Dr. Nariman Ammar
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Office
WIH Williams Hall 17e
Office Phone
Email
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Selected Research
Biography
Dr. Ammar is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the School of IT at Illinois State University and a health informatics researcher at Ochsner Health. She received her PhD in Computer Science from Wayne State University in 2016, and a 3-year Health Informatics training in the Oak Ridge National Lab’s Center for Biomedical Informatics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, through which she has designed research pipelines for integrating downstream clinical and upstream non-clinical risk factors to study several health outcomes and incorporated results from those models into intelligent digital health platforms. Her research interests are in Health Informatics, Knowledge representation, and explainable AI.
Current Courses
IT 426.001 Advanced Software Engineering
IT 168.001 Structured Problem Solving Using The Computer
IT 168.004 Structured Problem Solving Using The Computer
Teaching Interests & Areas
Software Programming
Software Design
Software Engineering
Advanced Web Programming
Data Science and data analysis
Research Interests & Areas
Health Informatics
Explainable AI
Knowledge Representation
Applied Machine Learning
Privacy Management
PhD Computer Science
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan, United States
CAST Travel Award
College of Applied Science and Technology, Illinois State University
2025
AIM-AHEAD Program for Artificial Intelligence Readiness (PAIR)
NIH
2025
Summer Research Grant (SRG)
School of Information Technology, Illinois State University
2023
University Research Grant (URG)
College of Science and Applied Technolog, Illinois State University
2023
Impact Award
Illinois State University
2023
Best Paper Award
IEEE Computing Society
2015
Graduate Professional Scholarship
Wayne State University Graduate School
2010
Grants and Contracts
Program for Artificial Intelligence Readiness (PAIR): Building an AI for Health Research Lab at ISU for Atrial Fibrillation
Nariman Ammar, Marilyn Prasun.
NIH - AIM-AHEAD Program for Artificial Intelligence Readiness (PAIR). May 2025
School Research Grant (SRG): Privacy-Preserving Framework using Prognostic ML Models for Applications in Precision Medicine.
Nariman Ammar, Rudra Baksi.
School of Information Technology, Illinois State University. May 2023
University Research Grant (URG): Machine Learning Powered Knowledge Discovery for Precision Maternal Fetal Medicine
Nariman Ammar.
College of Science and Applied Technolog. May 2023
Abstract
SDoH-informed, AI-Driven STI prediction and Youth-Centered Interventions Across Illinois
Hyoil Han, Jung Eun Kim, Jill Stoops, Nariman Ammar.
Illinois Innovation Network 2025 Conference, (2025)
An explainable, ontology-based genetic algorithm for diagnosis and outcome prediction using patient phenotypic data. Abstracts from the 57(th) European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) Conference.
Nariman Ammar.
European Journal of Human Genetics, 32 (Suppl 2), 797-8, (2024), 10.1038/s41431-024-01731-7
Conference Proceeding
Predicting Out-of-Hospital Vital Sign Measurements through Deep Learning
Khalid Alghatani, Abdelmounaam Rezgui, Nariman Ammar.
(2023)
Journal Article
Long COVID after SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy in the United States.
C Zang, D Guth, A M Bruno, Z Xu, H Li, Nariman Ammar, R Chew, N Guthe, E Hadley, R Kaushal, T Love, B M McGrath, R C Patel, E C Seibert, Y Senathirajah, S K Singh, F Wang, M G Weiner, K J Wilkins, Y Zhang, T D Metz, E Hill, T W Carton.
Nature communications, 16 (1), 3005, (2025), 10.1038/s41467-025-57849-9
Digital Health Innovations for Screening and Mitigating Mental Health Impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Narrative Review
Brianna M White, Rameshwari Prasad, Nariman Ammar, Jason A Yaun, Arash Shaban-Nejad.
JMIR Pediatr Parent, 7, e58403, (2024), 10.2196/58403
Evaluating Racial Disparities in Implementation and Monitoring of a Remote Blood Pressure Program in a Pregnant Population-A Retrospective Cohort Study.
