Volunteers

Jay Aronson co-teaches the "Technology and Global Development" course with 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, Genetic Witness: Science, Law, and Controversy in the Development of DNA Profiling, was published in Fall 2007. 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's Kennedy School of Government.

Brett Browning, Volunteer Advisor on Course Development, is a faculty member in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science. He has research experience in robot autonomy and control, vision-based perception, multi-robot coordination, and mixed-initiative teams. In particular, Dr. Browning has long contributed to RoboCup robot soccer, an international initiative aimed at advancing robotics research via a standard domain that involves researchers from all over the world. His interest in TBW stems from his belief that human society progresses and benefits from the creativity of individuals. While creative people are born to all nationalities, in this digitally connected age, the access and availability of technology has a profound impact on realizing one's creative potential. Dr. Browning is attracted to TBW as it offers a unique and potentially profound framework to help overcome these barriers of entry.

Karen (Lujie) Chen, Volunteer Liaison with partners in China, is a research analyst at the Auton Lab in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Her primary interest is in computer technology and its applications. She works to facilitate the establishment and fostering of collaborative relations between TBW and Chinese partners. She graduated from the Masters of Information Systems Program at Carnegie Mellon with over eight years in data driven analytical roles in business/financial, information system and data mining research. Karen is our first official TechBridgeWorld volunteer.

M. Beatrice Dias is a Ph.D. student in the Engineering and Public Policy Department at Carnegie Mellon University who volunteers with TechBridgeWorld to assist with marketing, events, fundraising, and strategic planning. She earned her undergraduate degree from Hamilton College in Clinton NY, with concentrations in Mathematics and Physics. Her current research involves measuring the impact of the USAPATRIOT Act and the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act on Microbiological Research in the U.S., and she is advised by Dr. Elizabeth Casman and Dr. Francisco Veloso. Beatrice is a native of Sri Lanka and hopes to pursue a career in policy evaluation.

Juan Pablo Gonzalez is a Ph.D. Student at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University who has volunteered significant time participating with TechBridgeWorld public events and developing future project opportunities. He received a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1996 from Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia and a master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Ohio State University. His areas of interest range from path planning and machine learning to computer vision and image processing. At General Dynamics Robotics Systems he helped develop the Basic Unexploded Ordnance Gathering System (BUGS), a team of small robots for ordnance clearing and disposal. As part of the BUGS project he developed stereo vision, path planning, and autonomous command and control algorithms that allowed the robots to safely navigate in outdoor environments while performing their task. At Carnegie Mellon he was a Technical Advisor for the Red Team and he is currently working with Dr. Anthony Stentz on applications path planning with uncertainty in position, as part of the Collaborative Technology Alliance.

Khaled Harras is an Assistant Teaching Professor of in the School of Computer Science at CMU. His research interests spans different thrusts within computer networks including mobile ad-hoc, wireless, sensor, and vehicular networks. He is particularly interested in the design and analysis of architectures and protocols for different forms of challenged, delay, and disruption tolerant networks. He is also interested in developing technological solutions for developing and rural areas. Harras received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California in Santa Barbara.

Alex Hills, Volunteer TCinGC Program Representative, is a Distinguished Service Professor of Engineering & Public Policy and Electrical & Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon. He conceived, founded and directed Carnegie Mellons well known Wireless Andrew project, and he was also Founding Director of the Information Networking Institute and Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer of the university. Professor Hills holds a part-time appointment as Profesor Extraordinario at the Universidad Austral de Chile. Before joining Carnegie Mellon, he played a key role in developing the first telecommunications systems in the remote villages of Alaska and served in the administration of Alaska Governor Jay Hammond. He has lived and worked in a number of foreign countries, including: Korea, Russia, Costa Rica, Chile, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. His international work has helped him to understand the very important role that technology plays in developing nations. Professor Hills arranged for two student volunteers to work on a project in Chile during the summer of 2006. He accompanied the students to Chile, helped them begin their assignment there, and maintained contact with them during their 10-week stay.

Dr. Nidhi Kalra is currently a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, and her work focuses on a wide range of technology policy issues. Nidhi began and led the Braille Writing Tutor Project in 2005 while she was a Ph.D. candidate at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Her thesis area of research was in multirobot coordination and she was advised by Dr. Anthony Stentz. Nidhi is a native of India.

Tom Lauwers is a Ph.D. student at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University who has worked on the Braille writing tutor project as the Primary Hardware Researcher. He has a long-standing interest in educational robotics, as both a student and later as a designer of educational technology. He is currently studying curriculum development and evaluation and hopes that his study of the educational sciences will help him design better and more useful educational technologies. Tom received a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

Joseph S. Mertz, jr. 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. He created and directs the local Technology Consulting in the Community course as well as the international Technology Consulting in the Global Community summer program which sends university students abroad as technology consultants with government ministries and non-profit organizations in developing communities. He also co-teaches the Technology for Global Development course for undergraduate students.

Aaron Steinfeld, is a volunteer as a faculty advisor for student projects, especially on Internal Review Board issues. He is a faculty member in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and a member of the Quality of Life Technologies Engineering Research Center. Dr. Steinfeld advised the BlindAid student project and serves as a resource for experiments involving human subjects and human-robot interaction. His research activities center on design and evaluation of operator assistance technologies, especially in real-time scenarios. His projects include driver assistance systems, evaluation of human-in-the-loop machine learning software, mobile robotics, and assistance systems for people with disabilities. Dr. Steinfeld likes TBW due to the fact that student activities promote deep understanding of end-user needs and requirements. This teaches students how to apply technologies to make a real difference in society.

Tom Stepleton is a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. His main area of interest is object recognition and model learning in computational and biological vision systems, which he pursues in the lab of Dr. Tai Sing Lee. For his thesis, Tom is developing a system which performs unsupervised learning of object models from video data. Additionally, because he intends to teach after graduation, Tom is volunteering extra time to collaborate with Daniel Dewey on extending Nidhi Kalra and Tom Lauwers's Adaptive Braille Writing Tutor Project to multiuser settings through TechBridgeWorld. He views this effort as a prototype for a variety of socially aware, single-student research projects that he hopes to offer undergraduates in his future career. Tom was born in St. Louis, MO and attended Swarthmore College, graduating in 2002 with a major in computer science and a minor in philosophy. He is also a private pilot who flies powered airplanes and sailplanes.