Biography

Dr. Nelly Elsayed is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information Technology and the founder of the Applied Machine Learning and Intelligence (AMLI) Lab. Her research focuses on Applied AI and Machine Learning in areas such as healthcare informatics, cybersecurity, smart technologies, computer vision, and business intelligence.
She holds BS and MS degrees from Alexandria University, and an additional MS and Ph.D. from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Dr. Nelly has led several federally and industrially funded research projects and is an active member of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. She has received multiple honors, including the Faculty Incentive Award for Research (2021, 2025), the Love of Learning Award (Phi Kappa Phi), the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, and the UCAADA Outstanding Advising Faculty Award. She is also a Goodwill Ambassador in Lafayette, Louisiana, and was recently nominated for the prestigious Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM).

Talk Title: Beyond the Speech: Understanding Behaviors and Mental Health Disorders in the Era of Applied AI

Abstract

In an age where artificial intelligence increasingly shapes our daily lives, its application to mental health offers both profound promise and critical responsibility. This presentation explores the transformative role of speech emotion recognition in identifying and understanding mental health disorders. By moving beyond traditional diagnostic methods to reveal underlying behavioral and psychological patterns. Grounded in applied AI, this presentation work demonstrates how machine learning models can be trained not only to recognize emotions but also to support early detection, continuous monitoring, and personalized intervention strategies.