Riyaaz Shaik

Riyaaz Shaik

Dr. Riyaaz Shaik is a Research Scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), specializing in remote sensing with a strong emphasis on wildfire applications. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Satellite Systems and Services from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, in 2022. Following a postdoctoral tenure at the School of Aerospace Engineering in Rome, he joined UCLA’s Civil & Environmental Engineering Department in 2022 as a postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Shaik has collaborated with prominent institutions, including the Italian Space Agency, E-GEOS SpA, the National Research Council of Italy, the European Space Agency, and Amazon, contributing to high-impact projects such as FirEUrisk, S2IGI, ASI-HYP, and Fire Fighting with AI. His research currently focuses on wildfire occurrence modeling, burn area forecasting, and mapping wildland and urban fuels using remote sensing and machine learning. He serves as a co-Principal Investigator on multiple wildfire research projects funded by the United States Forest Service and the Department of Energy (DOE). An active contributor to the scientific community, Dr. Shaik has published extensively in leading remote sensing journals and conferences. He has mentored numerous student researchers and regularly serves as a reviewer for major remote sensing conferences, including IGARSS, as well as journals published by IEEE, Taylor & Francis, AGU, and Elsevier. In addition to his research, Dr. Shaik is a lecturer at UCLA, where he teaches Applied Numerical Methods. He also consults for OpalAI and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, supporting wildfire-related research and applications. His work continues to bridge the gap between cutting-edge remote sensing technologies and practical wildfire management solutions.