Dr. Hawazin Elani | Machine Learning | Best Researcher Award

Harvard University | United States

Dr. Hawazin W. Elani, Ph.D., is an accomplished scholar and academic leader whose research integrates dentistry, epidemiology, and health policy to advance oral health equity through data-driven, interdisciplinary approaches. She serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and in the Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, with additional affiliations at the Harvard Data Science Initiative and the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Elani earned her Ph.D. in Dental Sciences with a concentration in Epidemiology and Population Health and an M.Sc. from McGill University, as well as an MMSc in Oral Biology and a Clinical Certificate in Prosthodontics from Harvard. Her research explores health disparities, oral health policy, and the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in predicting oral health outcomes. She has authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals such as Health Services Research, JAMA Network Open, and Journal of Dental Research, with her work cited widely for shaping discussions on healthcare access and reform. As principal investigator on multiple NIH and foundation-funded projects, including R01 and K-series grants, she has led innovative studies assessing the effects of Medicaid expansion and socioeconomic factors on dental care utilization. Recognized with Harvard’s Young Mentor Award and Distinguished Junior Faculty Award in 2024, Dr. Elani also contributes to national and international committees, including the NIH, the National Academies of Sciences, and the Medicaid Policy Research Advisory Group. Through her leadership, global collaborations, and dedication to mentoring, she continues to advance the intersection of artificial intelligence, population health, and oral health policy, driving forward equitable and sustainable improvements in healthcare delivery worldwide.

Profiles: Scopus | ORCID

Featured Publication

lani, H. W., Kawachi, I., & Sommers, B. D. (2020). Changes in emergency department dental visits after Medicaid expansion. Health Services Research, 55(1), 76–84.

Elani, H. W., Simon, L., Ticku, S., Bain, P. A., Barrow, J., & Riedy, C. A. (2018). Does providing dental services reduce overall health care costs? A systematic review of the literature. Journal of the American Dental Association (1939), 149(6), 430–438.e10.

Elani, H. W., Starr, J. R., Da Silva, J. D., & Gallucci, G. O. (2018). Trends in dental implant use in the U.S., 1999–2016, and projections to 2026. Journal of Dental Research, 97(13), 1424–1430.

Gil, M. S., Ishikawa-Nagai, S., Elani, H. W., Da Silva, J. D., Kim, D. M., Tarnow, D., Schulze-Späte, U., Cleber, S., & Bittner, N. (2019). Comparison of the color appearance of peri-implant soft tissue with natural gingiva using anodized pink-neck implants and pink abutments: A prospective clinical trial. The International Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Implants, 34(1), 168–175.

Gil, M. S., Ishikawa-Nagai, S., Elani, H. W., Da Silva, J. D., Kim, D. M., Tarnow, D., Schulze-Späte, U., & Bittner, N. (2017). A prospective clinical trial to assess the optical efficacy of pink neck implants and pink abutments on soft tissue esthetics. Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry, 29(3), 213–219.

Dr. Rana Ghazali | Data Science | Best Researcher Award

Researcher |McMaster University | Iran

Dr. Rana Ghazali focuses on advancing intelligent computing systems through the integration of machine learning, reinforcement learning, and large language models to optimize big data and distributed computing environments. Her work bridges the domains of cloud computing, Hadoop-based systems, and intelligent caching to enhance computational performance and resource utilization in large-scale data frameworks. She has contributed to innovative algorithms such as CLQLMRS and H-SVM-LRU for improving cache locality and intelligent cache replacement in MapReduce job scheduling, combining machine learning with distributed system optimization. Rana’s research also extends to the design and analysis of routing protocols in mobile ad hoc networks, leveraging bio-inspired algorithms such as the Ant Colony Optimization method to improve network efficiency. Her current exploration includes the application of reinforcement learning in scheduling and performance enhancement for distributed computing platforms, with additional attention to emerging paradigms like edge, fog, and serverless computing. As a researcher affiliated with the Resource Allocation and Stochastic Systems Lab at McMaster University, she contributes to cutting-edge discussions on adaptive data management, cyber and network security, and intelligent system design. Rana’s expertise further encompasses data analytics, large language models, and the intersection of artificial intelligence with real-world computing challenges. She has served as a reviewer for leading international journals including Elsevier and Wiley publications and has participated in academic collaborations that explore deep learning and resource optimization in distributed architectures. Her research endeavors consistently emphasize scalable, secure, and intelligent computational systems that advance the performance of modern data-intensive applications. Rana Ghazali has 13 citations, 2 documents, and an h-index of 2.

Profiles: Google Scholar | Scopus | ORCID

Featured Publication

Ghazali, R., Down, D. G. (2025). Smart data prefetching using KNN to improve Hadoop performance. EAI Endorsed Transactions on Scalable Information Systems, 12(3). Cited by 1

Ghazali, R., Adabi, S., Rezaee, A., Down, D. G., & Movaghar, A. (2023). Hadoop-oriented SVM-LRU (H-SVM-LRU): An intelligent cache replacement algorithm to improve MapReduce performance. arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.16471. Cited by 2

Ghazali, R., Adabi, S., Rezaee, A., Down, D. G., & Movaghar, A. (2022). CLQLMRS: Improving cache locality in MapReduce job scheduler using Q-learning. Journal of Cloud Computing, 9. Cited by 9

Ghazali, R., Adabi, S., Down, D. G., & Movaghar, A. (2021). A classification of Hadoop job schedulers based on performance optimization approaches. Cluster Computing, 24(4), 3381–3403. Cited by 11

Ghazali, R., Down, D. G. (2025). A systematic overview of caching mechanisms to improve Hadoop performance. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 37(25–26), e70337.

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