Roger Boltshauser is a Full Professor and Deputy Head at the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich. His practice and academic work emphasize tectonic building culture, proportion, and material experimentation, diverging from mainstream German-Swiss architectural trends. He combines teaching with active architectural practice, influencing younger generations at ETH and TU Wien. Key themes: Tectonic structures, grid-based order, social responsibility in architecture, critique of modernist canons Notable projects: Hochhaus H1 Zwhatt-Areal (2025), Masterplan Zoo Basel (2025), Centre for Dental Medicine Zurich (2025) His buildings prioritize mass and permanence , evident in projects like the Kopfholz School and Rauch House . Recent works at the EPFL Solar Biennale (2025) and Architecture of Memory exhibition (2025) explore sustainable design and cultural narratives. Boltshauser’s studio on Dubsstrasse exemplifies research into load-bearing structures and urban spatial relationships.
Mario Berges is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), with a courtesy appointment in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He holds leadership roles as Co-Director of the IBM Smart Infrastructure Analytics Lab and Director of the Intelligent Infrastructure Research Lab (INFERLab). His work focuses on applying information/communication technologies to enhance the operational efficiency and resilience of built environments amid evolving resource constraints and climate changes. Education: PhD in Civil & Environmental Engineering from CMU (2010). Research Interests: Berges' research integrates smart infrastructure systems, energy efficiency, and machine learning. Key areas include non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM), structural health monitoring of pipelines, building automation systems, and urban heat risk modeling. He develops data-driven frameworks for energy disaggregation, sensor placement optimization, and real-time infrastructure diagnostics. Awards: Recognized with the 2010 FIATECH Outstanding Early Career Researcher Award and 2015 Dean’s Early Career Fellowship from CMU. Grants & Labs: Leads INFERLab, collaborating with IBM on smart infrastructure projects. His work spans academic-industry partnerships focused on building analytics, smart grid technologies, and sensor networks. Future Directions: Expanding research into AI-driven energy systems, resilient urban infrastructure, and cross-disciplinary solutions for climate adaptation.
Dr. Regina Enjuto Martinez is a Lecturer in International Development at King’s College London, based in the Department of International Development within the School of Global Affairs. She joined the university in 2021 and previously held positions at the London School of Economics (LSE), SOAS, and taught at Peking University. Her research focuses on welfare governance in China, particularly disability rights, HIV/AIDS policies, and migrant workers' welfare, examining state-society relations and NGO roles in welfare provision. Education: PhD in Development Studies (LSE, 2016), MSc in Sociology (National Chengchi University, Taiwan). Research Interests: Chinese politics, social welfare, civil society, migration, labor rights, project management and evaluation. Her work bridges international development theory and China’s unique policy contexts, analyzing how authoritarian governance structures influence welfare service delivery through contracting mechanisms. Collaborations with scholars like Yanchu Qu and Janet A. Howell highlight her engagement in cross-disciplinary research. She has contributed to debates on NGO autonomy, labor rights advocacy, and the convergence/divergence of China’s welfare practices with global models.
James McCann is an Associate Professor at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, where he leads the Carnegie Mellon Textiles Lab. He has been a faculty member since May 2017 after working at Disney Research Pittsburgh. McCann's academic journey includes a PhD from Carnegie Mellon advised by Nancy Pollard, followed by a postdoc at Adobe Research and a period developing video games. McCann's research focuses on building creative tools that operate in real-time and build user intuition, with particular emphasis on textiles fabrication and machine knitting. His work spans computer-aided fabrication, simulation, graphics, and creative tools development. He has pioneered systems for machine knitting design, including compilers for knitting instructions and tools for automatic conversion of 3D meshes to knitting patterns. His recent publications demonstrate a strong trend toward computational textiles, with significant contributions to knitting semantics, deployable textile structures, and applications of machine knitting in healthcare and robotics. McCann's work bridges computer science, robotics, and textile arts, creating practical systems for once-off manufacturing with industrial knitting machines. McCann actively mentors students, with current PhD candidates working on solid knitting machines, knit calibration, and assistive devices. His teaching portfolio includes courses on Real-Time Graphics, Algorithmic Textiles Design, and Game Programming. He has taught at CMU since 2017, developing innovative courses that blend computer science with physical fabrication. As director of the Textiles Lab, McCann oversees research projects spanning machine knitting, robotic painting, and real-time graphics systems. His lab develops practical tools for creators, emphasizing intuitive interfaces and real-time feedback that lower barriers to advanced fabrication techniques.
