• Email: mbdias AT ri DOT cmu DOT edu
• Phone: 412-268-9365
• Web: http://www.ri.cmu.edu/people/dias_m.html
• Office: NSH 2105
• Office hours: By appointment

M. Bernardine Dias, Founding Director, is a faculty member in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, with research experience in technology education, multi-robot coordination, automated navigation, and innovative sensing. Her administrative responsibilities include building and overseeing collaborative outreach efforts between Carnegie Mellon University and developing communities around the world. Dr. Dias is a native of Sri Lanka. Her long-term career goal is innovating means of developing and disseminating suitable and sustainable technology for empowering developing communities.

• Email: tongia AT cmu DOT edu
• Phone: 412-268-5619
• Web: http://www.epp.cmu.edu/httpdocs/people/bios/tongia.html
• Office: Wean Hall 4624
• Office hours: By appointment

Rahul Tongia, Associate Director, is a Senior Systems Scientist in the School of Computer Science (ISRI), and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Tongia is interested in issues of infrastructure in emerging economies, especially the role of technology choices for improving deployment and penetration. Using quantitative policy and decision analysis, he has focused on the information technology (IT), telecom, and energy domains. In addition to engineering-economic analyses, his work also deals with broader policy issues such as security, international collaboration, and technology analysis and transfer. A prime area of activity involves the use of IT for human development. He recently completed a book on research issues for using information and communications technology (ICT) for sustainable development.

Joseph S. Mertz, jr., TechBridgeWorld Associate Director, is an Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Computer Science and in the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy & Management at Carnegie Mellon University. His primary teaching interests are in courses and projects that make students aware of community development challenges while teaching strategies and methods to use information and communication technologies to address those challenges. He directs the Technology Consulting in the Global Community program, which sends university students abroad as technology consultants with government ministries and non-profit organizations in developing communities.

Jay Aronson is co-teaching the "Technology and Global Development" course with Bernardine Dias, Joe Mertz, and Rahul Tongia. He is an assistant professor of science, technology, and society in the History Department at Carnegie Mellon. His research focuses on the development and implementation of complex technological systems in a variety of social contexts. His first book, entitled Genetic Witness: Science, Law, and Controversy in the Development of DNA Profiling will appear in Fall 2007. Jay became involved in TechBridgeWorld through his interest in the multifaceted role of technology in the interplay of human rights, development, and globalization. He aims to add historical and sociological insight to the "Technology and Global Development" course, and, more generally, to the work of TBW. Jay received his Ph.D. in history of science and technology from the University of Minnesota, and was both a pre- and post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.