Erika Howard, V Gillispie-Bell, S Olet, B Glenn, Nariman Ammar, E G Price-Haywood.
Ochsner journal, 24 (1), 22-30, (2024), 10.31486/toj.23.0111
Towards an Explainable AI Platform to Study Interruptions in Cancer Radiation Therapy.
Nariman Ammar.
Studies in health technology and informatics, 310, 1501-1502, (2024), 10.3233/SHTI231264
Digital Personal Health Coaching Platform for Promoting Human Papillomavirus Infection Vaccinations and Cancer Prevention: Knowledge Graph-Based Recommendation System
Nariman Ammar.
JMIR formative research, (2023)
Generalisable long COVID subtypes: findings from the NIH N3C and RECOVER programmes.
J T Reese, H Blau, E Casiraghi, T Bergquist, J J Loomba, T J Callahan, B Laraway, C Antonescu, B Coleman, M Gargano, K J Wilkins, L Cappelletti, T Fontana, Nariman Ammar, B Antony, T M Murali, J H Caufield, G Karlebach, J A McMurry, A Williams, R Moffitt, J Banerjee, A E Solomonides, H Davis, K Kostka, G Valentini, D Sahner, C G Chute, C Madlock-Brown, M A Haendel, P N Robinson.
EBioMedicine, 87, 104413, (2023), 10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104413
An Urban Population Health Observatory for Disease Causal Pathway Analysis and Decision Support: Underlying Explainable Artificial Intelligence Model.
W S Brakefield, Nariman Ammar, A Shaban-Nejad.
JMIR formative research, 6 (7), e36055, (2022), 10.2196/36055
Analyzing Relationships Between Economic and Neighborhood-Related Social Determinants of Health and Intensive Care Unit Length of Stay for Critically Ill Children With Medical Complexity Presenting With Severe Sepsis.
H Hamilton, A N West, Nariman Ammar, L Chinthala, F Gunturkun, T Jones, A Shaban-Nejad, S H Shah.
Frontiers in public health, 10, 789999, (2022), 10.3389/fpubh.2022.789999
Defining Radiation Treatment Interruption Rates During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings From an Academic Center in an Underserved Urban Setting.
E Gaudio, Nariman Ammar, F Gunturkun, C Akkus, W Brakefield, D V Wakefield, M Pisu, R Davis, A Shaban-Nejad, D L Schwartz.
International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics, (2022), 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2022.09.073
Geospatial data in pediatric asthma in the United States: a scoping review protocol.
A M Cushing, M A Khan, L Kysh, W S Brakefield, Nariman Ammar, D B Liberman, J Wilson, A Shaban-Nejad, J Espinoza.
JBI evidence synthesis, 20 (11), 2790-2798, (2022), 10.11124/JBIES-21-00284
Sentiment Analysis of the Covid-19 Vaccines on Social Media.
C A Melton, O A Olusanya, Nariman Ammar, A Shaban-Nejad.
Studies in health technology and informatics, 290, 1056-1057, (2022), 10.3233/SHTI220265
A Digital Personal Health Library for Enabling Precision Health Promotion to Prevent Human Papilloma Virus-Associated Cancers.
O A Olusanya, Nariman Ammar, R L Davis, R A Bednarczyk, A Shaban-Nejad.
Frontiers in digital health, 3, 683161, (2021), 10.3389/fdgth.2021.683161
An Urban Population Health Observatory System to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness, Response, and Management: Design and Development Study.
W S Brakefield, Nariman Ammar, O A Olusanya, A Shaban-Nejad.
JMIR public health and surveillance, 7 (6), e28269, (2021), 10.2196/28269
HemPHL: A Personal Health Library and mHealth Recommender to Promote Self-Management of Hemophilia.
O A Olusanya, Nariman Ammar, W S Brakefield, M Crescioni, J Chupka, D Tarver, A Shaban-Nejad.