Gail E. Kaiser is a Professor of Computer Science and the Director of the Programming Systems Laboratory (PSL) in the Computer Science Department at Columbia University. She has been with Columbia University since 1985, becoming a full Professor in 1998. Prof. Kaiser's research spans software engineering, program analysis, software testing, and software security, with recent focus on addressing challenges in AI/ML systems testing and security. Prof. Kaiser received her PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1985 and her ScB in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT in 1979. Her dissertation at CMU was titled "Semantics for Structure Editing Environments" under advisor Nico Habermann, and at MIT she completed "Automatic Extension of an Augmented Transition Network Grammar for Morse Code Conversations" under advisor Al Vezza. Prof. Kaiser's research interests primarily focus on software engineering following a systems building approach, with recent emphasis on static and dynamic program analysis techniques to improve software reliability and security. Since 2005, she has investigated testing "non-testable" programs, particularly in machine learning, data mining, and scientific computing applications where traditional testing oracles are insufficient. She has developed novel techniques and tools for detecting bugs and verifying repairs in complex systems. Concurrently, she has worked on collaboration environments for computational scientists, creating knowledge sharing and domain-aware environments to support scientific workflows. Prof. Kaiser's recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on the intersection of software engineering and artificial intelligence. Her work addresses critical challenges in testing AI systems, code understanding through deep learning, vulnerability detection, and educational tools for computational thinking. There's a clear evolution from traditional software engineering topics toward AI/ML applications, with particular emphasis on metamorphic testing for non-testable systems, code similarity analysis, and educational applications. Prof. Kaiser has received numerous prestigious awards throughout her career: Distinguished Journal Award (10 Years) from 18th IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST), April 2025 Best Research Paper Award at 24th IEEE International Conference on Source Code Analysis & Manipulation (SCAM), October 2024 Distinguished Reviewer Awards for ASE 2024 and FSE 2024 ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award for "CONCORD: Clone-aware Contrastive Learning for Source Code", July 2023 Best Student Paper Award at ICCE 2021 Multiple ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Awards dating back to 2014 Presidential Young Investigator in Software Engineering and Software Systems from NSF (1988-1993) Prof. Kaiser has chaired Columbia's doctoral program since 1997 and served on editorial boards including IEEE Internet Computing and as a founding associate editor of ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology. Her lab has been continuously funded by major agencies including NSF, NIH, DARPA, ONR, NASA, and numerous companies. Current grants include significant NSF funding for secure containers architecture, learning semantics of code for software assurance, and finding semantic security bugs. As Director of the Programming Systems Laboratory (PSL), Prof. Kaiser leads research in software systems, program analysis, and software testing. The lab has developed numerous tools and techniques for software reliability and security, with recent focus on challenges in AI/ML systems. Her work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications, often resulting in deployable tools that address real-world software engineering challenges.
Andrew Head is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the Computer and Information Science department. His research focuses on human-computer interaction, programming, and reading, particularly in developing technology for interactive reading and reasoning. He advises PhD students Alyssa Hwang, Hita Kambhamettu, Litao Yan, Jeffrey Tao, and Jessica Shi, and co-leads the Penn Human-Computer Interaction (Penn HCI) group with Danaé Metaxa. His work is published in top venues like ACM CHI, UIST, and ICSE. Research Interests: Andrew's work bridges interactive systems with programming environments, aiming to enhance how scientists and programmers interact with their tools. Key areas include AI-assisted code understanding, math notation accessibility, and medical note interpretation through interactivity. He employs user studies to identify needs and builds interactive systems to address them. Recent Article Trends: His publications emphasize systems-centric HCI approaches, integrating AI into code and document interfaces. Topics span code explanation (e.g., Ivie), property-based testing (e.g., Tyche), math notation augmentation (e.g., FreeForm), and medical informatics (e.g., Explainable Notes). Recent work also explores notebook environments (e.g., Bolt-on, Tyche) and literate programming (e.g., Colaroid). Scientific Awards: Distinguished Paper Award, ICSE 2024 Best Paper Awards at CHI (2024, 2023, 2022, 2019), UIST (2023, 2018), and others. Nominated for Best Paper at CHI 2023 and VL/HCC 2015. Advising & Grants: Andrew advises multiple PhD students and has secured significant grants, including a $1M NSF award for 'Property-based Testing for the People' (2024). His group collaborates with Penn’s MindCORE center and teams like PLClub and PennNLP. Labs & Teams: He co-leads the Penn HCI group, which works closely with other Penn research teams and labs. The group focuses on creating interactive tools that enhance scientific and programming workflows, supported by grants and cross-institutional partnerships.
