Avi of Fairleigh Dickinson University

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States of America (USA). Skin cancer is a significant public health problem; it can affect anyone, regardless of skin color, gender, and age.  Further, it is a leading cause of death worldwide. The deadliest and most severe form of skin cancer is called Melanoma.

Skilled doctors typically diagnose melanoma (including BCC, SCC, and actinic keratosis) through visual, computer vision, and data-driven techniques. However, these approaches rely on dermoscopy results and match them with medical knowledge. Moreover, human subjectivity strongly influences this process, making it inconsistent in some cases. Therefore, we need to develop computer- and data-driven technologies that can identify and classify melanoma and other skin cancers at very early stages. Therefore, to achieve efficient, effective, and accurate early-stage melanoma identification and classification, this talk traces computer vision and data science (AI) applications and presents discussions and results using deep neural network-based algorithms, Vision-Language Models (VLMs), multi-agent architectures, and human-in-the-loop architectures. It then compares the performance metrics of these algorithms and outlines future directions. The talk also covers survivorship among melanoma survivors, associated risk scores, and strategies to thrive in personal, professional, and social life.

Biography:

Avimanyou Vatsa is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Deep Chain (DC) Lab at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU), Teaneck, NJ. Before joining FDU as an Assistant Professor in 2018, he was an assistant professor at West Texas A&M University. He is also a guest professor at SPTC, Chengdu; ZJIPC, Xiaoxing, China; and CCS University, India. He earned his MS and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Vatsa received the Distinguished Faculty Award for Student Success and Belonging. He also received the Outstanding Mentor Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS), New York Chapter, and the Union City Board of Education, NJ, USA. Dr. Vatsa teaches and conducts research in data science, cybersecurity, bioinformatics, and computational biology, including work on skin cancer and related diseases. Dr. Vatsa has published over 190 research articles in refereed journals and conference proceedings, as well as research expo posters. Additionally, Dr. Vatsa is an opinion leader and public speaker who has delivered several keynote addresses, given invited talks, and served as the chief guest or guest of honor at conferences and events. He also organizes/ed many technical talks, workshops, and IEEE summits. Furthermore, Dr. Vatsa has also taken on significant service roles in the community, such as serving as a secretary and webmaster (2025-2026, 2019-2020), Chair of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) chapter (2026 - onward), Vice-Chair of the IEEE Systems Council Chapter (2024 - onward), and served as a treasurer and webmaster (2021-2024) of the IEEE North Jersey Section. He is also a proud member of ACM and AAAS, and a senior IEEE member.

Email:

Address:1000 River Rd, Becton Hall, Teaneck, New Jersey, United States, 07666-1938