Almabrok Essa
Assistant Professor
Background
Dr. Almabrok Essa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Math, Computer Science, and Data Science at John Carroll University (JCU). He directs the JCU Artificial Intelligence Lab (AI Lab), which develops innovative, practical solutions for real-world, interdisciplinary research spanning machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, remote sensing, and virtual reality. He is also a director of the AI Minor program and an affiliated faculty member in Neuroscience.
Areas of Expertise
- Applied AI for interdisciplinary
- real-world problems
- with emphasis on machine learning
- deep learning
- computer vision
- remote sensing
- and virtual/augmented reality.
Research Interests
My research focuses on human-centered AI for autonomous decision-making in complex real-world environments, with emphasis on safety, accessibility, and responsible deployment. I also develop AR/VR applications for learning, clinical care, and immersive human-AI interaction.
Education
Ph.D. University of Dayton, Dayton, OHCourses Taught
• Design Patterns• Special Topic (Multimedia)
• Special Topic (Operating Systems)
• Introduction to Discreet Math
• Technical Writing in Computer Science
• Software Engineering Capstone Project
• Independent Study in Computer Science
Publications
My publications since joining JCU:- Sidike Paheding, Ashraf Saleem, Mohammad Siddiqui, Nathir Rawashdeh, Almabrok Essa, and Abel Reyes-Angulo“Advancing horizons in remote sensing: a comprehensive survey of deep learning models and applications in image classification and beyond,” Journal of Neural Computing and Applications (NCAA), vol. 36, no. 27, pp 16727-16767, doi: 10.1007/s00521-024-10165-7, August 2024.
- Almabrok Essa and Ava Bruner, “NeuroSync: AI-Enhanced EEG for Sharper BrainDrone Control,” IEEE National Aerospace & Electronics Conference & Ohio Innovation Summit (NAECONOIS), Dayton, OH, USA, July 2025.
- Shashi K Chandrappa, Sidike Paheding, Abel A. Reyes-Angulo, and Almabrok Essa, “Attention Based Spectral Profile Representation for Hyperspectral Image Classification,” IEEE National Aerospace & Electronics Conference & Ohio Innovation Summit (NAECON-OIS), Dayton, OH, USA, July 2025.
- Redha Ali, Almabrok Essa, Fatmah Ali, Elmoatazbellah Ben Omer, Adel Alshamili, and Russell C. Hardie, “Enhancing Zero-Shot Classification in Chest X-rays via Cross-Modal Representation and Attention Alignment,” SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing: Pattern Recognition and Prediction XXXV Conference”, Orlando, FL, USA, April 2025.
- Almabrok Essa and Ian Wu, “Multibit least significant bit matching: a novel approach to
image steganography,” SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing: Multimodal Image Exploitation and Learning Conference”, Baltimore, MD, USA, April 2024. - Redha Ali, Almabrok Essa, Elmoatazbellah Ben Omer, Adel Alshamili, Fatmah Ali, and Russell C. Hardie, “Deep learning architecture: an application for skin lesion segmentation-based polar image transformations on dermoscopy images,” SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing: Pattern Recognition and Prediction XXXV Conference”, Baltimore, MD, USA, April 2024.