Lin Tan is a Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University , holding the Mary J. Elmore New Frontiers Professorship . She joined Purdue in 2019 after serving as a Canada Research Chair and associate professor at the University of Waterloo. She is an ACM Distinguished Member and IEEE Senior Member . Education: PhD in Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign BS in Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University Research Interests: Professor Tan’s research lies at the intersection of software engineering , artificial intelligence , and security . Her work focuses on software-AI synergy , software dependability , defect detection & repair , and software text analytics . She leverages machine learning and natural language processing to enhance software reliability, and conversely uses software techniques to improve the dependability of AI systems. Her recent projects include building binary foundation models (Nova), evaluating large language models for code generation and repair, and developing interactive debugging tools that reduce debugging time by one-third. She also explores robot task planning with LLMs and automated front-end development . Awards & Honors: Best Paper Award Finalist, ICRA 2025 ELATES Fellow, 2024-2025 ACM SIGSAC Distinguished Paper Award, CCS 2024 J.P.Morgan AI Faculty Research Awards (2020, 2021, 2022) ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Awards (ASE 2020, MSR 2018, FSE 2016) Canada Research Chair (2017) Ontario Early Researcher Award (2015) NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplements Award (2015) Google Faculty Research Awards (2010, 2014) IEEE Micro Top Picks (2006) Advising & Funding: Professor Tan currently advises eight PhD students and has graduated 20+ PhD and Master’s students now thriving in academia (York University, Concordia University, University of Alberta) and industry (Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Google). Her group is generously supported by NSF , Meta/Facebook Research Awards , J.P.Morgan AI Faculty Awards , and NSF REU programs. Labs & Teams: She leads the Software Reliability & AI Lab at Purdue, recruiting postdocs, PhD, MS, and undergraduate researchers year-round. Lab interests span binary recovery , LLM-based program repair , testing deep-learning libraries , and data-free model extraction .
Jonathan D. Bray is the Faculty Chair in Earthquake Engineering Excellence and a Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley . He is a globally recognized authority in earthquake and geotechnical engineering, with research spanning seismic performance of earth structures, liquefaction, ground failure, and earthquake fault rupture effects. Education: Bray earned his Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering from UC Berkeley (1990), M.S. in Structural Engineering from Stanford University (1981), and B.S. from the United States Military Academy (1980). Research Interests: His work focuses on earthquake engineering , geotechnical engineering , physical and numerical modeling , and environmental geotechnics . Key areas include seismic site response, liquefaction of soils, seismic slope stability, and post-earthquake reconnaissance. Contributions: Bray has developed widely used procedures for seismic slope displacement and liquefaction-induced building settlement. He created the NSF-sponsored GEER Association to capture post-earthquake data. His work has influenced seismic design codes and practices globally. Awards & Recognition: He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) . His accolades include the Seed Medal , Terzaghi Award , Ishihara Lecture , Peck Award , Joyner Lecture , Prakash Award , Huber Research Prize , Packard Foundation Fellowship , and the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award . Grants & Projects: Bray has led major projects funded by the NSF , California Energy Commission , U.S. Geological Survey , and Caltrans , totaling millions in research funding. Advising & Mentorship: He has supervised over 30 Ph.D. students, significantly shaping the next generation of earthquake engineers.
