John Eric Steephen

Dr. John Eric Steephen

Assistant Professor

Dr. John Eric Steephen has over 14 years of industry and research experience. He has worked as a software engineer in the IT industry in India and abroad. He has held post-doctoral positions at the Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hyderabad and Kohli Centre on Intelligent Systems, IIIT Hyderabad. He has published papers in the areas of affective computing, computational neuroscience and experimental psychology in internationally well-respected journals. He teaches mainly courses on programming and database management for the post-graduate programs of the university.

He has been developing a series of computational models of emotion (called the HED series) that explore, explain and simulate how the interplay of various event-related and other factors influence and shape emotional responses. The models not only enhance our understanding of human emotions, but also have potential applications in surveillance systems, human-computer interaction, robotics, games, virtual reality training and anywhere affectively intelligent systems are required. He is a co-ordinator of the Centre for Affective and Neurocomputing (CAN).

Academic qualifications

  • Ph.D in Computational Neuroscience, IIT Bombay, 2011.
  • M.Tech in Biomedical Engineering, IIT Bombay, 2004.
  • B.Tech in Applied Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering, College of Engineering, Trivandrum, 1996.

Courses taught

  • Problem Solving and Programming in C
  • Object Oriented Programming
  • Problem Solving using Python
  • Database Management Systems
  • Secure Data Management

Areas of interest

  • Affective Computing
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computational Neuroscience
  • Biomedical Engineering

Past Employment

  • Senior Research Scientist, Cognitive Science Lab, Kohli Center on Intelligent Systems, IIIT Hyderabad, 2016 – 2017.
  • DST-CSI Post-Doctoral Fellow, Cognitive Science Lab, Kohli Center on Intelligent Systems, IIIT Hyderabad, 2014 – 2016.
  • DST-CSI Post-Doctoral Fellow, Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hyderabad, 2011 – 2014.
  • Research Associate, Computational Neuroscience lab, Dept of Biosciences & Bioengineering, IIT Bombay, 2010 – 2011.
  • Senior Software Engineer, SDI Tech Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai and Cleverlearn.com GmBH, Munich, Germany, 2000 – 2002.
  • Software Engineer, ICE Software, CSEZ, Cochin, 1998 – 2000.