Research
Philosophy
My research interests while at Olin are primarily motivated by my ability to involve undergraduates. Giving students
direct research experience and an avenue to pursue their own out-of-classroom aspirations is what research at an
undergraduate institutions means to me. Luckily, I have found synergies between student interests at Olin and things
that are personally intellectually interesting.
Areas of Interest
Mobile, Social, and Ubiquitous Computing
With the increasing adoption of "smart" mobile devices such as the iPhone, Android-powered devices, and others, the
level of of computational capacity and device availability is making computing truly more ubiquitous. I am
interested in both the educational aspects of mobile devices, and the research potential they provide for the fields
of ubiquitous computing and human-computer interaction.
I have been fortunate enough to teach a class in Mobile Application
Development that is a synthesis of many experiences at Olin, including Entrepreneurship, Design, and
Engineering. With industry collaboration, I believe these types of courses provide a unique opportunity for our
students to experience how the curriculum we have surrounded them with gives them the tools to provide compelling
user experiences on mobile devices.
I am also interested in the intersection of mobile and ubiquitous computing and social media and communication. How
ubiquity and its properties of location-awareness, computational horsepower, persistent-connectedness, and constant
low-degree interruption mediates and changes communication habits between users.
Reconfigurable Computing
My interest in reconfigurable computing focuses on FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), which are hardware
devices that can be programmed to implement almost any complex digital circuit. In concert with student researchers,
we have looked at how to use reconfigurable computing within areas of stereo vision, robotics, high-performance
embedded computing, and engineering education.
Engineering Education
I have been fortunate to have some publications and experience in the area of engineering education. Currently, I am
working with Google on the Google App Inventor
for Android project. Working with Lynn Stein and Mark Sheldon here at Olin, we hope to better understand the
unique challenges of introducing computer science and programming to first year students within an engineering
context.