Biography
Kiavash Bahreini is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University. He joined FIU in December 2022, bringing more than 20 years of experience in AI, computer science education, research, and software engineering.
Kiavash Bahreini earned a bachelor's degree in software engineering from Tehran Azad University in 2001, a master's in computer engineering and knowledge management from Eastern Mediterranean University in 2008, and a doctorate in computer science and computer vision from the Open University of the Netherlands in 2015. His doctoral research focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Data Mining (DM), during which he successfully applied computer vision techniques to multimodal emotion recognition and affective computing for practical educational applications.
His career spans multiple continents and institutions. From 2002 to 2005, he served as a lecturer and curriculum designer at the Tehran Institute of Technology. He then held positions at the University of Applied Science and Technology in Tehran, where he taught operating systems, data structures and algorithms, and file systems. Between 2006 and 2008, he was a research and teaching assistant at Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus (T.R.N.C.). Since 2009, he has held research and teaching positions at the University of Twente, the University of Amsterdam, the Open University of the Netherlands, Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Eindhoven, and Heriot-Watt University in Dubai.
From 2015 to 2019, Kiavash Bahreini served as co-principal investigator and internal leader of the data analytics work package for the RAGE (Realising an Applied Gaming Eco-system) project, a 9-million-euro EU Horizon 2020 initiative (Grant agreement no. 644187) involving 19 partners across Europe. The project focused on developing reusable gaming assets to support applied game development.
At FIU, Kiavash Bahreini teaches courses including Computer Programming II, Logic for Computer Science, Data Structures, Operating Systems Principles, Database Management, Advanced Database Management, Principles of Database Management Systems, Advanced Database Systems, Software Design, and plans to teach GenAI Fundamentals, LLM Fundamentals, and Agentic AI Fundamentals. He has been collaborating in developing innovative curricula integrating generative AI and large language models into computer science education, participating as a co-instructor for the Google Tech Exchange Program in 2024 and 2025. He collaborates and co-supervises a diverse research team, including postdoctoral researchers, Ph.D., master's, and bachelor's students, within a key research group, reporting directly to the school's director. His direct supervision experience also includes master's students in database management and data visualization. Furthermore, he is a key contributor to securing external funding, actively collaborating on and writing multiple NSF proposals focused on AI in education, specifically the integration and development of AI Teaching Assistants (AITAs) in academic courses.
Kiavash Bahreini is a Google Developer Group advisor at FIU and has collaborated with Harvard University to integrate LLM PingPong tools into his hybrid and online courses. He received the Rewarding Excellence in Teaching Incentive (RETI) Award from the Office of Faculty Leadership & Success at FIU in 2025 and became an FIU-certified hybrid instructor in 2024. He has also completed Quality Matters certification, achieving a perfect score of 101/101 points for his Logic for Computer Science course.
Since joining FIU, Kiavash Bahreini has managed and coordinated more than 21 teaching assistants, graders, support intensive course assistants (SICAs), and student graders across different course configurations. He serves on numerous committees, including the Undergraduate Program Committee, the IT Subcommittee and CS Subcommittee of the Undergraduate Program Committee, the External Program Committee, the Academic Integrity Consultant Resource Board, and the Programming Committee Board at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences. He also serves as vice president of the Non-Tenure Track Program Committee at KFSCIS and as a member of the FIU Senate Constitution and Bylaws Committee for fall 2025 and spring 2026. Additionally, he contributes to the Center for Inclusive Computing Best Practices project, partnering with COP3337 and COP4610 faculty to develop and implement strategies that ensure all students feel welcome and empowered to succeed in computing.
His research focuses on artificial intelligence in education, generative AI, large language models, agentic AI, machine learning, computer vision, affective computing, software engineering, distributed databases, and intelligent real-time systems. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and contributed to numerous software development projects. Kiavash Bahreini is Microsoft-certified in Azure and data solutions, and maintains expertise in Python, Java, R, C++, C#, and full-stack development. With over 777 citations on Google Scholar and an h-index of 12 until November 2025, his most cited works, Artificial intelligence moving serious gaming: Presenting reusable game AI components, and Towards Multimodal Emotion Recognition in E-Learning Environments, each have been cited 184 times.
Beyond teaching and research, Kiavash Bahreini actively contributes to the academic community as an abstract evaluator for FIU's Undergraduate Research Conference, a judge for the Graduate Student Appreciation Week Scholarly Forum, and a reviewer for various academic publications, including ACM Computing Surveys journal and OpenStax's Introduction to Computer Science textbook. He has served as a subject matter expert and judge for Life Sciences South Florida's STEM Undergraduate Research Symposium. He has been a professional member of IEEE since 2008 and ACM since 2023, and has been an active member of the Netherlands Research School for Information and Knowledge Systems since 2011.
At Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Eindhoven, where he served from 2019 to 2022, Kiavash Bahreini supervised more than 40 graduation, internship, and computer science projects for students working with international companies, including Accenture, Bosch, Philips, DAF, AB InBev, ASML, and Rabobank. He also supervised a doctoral candidate, Konstantinos Georgiadis, whose dissertation Smart CAT: Machine Learning for Configurable Assessments in Serious Games was completed at the Open University of the Netherlands in 2020.
Kiavash Bahreini's work emphasizes collaborative learning, accessibility in computing education, and the integration of AI tools to enhance student outcomes. His approach combines technical rigor with pedagogical innovation, preparing students for careers in an AI-integrated future.
Awards & Honors
- Professional Honors and Awards - Kiavash Bahreini, Ph.D., MSc., and BSc. (Associate Teaching Professor Dr.)
