Volunteers

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.

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’s School of Computer Science. Her primary interest is in computer technology and its applications. A native of mainland China, she has witnessed first-hand and is concerned about the "digital divide." She is attracted to TechBridgeWorld because of its unique vision to integrate innovation, technology, and development. She'd like to be part of the "bridge" between TBW and China and have more people and organizations in China know about, collaborate with, and ultimately benefit from TechBridgeWorld partnerships. She graduated from the Master of Science in Information Systems Program at Carnegie Mellon with five years of industry experience as an analyst. Karen is our first official TechBridgeWorld volunteer.

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.

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.

Nidhi Kalra is a Ph.D. student at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University who has volunteered additional time to work on a low-cost Braille writing tutor project, for which she is the Project Lead and Primary Software Researcher. She is keenly interested in applying technology to sustainable development and in understanding related public policy issues. Nidhi hopes to start a career in this field after completing her Ph.D. Her thesis area of research is in multirobot coordination and she is advised by Dr. Anthony Stentz. She has a master’s degree in Robotics from the Robotics Institute and she received her bachelor’s degree in computer science from Cornell University in 2002. Nidhi is a native of India.

Tom Lauwers is a Ph.D. student at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University who has volunteered additional time to work on a low-cost Braille writing tutor project, for which he is the Primary Hardware Researcher. He has a long-standing interest in educational robotics, as both a participant in programs like FIRST and later as a designer of a robotics course and education 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.

Richard Penson is a Volunteer Mentor, Advisor, and Program Representative for the Technology Consulting in the Global Community (TCinGC) program. In Summer 2006, he traveled to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau to advise student consultants and work with partner organizations. Since 2000, Mr. Penson has been volunteering in the same capacity with the Technology Consulting in the Community course, which focuses on organizations in the Pittsburgh region. Mr. Penson brings international consulting and project management experience from his career with the Aluminum Company of America, when he lived and worked in many countries around the world. Mr. Penson is pleased to be able to advise TechBridgeWorld students and their local partners as they implement sustainable technology solutions within the limitations of technology environments in developing communities, where the availability and cost of advanced computing technologies and skills is frequently constrained.

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.