Aditya Parameswaran is an Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) department at the University of California, Berkeley. He co-directs the EPIC Data Lab and the Police Records Access project, focusing on simplifying data science at scale through human-in-the-loop systems, LLM-powered tools, and scalable data systems. His research spans database systems, human-computer interaction, and machine learning, with notable contributions in tools like Lux, Modin, and DataSpread. Education : PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University (2013) BTech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay (2007) Research Interests : Parameswaran's work centers on empowering end-users with intuitive data tools. Recent projects include LLM-powered systems for document processing (DocETL, TWIX), proactive data systems, and benchmarking frameworks. He emphasizes democratizing data science through low/no-code solutions and improving production ML workflows. Articles Trends : His recent work (2023–2025) prioritizes LLM integration into data systems, focusing on robust pipelines, assertion generation (SPADE), and debugging tools (RAGGY). Earlier contributions include visualization recommendation (Lux), scalable dataframes (Modin), and spreadsheet optimization (DataSpread). Awards : Recipient of the VLDB Early Career Award (2019), Sloan Research Fellowship (2020), NSF CAREER Award (2017), and multiple best paper/demonstration awards at top venues like SIGMOD and VLDB. Advising & Grants : Guides over 20 PhD/postdoc alumni, many now in academia (e.g., Madelon Hulsebos at CWI) and industry leadership roles. Active in securing grants (e.g., NSF, Army Research Office) and industry partnerships (e.g., Snowflake, LangChain). Labs/Teams : Leads the EPIC Data Lab, focusing on agentic data systems, and co-founded Ponder (acquired by Snowflake). Collaborates on the Police Records Access initiative, building transparency tools for public records.
Genesea M. Carter serves as the Associate Director of Composition and Associate Professor in the English and University Composition Program at Colorado State University. She holds a PhD from the University of New Mexico. Her research focuses on administrative systems in higher education, including curriculum design, teacher training, and workload equity, and their impact on instructors’ well-being. She also investigates how students from diverse backgrounds navigate academia, with a focus on working-class pedagogy and identity development. Her recent co-edited collection Systems Shift: Creating and Navigating Change in Rhetoric and Composition Administration (2023) addresses institutional transformation. Earlier work includes Class in the Composition Classroom: Pedagogy and the Working Class (2017), exploring socioeconomic diversity in education. Her articles span topics like digital literacy, interdisciplinary pedagogy, and critical theory in composition studies. Dr. Carter’s scholarship emphasizes equity, intersectionality, and dismantling neoliberal structures in academia. She has contributed to journals such as Composition Studies , Journal of Teaching Writing , and Open Words , and her work bridges practical administration with theoretical frameworks in rhetoric and composition.
Animesh Garg is an Assistant Professor at the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, where he leads the People, AI, and Robotics (PAIR) research group . He holds a Senior Researcher position at Nvidia Research and has courtesy appointments at the University of Toronto and Vector Institute. Previously, he served as Chief Scientific Officer at Apptronik (2024-2025) and Senior Staff Research Scientist at Nvidia Research (2018-2024). Education : Ph.D. in Operations Research from UC Berkeley (2011-2016), MS in Computer Science and Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and University of Delhi. Research Focus : Building Generalizable Autonomy through Reinforcement Learning , Control Theory , and 3D Vision , with applications in Surgical Robotics , Self-Driving Labs , and Manufacturing . Key Article Themes : His recent work emphasizes Foundation Models for robotics, Differentiable Simulation , Language-Guided Autonomy , and Structured Inductive Biases in sequential decision-making. Scientific Awards : Stephen Fleming Early Career Professorship at Georgia Tech. Teaching : Courses on AI, Deep Reinforcement Learning, and Algorithmic Intelligence in Robotics at Georgia Tech. Labs & Collaborations : Affiliated with Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM) and ML@GT at Georgia Tech; collaborates intensively with Nvidia Robotics.
Tony Mickelsson Blomqvist is a Lecturer at the Department of Police Work , Södertörn University. He holds a PhD in Social Work (2023) and serves as a research coordinator for the Institute for Policing. Additionally, he is the coordinator of the European Policing Research and Education Network (EPREN) and will become associate editor of the Nordic Journal of Studies in Policing in 2025. PhD in Social Work (2023) Lecturer in Policing Research coordinator and network leader His research focuses on police collaboration with civil society and social services , local crime prevention , and organized crime dynamics , with a unique interest in the intersection between internal security and hybrid warfare . He also explores the role of sports clubs in social inclusion and community development. Tony leads an EU-funded project on Strategic Enforcement for Undermining Criminal Networks (2024–2027) and contributes to initiatives like ‘Martial Arts as a Crime Prevention Tool’ (2024–2026). His recent publications analyze Ukrainian refugee experiences, martial arts’ socialization effects, and sports clubs’ role in vulnerable areas. He has no listed scientific awards but holds editorial and coordination roles in policing research.
