21 October,2026 07:56 AM IST | Mumbai | Hemal Ashar
The hoarding that features Professor Steven Fernandes and Creighton University student Sara Avila, which towers over 72nd Street in Omaha, Nebraska. Pic/By Special Arrangement
Dentist Dr Veronica Fernandes's job is to give her patients the perfect 32 pearly whites, so that they leave her Thane clinic smiling from ear to ear. This time, though, it is the dentist herself who is beaming with pride. Dr Fernandes's source of pride and joy is a big billboard in Omaha, in the US state of Nebraska, which has a photograph of her brother, Steven Fernandes. Steven is an associate professor of Computer Science at Creighton University in Omaha.
Steven, who is originally from Mangaluru in Karnataka, appears on the billboard, which towers over passing cars, alongside student Sara Avila. The accompanying text reads: "Learn with people who bring out your best."
[popcorn number="6 years" desc="Time professor Steven Fernandes has been with Creighton University" class="Default"]
Professor Steven Fernandes poses in front of the billboard that towers over 72nd Street in Omaha, Nebraska. Pic/By Special Arrangement
Dr Veronica Fernandes said, "It is a privilege for me to see my brother's photo displayed on a prestigious billboard in Omaha. This is the result of his hard work and sincerity. Teaching has always been his passion. I am elated that his work is being appreciated. Sitting here in Thane, so many miles away, I somehow do not feel so âremoved'. We live in a globalised world, where the Internet has shrunk distances, and this billboard seems much closer than it really is. It also tells me that wherever you may be in the world, you can make your mark. Steven, I am so proud of you. You are an academic ambassador."
Professor Fernandes said over the phone from Omaha, "I have worked at Creighton University for the past six years. I am an associate professor of Computer Science. I am also focused on research, developing advanced deep learning models for applications in computer vision, medical imaging and natural language processing."
(From left) The professor's sister Dr Veronica Fernandes, brother-in-law Melwyn Fernandes, and Melwyn's sister Sunita Saldanha at the Fernandes residence in Thane. PIC/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
He said Creighton University's marketing team had installed the billboard, "On 72nd Street in Omaha. It is a busy street with heavy traffic, about four miles (roughly 6.5 km) from the University. So many people who know me have driven past and called to tell me, âHey, I saw you on the billboard'," he laughed.
The professor, who has been in the USA for 10 years and taught at other Universities prior to joining Creighton, said, "I am deeply appreciative and, most of all, thankful that I can be of service to others. I have won several research grants and medals recognising my academic achievements, but this ranks high, quite literally, above the rest!" He also pointed out that the board features Avila, a student who has won the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.
Professor Fernandes said he could, "Hear the joy in my sister's voice when I told her that I was on the billboard. My relatives in Orlem, Malad were thrilled too. Though I grew up and studied in Mangaluru, I feel a connection with Mumbai as well, since I have family in the city and stay with them during my visits to India." The professor, whose life naturally revolves around academics, also makes time for music and cricket. "As a teacher, I love helping young people grow in all aspects of life," he said. "Their studies are one thing, but I also tell them to pursue their hobbies so that they grow into multi-faceted individuals. At the same time, we live in an exciting, and at times bewildering age in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now a part of everyday life. I, too, am involved in AI research and its applications in our lives. In that way, I am a teacher but also a student, constantly learning," he concluded.
The professor then did what he does best: he analysed the situation. "As teachers, we are not celebrities or models in the stereotypical sense, so we are not used to seeing ourselves on billboards. This can make people see universities and study centres through a different lens. Seeing not an actor, sports star, or artiste but a university teacher featured in such a high-visibility spot is refreshing."
Mechanical engineer and entrepreneur Melwyn Fernandes, Steven's brother-in-law, signed off from Vartak Nagar in Thane: "I feel so proud that an Indian has been honoured by such a powerful country like the USA. We are all over the moon, and it feels as if the billboard is right here in our backyard! What can one say, except congratulations and here's wishing him an even brighter future."
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Steven Fernandes teaches computer science, data science, and health informatics courses. His current research is on robust, trustworthy, and safe AI for healthcare and robotics. One line of work develops attribution-based confidence metrics and explainability methods for detecting adversarial attacks; another applies vision-language models to medical imaging; a third builds AI agents for healthcare. Before Creighton, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham on a medical imaging project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and then at the University of Central Florida on projects in robust and trustworthy AI funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
