Besides computer science and math, I greatly enjoy spending time outdoors, playing trombone, cooking, listening to classical / jazz music, and playing board games. Occasionally I pretend to be a rock star with three other friends.
Research Interests:
I am currently working with my advisors, Professors Manuel Blum and Luis von Ahn, to better understand the theoretical and practical qualities of information flow in social networks. With the immense popularity of sites such as Facebook and MySpace, we finally have real-world social network information the spans beyond small groups and organizations. I'm interested in understanding how modifications to connections in the social network can improve or hamper information flow.
Past Research Projects:
Rocking Rolling Robot
Starting in the summer of 2003, I worked with Ravi Balasubramanian on the "Rocking-Rolling Robot," a hemispherical robot that locomotes by wiggling countermasses above its center of gravity. I was responsible for the construction of the robot, programming the control mechanism, and writing vision software that tracks the location of the robot. At the conclusion of this research I authored a video for the IEEE ICRA conference. You can view it here (30 MB mpeg).
Awards and Service:
More to be added as it becomes relevant.