Leo J. Garofalo is the Virginia Eason Weinmann '51 Professor of History at Connecticut College, where he joined in 2002. He coordinates the Social Justice and Sustainability Pathway and co-directs the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program. His scholarship focuses on colonial Latin America with emphasis on racial dynamics and cultural exchange. Education: B.A. in History and Hispanic Studies from Brown University M.A. from Boston College Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin at Madison Research Focus: Garofalo investigates the intersection of African and Indigenous cultures in colonial Peru, examining how marketplaces, taverns, and religious practices shaped Afro-Andean identities. His current work traces West African diaspora routes to the Andes and analyzes Afro-Iberian influences on witchcraft traditions. He utilizes Inquisition records and Spanish imperial archives to reconstruct transatlantic cultural networks. Awards: Virginia Eason Weinmann '51 Professorship (endowed chair) Social Science Research Council Grant Fulbright-Hays Research Grant Academic Leadership: Garofalo has organized campus events featuring Afro-Peruvian performers (Negrura Peruana) and activists like former Colombian Governor Luis Murillo. In 2010, he co-led a Study Away Teach Away program in Oaxaca, Mexico, examining immigration and indigenous rights movements.
Dr. Jurgen Becque is an Associate Professor in Structural Engineering at the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering. He specializes in cold-formed steel structures, stainless steel structural behavior, and stability analysis, with a focus on local-overall buckling interaction and innovative design methodologies. His work bridges experimental investigations with computational modeling and machine learning applications. Research Interests: Cold-formed steel structural systems Stainless steel column stability Local and overall buckling interaction Mechanics-based design optimization Machine learning for structural behavior prediction Recent publications demonstrate expertise in cross-sectional stability, connection mechanics, and composite systems like UHPC-confined stainless steel columns. His work addresses both monotonic and cyclic loading scenarios, contributing to Eurocode 3 design standards.
Zhuoyue Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His office is located at 338I Davis Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, and he can be reached at zzhao35@buffalo.edu or by phone at (716) 645-4735. Dr. Zhao received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Utah in 2021, where he was advised by Prof. Feifei Li and Prof. Jeff Phillips. Prior to that, he earned his BS in Computer Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2016, where he was part of the prestigious ACM Class. During his undergraduate studies, he conducted research under Prof. Kenny Zhu and spent Fall 2015 as a research assistant at Hong Kong Polytechnic University supervised by Prof. Eric Lo. Dr. Zhao's research focuses on database management systems, with specific emphasis on traditional and approximate query processing, query optimization, database systems on modern hardware, transaction processing, indexing, and storage. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical implementations, often resulting in systems that address real-world database challenges. He has made significant contributions to probabilistic query processing, transaction scheduling, and learned indexing techniques. His recent publications demonstrate a clear trajectory toward optimizing database performance in hybrid transactional/analytical processing environments. His research increasingly integrates systems techniques with machine learning approaches, particularly in the area of learned indexes. There's also a strong focus on making database operations more efficient through innovative scheduling mechanisms and query processing techniques that can handle concurrent updates. Google PhD Fellowship (2019-2021) Best Paper Award at SIGMOD 2016 for "Wander Join: Online Aggregation via Random Walks" Best Paper Award at SIGMOD 2025 for "Low-Latency Transaction Scheduling via Userspace Interrupts" Dr. Zhao currently advises several PhD students including Yunnan Yu, Congying Wang, Gaoxiang Liu (co-advised with Prof. Ziming Zhao), and Zhuoran Li. He has successfully guided MS student Nithin Sastry Tellapuri to graduation (Fall 2023), who is now employed at AirPay. His research is supported by significant funding including an NSF CAREER award (#2339596) totaling $599,977 for research on "Speedy and Reliable Approximate Queries in Hybrid Transactional/Analytical Systems" (2024-2029) and an unrestricted Google gift of $30,000 (2021). Dr. Zhao leads the ADBLab research group at UB, where students work on cutting-edge database systems research. His lab focuses on building practical database systems that address real-world challenges in query processing, transaction management, and indexing. The lab maintains strong connections with industry partners and regularly contributes to open-source database projects.
