Samira Elsamad (Lebanon)

Samira Elsamad is now pursuing her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Syaheerah. Her work as a research assistant will focus on developing a machine learning model to analyze fMRI and EEG images to detect neural patterns linked to bribery tendencies. She will use deep learning techniques to train the model to automatically recognize distinct brain activity patterns when participants are exposed to bribery-related stimuli. By combining EEG’s fast electrical signals with the spatial detail from fMRI, she aims to create a predictive model that identifies neural markers associated with pro-bribery attitudes, providing insights into the neural basis of corrupt behaviors.

During her Masters’ degree, she was part of the data science team at the IMCC (International Mobility & Collaboration Centre) at USM working under Dr Syaheerah. Her work during her Masters focused on presenting an interactive dashboard that contains all relevant USM international network insights. Part of her work was evaluating the impact of USM’s partnership through new measures involving data scraping.
The goal of this project was to empower decision makers at the IMCC to formulate the most effective and timely internationalization strategies, and provide a concrete way to evaluate past strategies.