost Lab: Double Helix Dialogue | Decoding the Absence: Text-to-Image Generative Diffusion Project | #NLP #DeepLearning #GenerativeAI #MultimodalAI #ComputerVision

LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/vatsal-thakkar-880320161/

Website : https://vatsalthakkar3.github.io/

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHER

I am from Lawrenceville, Georgia and I graduated from Brookwood high school in May 2020. I am currently a third-year student at the University of Georgia, and I am majoring in Biology with a focus on a pre-med track. I will be working with Dr. Hoarfrost in the marine sciences lab on identifying well-behaved cyanobacteria cultures and acclimating newly acquired cultures to growth in the lab for future analyses of their metal accumulation rates. I am excited to be working on this project and cannot wait to see what we discover in the lab. Outside of school, some of my hobbies include watching and playing basketball, going to the movies with my friends, and playing ping-pong with my dad.