I write code and do UI design research for William Cohen's lab in the Machine Learning department of the School of Computer Science at CMU. I'm also studying part-time for a Masters in Human-Computer Interaction from the HCII at CMU. My recent history is as follows:
- Sep 2011 - Present :: SEAL-on-NELL :: A Set Expander for Any Language which finds more examples of known categories and relations. With William Cohen, formerly with Richard C. Wang; NELL by Tom Mitchell and lab. SEAL; NELL.
- June 2011 - Present :: Creativity Education :: With Haakon Faste; studying instruction principles for creative fields, with particular focus on self-awareness and formative failure. Resulted in How learning works and design education: educating for creative awareness through formative reflexivity, DIS '12 (Honorable mention)
- Jan 2009 - Present :: Querendipity :: With William Cohen, Ni Lao, Bhavana Dalvi, Ramnath Balasubramanian; previously also with John Zimmerman, design team, and even formerly-er with Anthony Tomasic and Andrew Arnold; helping biologists find what they're looking for. Resulted in Evaluating Joint Modeling of Yeast Biology Literature and Protein=Protein Interaction Networks, BioNLP 2012.
- Jan 2009 - July 2009 :: APT Transit :: With Anthony Tomasic, Aaron Steinfeld, John Zimmerman, design team; helping bus riders report problems, increasing value for disabled users.
- March 2009 - Jan 2010 :: Mixer :: With Anthony Tomasic, Steve Gardiner; an implementation in javaScript and Firefox plug-in. Resulted in Mixer: Mixed-initiative data retrieval and integration by example, Interact '11 (Brian Shackel Award / Best Paper)
- Aug 2008 - Feb 2009 :: VIO/Forms/WbE :: with Anthony Tomasic, Issac Simmons, Marty McGuire, Jay Springfield; wrote a column classifier for suggesting field entry, integrated past data, refactored paper, still seeking publication.
- March 2008 - Sept 2008 :: Mixer Mockup :: with Anthony Tomasic, John Zimmerman, Ian Hargraves, Ken Monkhern; WOZ mockup in Flex, usability study, data analysis. Resulted in User-created forms as an effective method of human-agent communication, CHI '09.
- Nov 2007 - March 2008 :: Workflow by Example UI redesign :: with Anthony Tomasic, Ken Monkhern, Ian Hargraves; a satellite of the RADAR project. Sketches, prototyping in Revolution, paper pilot testing.
- Sept 2006 - Aug 2007 :: Ballbot :: with Ralph Hollis, as a part of PhD studies in the Robotics Institute (discontinued August 2007; I don't think a PhD is what I want). Behavioral engine, system modeling, and controls tuning.
I tend to like clean software practices that minimize code duplication and other hacks.
I'm diagram-driven, and generally produce UI sketches as well as domain, class, and sequence diagrams as a part of my normal development process, which helps a lot when it comes to generating documentation and passing projects on. I have some basic background in user-oriented design, and have decided to further my study of the topic through the MHCI. Thanks is very much due to my contact with John's teams, which grounded our projects in real user habits, needs, and goals, and convinced me that good design provides an excellent avenue through which academia can become accessible to the public.