Studies in health technology and informatics, 281, 550-554, (2021), 10.3233/SHTI210231
Predicting Intensive Care Unit Length of Stay and Mortality Using Patient Vital Signs: Machine Learning Model Development and Validation.
K Alghatani, Nariman Ammar, Abdelmounaam Rezgui, A Shaban-Nejad.
JMIR medical informatics, 9 (5), e21347, (2021), 10.2196/21347
Public sentiment analysis and topic modeling regarding COVID-19 vaccines on the Reddit social media platform: A call to action for strengthening vaccine confidence.
C A Melton, O A Olusanya, Nariman Ammar, A Shaban-Nejad.
Journal of infection and public health, 14 (10), 1505-1512, (2021), 10.1016/j.jiph.2021.08.010
Using a Personal Health Library-Enabled mHealth Recommender System for Self-Management of Diabetes Among Underserved Populations: Use Case for Knowledge Graphs and Linked Data.
Nariman Ammar, J E Bailey, R L Davis, A Shaban-Nejad.
JMIR formative research, 5 (3), e24738, (2021), 10.2196/24738
Explainable Artificial Intelligence Recommendation System by Leveraging the Semantics of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Proof-of-Concept Prototype Development.
Nariman Ammar, A Shaban-Nejad.
JMIR medical informatics, 8 (11), e18752, (2020), 10.2196/18752
Implementing an Urban Public Health Observatory for (Near) Real-Time Surveillance for the COVID-19 Pandemic.
W S Brakefield, Nariman Ammar, O Olusanya, E Ozdenerol, F Thomas, A J Stewart, K C Johnson, R L Davis, D L Schwartz, A Shaban-Nejad.
Studies in health technology and informatics, 275, 22-26, (2020), 10.3233/SHTI200687
The Personal Health Library: A Single Point of Secure Access to Patient Digital Health Information.
Nariman Ammar, J E Bailey, R L Davis, A Shaban-Nejad.
Studies in health technology and informatics, 270, 448-452, (2020), 10.3233/SHTI200200
Other
Risk Factors Associated with Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 in an EHR Cohort: A National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) Analysis as part of the NIH RECOVER program.
E Hill, H Mehta, S Sharma, K Mane, C Xie, E Cathey, J Loomba, S Russell, H Spratt, P E DeWitt, Nariman Ammar, C Madlock-Brown, D Brown, J A McMurry, C G Chute, M A Haendel, R Moffitt, E R Pfaff, T D Bennett.
medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences, (2022), 10.1101/2022.08.15.22278603
Presentations
SDoH-informed, AI-Driven STI prediction and Youth-Centered Interventions Across Illinois
Hyoil Han, Jung Eun Kim, Jill Stoops, Nariman Ammar.
Illinois Innovation Network 2025 Conference, DeKalb, Illinois, September 26, 2025
Applied ML for Precision Clinical and Public Health
Nariman Ammar.
Artificial Intelligence Brown Bag Series, Normal, IL, November 15, 2024
Enhanced Ochsner Emergency Department Overcrowding Score (OEDOCS2.0)
Nariman Ammar, Sai Kiran Nandipati.
Illinois State University Annual Symposium, Normal, April, 2024
Machine Learning for Precision Clinical Health: Two case studies from the Emergency and Maternal Fetal Medicine domains.
Nariman Ammar, Sai Kiran Nandipati.
Center for Cybersecurity Research and Education (CCRE) Research Seminar series, Normal, IL, March, 2024
Leveraging Personalized Health Knowledge Graphs for Precision Clinical and Public Health
Nariman Ammar.
TBD, India, March 1, 2024
An Urban Population Health Observatory for Disease Causal Pathway Analysis and Decision Support: Underlying Explainable Artificial Intelligence Model
Nariman Ammar.
Epidemiology of Health Disparities Seminar, New Orleans, LA (Virtual), March, 2023
An approach for AI Explainability with Applications in Healthcare
Nariman Ammar.
Minnesota State University's Biological Sciences Friday Seminar, Online, March, 2023