
I currently work as a Doctoral researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability, and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg. I conduct research in Computer Vision, Situational Awareness, and Robotics, investigating possible solutions to make robots more intelligent and aware of their surroundings with the aid of vision sensors.
📚 Fields of Interest
Computer Vision, Situational Awareness, Deep Learning, Robotics, Information Retrieval
🌎 Languages
🏆 Honors and Awards
Securing a Fully Funded Position in a Ph.D. Program
Acknowledged for securing a competitive position in a Ph.D. program amidst a pool of candidates for the project "TRANSCEND" funded by the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS), University of Luxembourg (Mar. 2022)
The highest GPA among all Computer Engineering Students (Class of 2016)
Achieved the highest Grade Point Average (GPA) among all Computer Engineering students of the University of Guilan, Iran, in the class of 2016 for three consecutive semesters (Nov. 2017)
The Best Student Researcher Award
Issued by the Department of Computer Engineering of the University of Guilan, Iran, regarding the scientific and practical contributions and achievements as a student (Nov. 2017)
Scholarship for Master's in Computer Engineering
Granted through a nationwide examination process, competing among over 25,000 applicants (Sep. 2016)
Top-15 Business Planners Award
Issued by 10th Sheikh Bahai National Technopreneurship Competitions, Iran (May 2014)
Experiences
Education
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
2022 - 2026 (expected)
Computer Science, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
- Affiliation: SnT, Automation and Robotics Group (ARG)
- Supervisor: Prof. Holger Voos
- Project: TRansforming Autonomous Navigation, Swarm robotics, and Construction by ENcoding Data into surfaces (TRANSCEND)
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
2016 - 2019
Computer Engineering, University of Guilan, Iran
- Department: Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
- Supervisor: Prof. Asadollah Shahbahrami
- Thesis: Automatic Vehicle Speeding Violation Detection using Video Processing (more)
- Graduation: Defended on January 20, 2019 (Score: A+)
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)
2009 - 2013
Computer Engineering, University of Guilan, Iran
- Department: Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
- Project: An E-Ticketing System for Medical Clinics
Employment
Doctoral Researcher
2022 - now (full-time)
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability, and Trust (SnT), Luxembourg
Conducting research to employ visual data to make robots more aware of their sorroundings (Situational Awareness) by forming digital twins
Full-Stack Developer
2019 - 2021 (full-time)
AVID Technology Development, Rasht, Guilan, Iran
Working on various international web projects using SOTA tools, including Next.js, React.js, GraphQL, Node.js, Elasticsearch, Neo4j, MongoDB, etc.
Research Software Engineer
2019 - 2021 (part-time)
Guilan Science and Technology Park Business Incubator, Rasht, Guilan, Iran
Conducting research on "Automatic Vehicle Detection & Tracking”
University Lecturer
2018 - 2021 (part-time)
University of Guilan, Rasht, Guilan, Iran
Instructing “Computational Intelligence” (fours semesters) & “Computer Engineering Laboratory” (one semester) courses to undergraduate students
Android and Web Developer
2016 - 2017 (full-time)
Andish Bonyan Fannavar Varna, Rasht, Guilan, Iran
Interactive E-Learning Content Developer
2013 - 2017 (contract)
IEHT Guilan Training Center, Rasht, Guilan, Iran
Projects
- All
- Robotics
- Computer Vision
- Recommender Systems
- Other
Recent Publications
For the complete list, please check the All Publications page or my Google Scholar profile.2025
Peer-review Journals
- A. Tourani, S. Ejaz, H. Bavle, D. Morilla-Cabello, J.L. Sanchez-Lopez, and H. Voos, “vS-Graphs: Integrating Visual SLAM and Situational Graphs through Multi-level Scene Understanding,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), [Under Review - ArXiv]
- A. Tourani, D. Avşar, H. Bavle, J.L. Sanchez-Lopez, and H. Voos, “Unveiling the Potential of iMarkers: Invisible Fiducial Markers for Advanced Robotics,” IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine (RA-M), [Under Review - ArXiv]
2024
International Conferences
