UNO Computer Science Student Awarded Austrian Marshall Plan Scholarship

Johnny Lopez.

Johny Lopez is the recipient of a scholarship by the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation and will conduct research in Austria. During the three-month stay, Johny will work under the supervision of Dr. Christian Gütl at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), focusing on advancing research in Vision-Language Models (VLM) and 3D LiDAR data combined with 2D RGB data. His project, titled “Deployment of AI-Powered Robotic Systems for Culvert and Sewer Infrastructure Inspection,” builds on prior work done in the GulfSCEI lab in multimodal AI and computer vision. The research aims to improve how machine learning systems interpret and integrate complex visual and textual information in order to enhance the automation, accuracy, and reliability of underground infrastructure inspections.

We wish him all the best for a successful research stay!