XRDS About Us

XRDS: About Us

Editors-in-Chief	Okke Schrijvers, Jennifer Jacobs
Departments Chief	Bryan Knowles
Feature Editors	Eliezer Bernart, Judeth Oden Choi, Henri Maxime Demoulin,Ophir Friedler, Numair Khan, Talia Kohen, Nidhi Rastogi, Yang Shen, Gunnar Wolf
Department Editors	Shefali Bhatnagar, Abhishek Bhattacharya, Andrew J. Hunsucker, Alok Pandey, Ankush Pathak, Darshit Patel, Johanna Schacht
Digital Content Editor
News Editors	Ankush Pathak
Social Media Editor
Web Editor
Bloggers	David Guerra, Abdelrahman Hosny, Andrew J. Hunsucker, Vassilios Karakoidas, Wolfgang Richter, Abhineet Saxena, Gustavo Fortes Tondello, Gunnar Wolf
XRDS Alumni	Anirvana Mishra, Apoorvaa Singh, Asmaa Rabie, Billy Rathje, Chris Harrison, Daniel Gooch, Derek Bronish, Dmitry Batenkov, Doris Lee, Erin Carson, Fahad Khalid, Finn Kuusisto, Gideon Juve, Hanieh Moshki, Inbal Talgam-Cohen, Jason Thibodeau, Marinka Zitnik, Michael Bernstein, Poornima Kalyan Sundaram, Richard Gomer, Rob Simmons, Rohit Goyal, Roger Finnegan, Ryan K.L.Ko, Sean Follmer, Sergiy Bogomolov, Sumit Narayan, Shudong Hao, Suranga Nath Kasthurirathne, Tom Bartindale, Vaggelis Giannikas, Vicente Garcia Diaz, Peter Kinnaird, Derek Bronish, James Stanier, Malay Bhattacharyya, Marius-Tudor Benea, Anirban Basu, Jed Brubaker, Ben Deverett, Daniel Gooch, Debarka Sengupta, Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh, Hannah Pileggi, Somdip Dey, Shawn Freeman, Luigi De Russis, John Kloosterman, Michael Zuba, Ryan Kelly, Virginie Lerays, Arka Bhattacharya, Shelby Solomon Darnell, Claudia Schulz, David Byrd, Jay Patel, Veronica Estrada-Galinanes, Soumya Jindal, Tejas Khot, Nur Al-Huda Hamdan, Adrian Scoica, Pedro Lopes, Dimitris Mitropoulos, Maria Kechagia, Norene Kelly, Prachi Kumar, Olivia Simpson, Udayan Umapathi,

	Okke Schrijvers Stanford, USA Co-Editor-in-Chief Okke Schrijvers is a PhD student at Stanford University who focuses on Algorithmic Game Theory. He's interested in applying research insights to practice, and in the societal impacts of technology.
	Jennifer Jacobs MIT, USA Co-Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Jacobs is a Ph.D. student at the MIT Media Lab in the Lifelong Kindergarten Research Group. Her research examines ways to diversify participation and practice in computer programming by building expressive computational tools for art, design, digital fabrication, and craft. Jennifer received a Masters of Science from MIT and a Masters of Fine Art from Hunter College in Manhattan.
	Eliezer Bernart Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Feature Editor Eliezer Bernart is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Institute of Informatics). He holds an MSc in Computer Science from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and a B.Eng (Hons) in Computer Engineering from the Universidade do Oeste de Santa Catarina. His main research interests are in image processing, computer vision, and pattern recognition. Currently, his research focus is in medical image processing and statistical textural modeling, however, he is passionate and curious about every aspect of Computer Science.
	Gunnar Wolf Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), Mexico Feature Editor, Blogger Gunnar Wolf is pursuing a MSc degree in Information Security at IPN (Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Mecánica y Eléctrica), and teaches at the undergraduate degree of UNAM (Facultad de Ingeniería). He is a free software advocate, and a developer in the Debian project. Systems and network administrator for the Economics Research Institute (UNAM), has had the opportunity to do research on topics that include the social aspects of free software projects.