- A. Tourani, S. Ejaz, H. Bavle, H. Voos, J.L. Sanchez-Lopez, and H. Voos, “Towards Localizing Structural Elements: Merging Geometrical Detection with Semantic Verification in RGB-D Data,” IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'24) - 14th Workshop on Planning, Perception and Navigation for Intelligent Vehicles, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2024 [Link - ArXiv]
- A. Radwan, A. Tourani, H. Bavle, H. Voos, and J. L. Sanchez-Lopez, “UAV-assisted Visual SLAM Generating Reconstructed 3D Scene Graphs in GPS-denied Environments,” International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS'24), Chania - Crete, Greece, 2024, pp. 1109-1116 [DOI - ArXiv]
Peer-review Journals
- A. Tourani, H. Bavle, J. L. Sanchez-Lopez, D. Avşar, R. Munoz-Salinas, and H. Voos, “Vision-Based Situational Graphs Exploiting Fiducial Markers for the Integration of Semantic Entities,” Robotics, vol. 13, no. 7, p. 106 [DOI - ArXiv]
- B. Ghari, A. Tourani, A. Shahbahrami, G. Gaydadjiev, “Pedestrian Detection in Low-Light Conditions: A Comprehensive Survey,” Image and Vision Computing [DOI - ArXiv]
- A. Tourani, H. A. Rahmani, M. Naghiaei, and Y. Deldjoo, “CAPRI: Context-Aware Interpretable Point-of-Interest Recommendation Framework,” Software Impacts, vol. 19, p. 100606 [DOI -ArXiv]
2023
International Conferences
- A. Tourani, H. Bavle, J. L. Sanchez-Lopez, R. Munoz-Salinas, and H. Voos, “Marker-based Visual SLAM leveraging Hierarchical Representations,” Proceeding of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'23) [DOI -ArXiv]
- A. Tourani, H. Bavle, J. L. Sanchez-Lopez, R. Munoz-Salinas, and H. Voos, “Hierarchical Visual SLAM based on Fiducial Markers,” International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'23) - Workshop on Active Methods in Autonomous Navigation [PDF - ArXiv]
Peer-review Journals
2022
International Conferences
- H.A. Rahmani, M. Naghiaei, A. Tourani, and Y. Deldjoo, “Exploring the Impact of Temporal Bias in Point-of-Interest Recommendation,” Proceeding of the 16th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys'22), pp. 598-603 [DOI - ArXiv - Code]
- H.A. Rahmani, Y. Deldjoo, A. Tourani, and M. Naghiaei, “The Unfairness of Active Users and Popularity Bias in Point-of-Interest Recommendation,” Proceeding of the International Workshop on Algorithmic Bias in Search and Recommendation (Bias@ECIR), vol. 1610, pp. 56-68 [DOI - ArXiv - Code - Web-page]
Peer-review Journals
- [🏆 Editor's Choice] A. Tourani, H. Bavle, J.L. Sanchez-Lopez, and H. Voos, “Visual SLAM: What Are the Current Trends and What to Expect?” Sensors, vol. 22, no. 23, p. 9297 [DOI - ArXiv - ECA Annoucement - IF: 3.84 (Q1)]
- H. Agha, Y. Geng, X. Ma, D. Avşar, R. Kizhakidathazhath, Y.S. Zhang, A. Tourani, H. Bavle, J.L. Sanchez-Lopez, H. Voos, M. Schwartz, and J. P.F. Lagerwall, “Unclonable Human-invisible Machine Vision Markers Leveraging the Omnidirectional Chiral Bragg Diffraction of Cholesteric Spherical Reflectors,” Light: Science & Applications (Nature Publications), vol. 11, no. 309 [DOI - IF: 17.78 (Q1)]
Review Activity
For the complete list, check my Web of Science profile.
International Conferences
- IEEE InternSational Conference on Robots and Automation (ICRA'25) (link)
- IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'25) (link)
- IEEE InternSational Conference on Robots and Automation (ICRA'24) (link)
- IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE'24) (link)
- ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM'24) (link)
- IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'23) (link)
- ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM'23) (link)
- International Conference on Computer Science and Application Engineering (CSAE'23) (link)
- The Sixth Iberian Robotics Conference (ROBOT'23) (link)
Peer-reviewed Journals
- RA-L (link, stats)
- PLOS ONE (link, stats)
- IEEE Access (link, stats)
- MDPI Sensors (link, stats)
- IET Image Processing (link, stats)
- Journal of Field Robotics (link, stats)
- Applied Artificial Intelligence (link, stats)
- Expert Systems with Applications (link, stats)
- IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems (link, stats)
- ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (link, stats)
Contents and Materials
University Lecture Materials
Course materials, presentations, and videos for the courses lectured for undergraduate students
Talks, Articles, and Presentations
Talks, articles, invited lectures, and presentations in various events
Blog - What's New?
Check my Blog for the complete list of the recent updates.Contact Me
Feel free to reach out through email or find me on the Web ! 🤝
Address
29 boulevard JFK, L-1855 Luxembourg
Block E, E00 006
ali [dot] tourani [at] uni [at] lu