Dr. Raunak Sarbajna

Lecturer, Computer Science

Department of Computer Science · University of Houston
3551 Cullen Blvd, Houston, TX 77204 · USA
You can reach me at: [email protected] or [email protected]
Google Scholar · Github · LinkedIn

About

I am a Geospatial Data Scientist with a focus on ML/AI, with a particular specialization in remote sensing, geotechnical engineering, geostatistics, agent-based modeling and visual place recognition. I have worked in blockchain-based edge computing, post-disaster recovery systems and Lunar exploration methodologies. I enjoy lecturing and teaching undergraduate students.

GIS Remote Sensing Machine Learning Agent-Based Modeling Visual Place Recognition

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science 2025

University of Houston, Houston, TX

Dissertation: "Spatial Computing Frameworks for Adaptive Disaster Response and Visual Place Recognition." Supervisor: Dr. Christoph F. Eick.

M.Sc. in Computer Science 2019

Lamar University, Beaumont, TX

Dissertation: "A Data Mining Framework for Analysing Geospatial-temporal Data." Supervisor: Dr. Sujing Wang.

M.Sc. in Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics 2015

Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun, India

Project: "Designing an efficient web-based 3D GIS platform for LU/LC index measurement."

B.Tech in Information Technology 2013

West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata, India

Academic Positions

Lecturer 2025 – Present

University of Houston

Adjunct Faculty, teaching Senior undergraduate level courses in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Computer Networks

Instructional Assistant 2022 – 2025

University of Houston

Research Assistant 2020 – 2022

University of Houston

Teaching Assistant 2018 – 2020

Lamar University

Selected Publications

DEIMOSBC: a blockchain-based system for crowdsensing after natural disasters

3rd Conference on Blockchain Research & Applications for Innovative Networks and Services (BRAINS), IEEE,pp. 17–20, 2021.

Cross-modal knowledge distillation for vision-to-sensor action recognition

IEEE International Conference on Acoustics,Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), IEEE, pp. 4448–4452, 2022.

COVID19-CBABM: A City-Based Agent Based Disease Spread Modeling Framework

Society for Epidemiologic Research, Mid-Year Conference, 2025.

DESPINA: Synthesis of High-Fidelity Planetary Horizon Reconstructions Using DEM-Guided Diffusion

ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, XI-2-2026, 881–890. 2026.

Proteus: A system for combining paths collected using crowdsensing

GeoInformatica, pp. 1–24, 2026.

Teaching

COSC 3337: Data Science I
COSC 4368: Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence
COSC 4377: Introduction To Computer Networks

Selected Conference Talks

Sixth Annual STEM Conference, Lamar University, USA. 2018.
Ignite 2019, University of California, Davis, USA. 2019.
BRAINS 2021, Paris, France. 2021.
NASA Johnson Space Center Hackathon, Houston, USA. 2022, 2023.
6th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on GeoSpatial Simulation, Hamburg, Germany. 2023.

Peer Review

IEEE 16th International Conference on Smart City. 2018.
IEEE 20th International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications. 2018.
26th International Symposium on Methodologies for Intelligent Systems. 2022
IEEE International Conference on Data Mining. 2022, 2023.
GeoInformatica: An International Journal on Advances of Computer Science for Geographic Information Systems. 2023.
IEEE 10th International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics (DSAA). 2023.
Knowledge-based systems. 2025.