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I was born in the Bronx, grew up in Freeport, NY, came to the Capital Region to go to school, and never left.
My interests and experiences range from managing an information technology center, to photography (my 15 minutes of fame was actually 24 hours when one of my photographs was chosen as the Wikipedia picture of the day), to broadcasting, to camping, to driving a 1969 Citroen DS21. I try to use my experiences as examples in order to be able to demonstrate how the technology works in the real-world, showing how to apply a given topic in a meaningful way.

Degree Program University
Ph.D. SUNY at Albany
Other Master of Business Administration University at Albany

My Siena Experience

My Teaching Philosophy

I believe that it is my responsibility as a teacher to go beyond simply imparting facts. I believe in engaging students as partners in developing their learning experience. I believe that for Computer Science and Information Technology students to be successful, either in industry or in the pursuit of an advanced degree, three needs must be met: students need to be prepared to be life-long learners; students need to be able to apply what they learn in meaningful ways; and students need to be able to work both independently and collaboratively. Learning is not a passive experience. While relevance can help to motivate learning, the true test of success is a student’s ability to apply what they have learned. I have found that applying the student centered Problem-based Learning (PBL) approach to my classes not only allows students to demonstrate what they have learned, but also promotes the development of critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and problem solving skills.

What I Love About Siena

What I love most about Siena is that it is an open and welcoming community.

My Favorite Courses to Teach

That would be like picking a favorite student. They are all fun to teach.

My Professional Experience

Year Title Organization
2020 - Now Associate Professor Siena College
2016 - 2020 Assistant Professor Siena College
2013 - 2016 Visiting Assistant Professor Siena College
2011 - 2013 Post-Doctoral Associate MIT CSAIL
2011 - 2014 Post-Doctoral Associate University at Albany
2008 - 2013 Adjunct Instructor University at Albany

Articles & Book Reviews

  • Manipulating the Real World in an Introduction to Computer Science Course
    EDSIG Conference on Information Systems and Computing Education
    2023
  • Understanding Wi-Fi
    EDSIG Conference on Information Systems and Computing Education
    2022
  • What! No GUI? – Teaching A Text Based Command Line Oriented Introduction to Computer Science
    Information Systems Education Journal, vol. 17
    2019
  • Connecting Colleges/Universities and Local High Schools: A New Model for High School CS Teacher Development
    ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
    2018
  • What! No GUI?
    EDSIG Conference on Information Systems and Computing Education
    2018
  • A Mindful Approach to Teaching Emotional Intelligence to Undergraduate Students Online and In Person
    Information Systems Education Journal, vol. 15
    2017
  • Mindfulness: Gateway to Teaching Emotional Intelligence Online. Poster Presentation
    International Symposium for Contemplative Studies (ISCS 2016)
    2016
  • Design and Implementation of a Public School Government-to-Employee System
    International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance
    2012
  • Does Negation Really Matter?
    Workshop on Negation and Speculation in Natural Language Processing
    2010
  • Role of Preferred Terminology in the Classification of Medical Reports
    International Symposium on Computer and Information Sciences
    2009
  • Specializing for Predicting Obesity and its Co-morbidities
    Journal of Biomedical Informatics, vol. 42
    2009
  • Identifying Patient Smoking Status from Medical Discharge Records
    Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, vol. 15
    2008
  • Three Approaches to Automatic Assignment of ICD-9-CM Codes to Radiology Reports
    Fall Symposium of the American Medical Informatics Association
    2007

Awards & Distinctions

  • Upsilon Pi Epsilon
    Category: Service-Professional
    Computer Science Honor Society, 2017
  • Leadership and Support Award
    Category: Service-Professional
    School Administrators Association of New York State (SAANYS), 2007
  • Beta Gamma Sigma
    Category: Other
    Business Honor Society (AACSB), 2004

Books & Book Chapters

  • Medical Data Privacy Handbook
    Springer
    2015

Presentations

  • Workshop: Not Just Another List: Increasing Student Engagement Using Innovative Apps
    2021
    EDSIG Conference on Information Systems and Computing Education, Arlington, Virginia