- • Rewarding Excellence in Teaching Incentive (RETI) Award (2025), Florida International University
- • CAHSI ARG Professional Development Certificate (2025) Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions
- • Quality Matters (QM) Certification (2025), Perfect score of 101/101 points for COT3541 Logic for Computer Science course
- • AI in the Classroom Certificate (2025) Canva
- • Published 40+ peer-reviewed articles in international conferences and journals. Cited 777 times (as of November 2025) according to Google Scholar (h-index: 12)
- • Notable Publication Recognition: “Artificial Intelligence Moving Serious Gaming: Presenting Reusable Game AI Components” (2020), Education and Information Technologies, and “Towards Multimodal Emotion Recognition in E-Learning Environments” (2016), Interactive Learning Environments, have each been cited 184 times as of November 2025.
- • FIU Certified Hybrid Instructor (2024), Florida International University
- • Teaching with Writing in the Disciplines Certificate (2024), Florida International University
- • Google Tech Exchange Program Co-Instructor (2024, 2025) Selected as co-instructor for Software Engineering using GenAI, and Careers in Tech (Required for all 300+ students)
- • Google Developer Group Advisor at FIU (2024-present) Google for Developers
- • Google GenAI Faculty Summit Participant (2024), Google Education, Atlanta
- • Responsible Computing Education Training Program Participant (2024), Northeastern University, Boston, Funded by Mozilla Foundation’s Responsible Computing Challenge
- • OpenStax Peer Reviewer (2024) Served as a peer reviewer for the Introduction to Computer Science textbook.
- • RAGE Project Co-Principal Investigator (2015-2019), 9-million-euro EU Horizon 2020 project (Grant agreement no. 644187). Served as co-principal investigator and internal leader of the data analytics work package
- • Microsoft Certifications: DAT275x: Principles of Machine Learning (2019), DAT202.3x: Implementing Predictive Analytics with Spark in Azure HDInsight (2019), DAT207x: Analyzing and Visualizing Data with Power BI (2018), DAT208x: Introduction to Python for Data Science (2018), Multiple additional Microsoft data science and analytics certifications (2018-2019)
- • High Honor Graduation Award (2008), Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus (T.R.N.C.)
- • Academic Service and Committee Memberships: Abstract Evaluator, Undergraduate Research at Florida International University Conference (2025) Judge, FIU Graduate Student Appreciation Week Scholarly Forum (2025) Judge, Life Sciences South Florida STEM Undergraduate Research Symposium (2025) Member, FIU Senate Constitution and Bylaws Committee (2025-2026) Vice President, Non-Tenure Track Program Committee at KFSCIS (2025-2026) Member, Undergraduate Program Committee at KFSCIS (2025-2026) Member, IT Subcommittee of the Undergraduate Program Committee at KFSCIS (2025-2026) Member, CS Subcommittee of the Undergraduate Program Committee at KFSCIS (2025-2026) Member, External Program Committee at KFSCIS (2025-2026) Member, Academic Integrity Consultant Resource Board at KFSCIS (2023-present) Member, Programming Committee Board at KFSCIS (2023-present)
- • Professional Society Memberships: Professional Member, IEEE (2008-present), Professional Member, ACM (2023-present), Active Member, The Netherlands Research School for Information and Knowledge Systems (SIKS) (2011-present)
- • EU Project Review Service IMPACT Project First Year Review (2011) RAGE Project First Year Review (2016) RAGE Project Second Year Review (2017) RAGE Project Third Year Review (2018) RAGE Project Fourth Year Review (2019)
- • Invited Journal Reviewer, International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools (2020-2021), International Journal of Intelligent Systems (2019-2020), Interactive Learning Environments (2017-2019), Journal of Machine Vision and Applications (2016), International Journal of Human-Computer Study (2015), Universal Access in the Information Society (2025), and ACM Computing Surveys (2025)
- • Conference Service Co-Chair, ICT In Practice - In Bots We Trust, Fontys School of Information and Communication Technology (2020)
- • Invited Presentations “Dare The Future: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning - A Comparison Between Cloud-Based Services,” ICT In Practice (2021), “In Bots We Trust: How Does Your Computer Understand Your Facial Emotions? A Case Study of Communication Skills Training in E-Learning,” ICT In Practice Symposium (2020) “Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning: What are the Differences and Usages?” Fontys International Week (2020)
- • Press Recognition “Making eLearning Smarter with Emotion Recognition Software,” checkpoint eLearning, Heerlen (2018)
- • Successful Funding Proposals and Scholarships: 1) RAGE Project - EU Horizon 2020 (9 million euros, 2015-2019), 2) NELLL Project - Netherlands Laboratory for Lifelong Learning (200k euros, 2011-2015), 3) IMPACT Project - EU FP7 (1.5 million euros, three years), and 4) Erasmus Mundus Research Scholarship - University of Twente (2009)
Education
- Academic Degrees - Kiavash Bahreini, Ph.D., MSc., and BSc. (Associate Teaching Professor Dr.)
- • Ph.D. in Computer Science and Computer Vision (2015), Open University of the Netherlands (Open Universiteit). Dissertation focus: Multimodal Emotion Recognition, Affective Computing, Computer Vision, and AI
- • MSc. in Computer Engineering and Knowledge Management (2008) Eastern Mediterranean University, Turkey (North Cyprus), Grade: A. Specialization: Semantic Web, Enterprise Software Architecture, and AI
- • BSc. in Software Engineering (2001), Tehran Azad University, Tehran, Iran. Specialization: Software Engineering and Databases