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Dr. Vimala Balakrishnan is a Senior Lecturer, and Data Scientist affiliated with the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya since 2010. She obtained her PhD. in the field of Ergonomics from Multimedia University, whereas her Master and Bachelor degrees were from University of Science Malaysia. She is also the current Program Coordinator for the Master of Data Science program offered at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology. Dr. Balakrishnan's main research interests are in data analytics and sentiment analysis, particularly related to social media. Her research domains include healthcare, education and social issues such as cyberbullying. She has published approximately 55 articles in top indexed journals, 44 conference proceedings and six book chapters, has four patents and eight copyrights.

She has received several prestigious awards, including the Leadership in Innovation Fellowship (by the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK), and the Fulbright Scholar Award 2018. Others include Excellent Service Award 2017, Cardiff Incoming Visiting Fellowship Scheme 2017, Best Elsevier Reviewer Award 2018 (Computer in Human Behavior), and awards won both at local and international competitions (2 diamonds, 6 gold, 7 silvers and 4 bronze).

She teaches both the undergraduate and post-graduate students at the faculty. She has supervised six PhD students, two Master by Research and 18 Master by Mixed-mode students to completion. Dr. Balakrishnan is currently supervising four PhD students, and one Master by Research student. Additionally, she is also supervising several Master of Data Science students.

Dr. Balakrishnan also serves as an Associate Editor to the Malaysian Journal of Computer Science, and as an Associate Member for the Global Science and Technology Forum. She is also an IEEE member, and serves as an active reviewer for several International journals, and as external examiner for PhD thesis (e.g. International University of Malaya-Wales, Kolej Damansara Penang, Maynooth University Ireland, Modi Institute India, etc.). She has given guest lectures at University of Georgia (2018), and Georgia Technology of Institute (2018), USA, Cardiff University (2017), UK, Soongsil University (2016), Korea, and as a Keynote Speaker at the recent Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering 2019 Conference (India). She has also appeared in the local media (BFM Radio Malaysia, TV3), local newspapers and magazine (The Star, Berita Harian, Her World), and served as an expert advisor in a round table session (Communications and Multimedia Content Forum Malaysia) on cyberbullying detection mechanisms.