	Henri Maxime Demoulin University of Pennsylvania, USA Feature Editor Henri Maxime Demoulin is a PhD student at University of Pennsylvania, member of the Distributed Systems Laboratory and working with Prof. Boon Thau Loo. His interests range from Distributed System to Machine Learning. In a previous life, he was an engineer in a French start-up. He likes Latin dances and free-diving when not busy with some obscure programming problem.
	Judeth Oden Choi Carnegie Mellon University, USA Feature Editor Judeth Oden Choi is a Ph.D. student at the Human Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. With a background in theatre, publishing, and community arts, she now studies games, the game design process and other interactive, participatory digital experiences. She is also co-editor and founder of Writ Large Press, experimenting with publishing in a networked world.
	Nidhi Rastogi Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), USA Feature Editor Ms. Nidhi Rastogi is pursuing PhD in Computer Science at RPI with research in Cyber Security of distributed systems. Prior to joining RPI, she worked in the industry for four years in security and remote management of wireless devices on cellular networks at Verizon Wireless, NJ, and security of devices operating on the smart grid at Logic Technology Inc., Schenectady for the client GE Global Research Center, Niskayuna. Nidhi also has a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Cincinnati, OH.
	Numair Khan Brown University, USA Feature Editor Numair Khan did his masters in computer science from New York University and is currently engaged in research on the use of graphics processing units for ray tracing. His interests also include augmented reality systems and procedural modeling. A Fulbright scholar, Numair holds a bachelors degree in computer science from the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan and spends his leisure time playing squash and reading history.
	Ophir Friedler Tel Aviv University, Israel Feature Editor Ophir Friedler is a PhD student at Tel Aviv University. He holds a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, and an MSc in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University. His research is in Algorithmic Game Theory, focusing on simplicity trade-offs in mechanism design.
	Talia Kohen Bar Ilan University,Israel Feature Editor Talia Kohen is a masters student in Bar Ilan University studying Computer Science and focusing on Natural Language Processing. She is looking at automatically detecting trends in the historical evolution of words leveraging the Google Books Corpus. Talia was one out of a total of ten Israeli women selected as Google Anita Borg Finalists, and she is a recipient a Bar Ilan scholarship for her studies. She was a member of the Microsoft Women of Excellence program. Previously, she worked as a systems engineer at Raytheon on their tracking and discrimination system after graduating Cornell in Electrical and Computer Engineering with honors. She hopes one day to be the CEO of her own tech company.
	Yang Shen UCLA, USA Feature Editor Yang Shen is a Ph.D. candidate from Bionics Lab, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at University of California - Los Angeles. He holds a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Hong Kong and a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and Automation from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses on exoskeleton robotics and its applications on post-stroke rehabilitation.
	Abhishek Bhattacharya Amity University, Noida,India Department Editor Abhishek Bhattacharya is a second-year Computer Science and Engineering student at Amity University, Noida, India. His primary interests include Artificial Intelligence, Web Development, Big Data, Operating Systems et al.
	Alok Pandey University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, Dehradun, India Department Editor Alok Pandey is a sophomore studying Computer Science Engineering with specialization in Business Analytics and Optimization in collaboration with IBM at UPES, Dehradun. Along with being a blogger, he is also a PR Coordinator and an Event Manager. His subjects of interest include Data Science, Big Data and Internet of Things.
	Andrew J Hunsucker Indiana University, USA Department Editor, Blogger Andrew J Hunsucker is a PhD student at Indiana University in the School of Informatics and Computing studying interaction design pedagogy. He recently received his Master’s degree in Human Computer Interaction-Design from Indiana University, and his other research interests include storytelling, games, and augmented reality. His research is focused on understanding how designers are taught, and ensuring that they are learning the skills they need to succeed in their professional lives.
	Bryan Knowles Western Kentucky University, USA Departments Chief Bryan Knowles is a second-year M.S. student at Western Kentucky University studying Computer Science. His interests include Complex Systems, Stochastic Modeling, and Professional Writing. His current research examines anticipation of information on probabilistic decision making.
	Darshit Patel Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, India Department Editor A final Year undergraduate student studying Computer Engineering at Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, Pune, India. He has been the Secretary of the college's ACM Student Chapter. His topics of interest include web development, algorithms and competitive programming. When not studying, he's usually found in the company of books.
	Johanna Schacht Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany Department Editor Johanna Schacht is currently pursuing her MSc in industrial engineering and management and holds a BSc in computer science and management. Her studies focus on Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery and her current work concentrates on Knowledge Discovery and Artificial Intelligence in medical applications. In her spare time she enjoys drawing, photographing and hiking tours.
	Shefali Bhatnagar Amity University, Noida, India Department Editor Shefali Bhatnagar is a fourth-year Computer Science and Engineering student at Amity University, Noida, India. She has been interested in Computers and writing since an early age, contributing to startup products as well as newsletters and research papers in college. She has been a part of the managing committees of annual events on campus. She's currently looking forward to a Masters in Computer Science, possibly abroad.
	Ankush Pathak Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, Pune, India Department Editor, News Editor A third year computer undergraduate studying Computer Engineering at Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, Pune, India. He is the incumbent co-secretary of the PCCOE ACM chapter. His fields of interest include Internet of Things, Algorithms and societal impacts of advances in computing. He enjoys amateur astronomy, reading books and competitive coding.
	David Guerra Universitat de Lleida, Spain Blogger David Guerra is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Computer Science and industrial Engineering Department. He holds a M.Sc. in Software Engineering and a a B.Sc. in Computing from Universitat Rovira i Virgili. He had participated in spanish founding R&D projects. David’s research focuses on mobile HCI but has also worked on mobile solutions for archaeology and archaeological data visualization.
	Abdelrahman Hosny University of Connecticut, USA Blogger Abdelrahman is a Master student in Computer Science and Engineering, University of Connecticut - USA. His topic of research interest is 'Science Reproducibility' with special focus on computational science and algorithms. He also works on research projects that engage data analysis, learning algorithms and mobile applications.
	Gustavo Fortes Tondello University of Waterloo, Canada Blogger Gustavo is a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Dr. Lennart Nacke and Dr. Daniel Vogel. His main interests include gamification and games for health and learning. His research focuses on the design of gameful applications. He earned his M.Sc. in Computer Science and his B.Sc. in Information Systems from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. His M.Sc. thesis in Software Engineering focused on the semantic specification of Quality of Service for Semantic Web Services. His B.Sc. thesis focused on configuration management of Embedded Operating Systems using Application Oriented System Design. Before coming to Canada, he worked for several years as a Software Engineer in Brazil. Gustavo is also a researcher of the Logosophical Science affiliated to the Logosophical Foundation of Brazil.
	Vassilios Karakoidas Athens University of Economics and Business Blogger Vassilios Karakoidas is a Ph.D. candidate at Athens University of Economics and Business, Department of Management Science and Technology. He holds a B.Sc. in Informatics (University of Piraeus) and a M.Sc. in Information Systems (Athens of Economics and Business). He is now a member of ISTLab/SENSE and a former member of the Health Informatics Laboratory at University of Piraeus. He has been involved in various research projects. In 2008, he co-founded Wizhut, a software company that was involved with various research and development projects. He was leading the design and the implementation effort of warp.ly marketing platform. He is now working part-time with the Total Eclipse development team and he is the lead software architect at Emaginal AG. He is the author of a number of open-source and public-domain software packages and tools. His research interests include Software Engineering, Programming Languages, Operating Systems and Networking. He has published more than 20 scientific articles in refereed scientific journals and conferences.
	Wolfgang Richter Carnegie Mellon University Blogger Wolfgang Richter is a 5th-year Ph.D. student in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science. He has won research and teaching awards at both Carnegie Mellon and the University of Virginia where he received his BS in Computer Science with Highest Honors. During his tenure as a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon he has been supported by an NSF Fellowship and an IBM Research Fellowship. His research interests lie in distributed systems and cloud computing. He has collaborated predominantly with researchers at Carnegie Mellon, IBM Research, Intel Research, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. His thesis work was proposed in February 2014, and a publication related to this work received the best paper award at IC2E'14. He plans on defending his thesis and graduating in December 2014.
	Abhineet Saxena Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani, India Blogger, Former Web Editor Abhineet Saxena is a Master of Engineering (M.E.) in Computer Science (CS), postgraduate student at BITS Pilani, India. His topics of interest include Machine Learning with special emphasis on Cluster Analysis and Neural Networks. He enjoys programming in Python, blogging and composing poetry in leisure time.