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Tim McCann is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Directing Department in the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). With over two decades of experience in higher education since 2001, he bridges academic instruction with active professional filmmaking, leveraging industry insights to shape the next generation of filmmakers through hands-on pedagogy and real-world application. McCann earned his BFA in Film from the State University of New York at Purchase, establishing the foundation for his dual career in creative practice and education. His academic journey informs his commitment to experiential learning, where technical mastery intersects with artistic vision. His creative research centers on independent filmmaking with a focus on psychological drama and crime thrillers, exploring the human condition through character-driven narratives. McCann emphasizes that creatively fulfilling work is essential for sustaining the tenacity required in the entertainment industry, stating: "I stress that in order to compete, the work itself must be creatively and personally fulfilling so that it can sustain the drive and tenacity that are so crucial for success. It's rare to ever be entirely satisfied - but if you can love the process, you're half way there." His approach integrates Cassavetes-inspired dynamism with experimental techniques to dissect moral ambiguity and psychological complexity. McCann's filmography demonstrates a consistent evolution in thematic depth and technical mastery, with recurring explorations of fractured psyches, societal pressures, and redemption arcs. His works often employ low-budget strategies to achieve high artistic impact, utilizing improvisation, non-actors, and atmospheric cinematography to elevate genre conventions into profound character studies that resonate with critics and audiences alike. Scientific Awards International Critic’s Prize (FIPRESCI Award) – Toronto International Film Festival Merchant Ivory Award – Telluride Film Festival Critic’s Choice Award - Rotterdam International Film Festival Media Award – American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) Finalist, Independent Feature Project – SPIRIT Awards Winner – Grand Jury Award – Nantucket Film Festival Winner – Special Jury Award – Mar Del Plata Film Festival Best Feature Film – Austin Film Festival As an educator, McCann has mentored countless students through his teaching at UNCSA and guest lectureships at Cornell University, Ithaca College, The New School, Boston University, and Montclair State University. His professional experience as a working filmmaker provides students with invaluable industry insights, practical skills, and networking opportunities. Though specific grant details are not publicly documented, his sustained creative output across two decades suggests successful acquisition of production funding and institutional support for independent film initiatives. McCann collaborates with diverse talent across the film industry, having directed acclaimed actors such as Robin Tunney, Sam Trammell, Udo Kier, Dylan Baker, Spalding Gray, Adrienne Shelly, Yaphet Kotto, Melissa Leo, and Johnathon Schaech. He maintains active creative teams for his productions while balancing academic responsibilities, splitting his time between New York and North Carolina to remain embedded in both the educational and professional filmmaking ecosystems.

• Independent Filmmaking
• Directing
• Psychological Drama
• +3 more

Dr. Damon Dennis serves as an Assistant Professor and Clinical Educator at the Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC) Chiropractic Health Center, where he integrates clinical practice with academic instruction in chiropractic care. His educational qualifications include: B.S. from Park University D.C. from Cleveland Chiropractic College Dr. Dennis specializes in sports chiropractic with a focus on young athletes, drawing from nearly three decades of service as team doctor for the Louisburg High School Athletic Department (1992-2020). He identifies this high school athletic work as one of the most professionally satisfying aspects of his chiropractic career. No scientific awards are documented in the provided materials. His clinical mentorship involves hands-on training at the Chiropractic Health Center, though specific graduate student advisement or research grant details are not mentioned. Dr. Dennis maintains active involvement with high school athletic programs, having provided chiropractic care to student-athletes through his long-term role with the Louisburg High School Athletic Department prior to his current academic position.

• Sports Chiropractic
• Athletic Care
• Chiropractic

Corinne LUCET-VASSEUR is a University Professor at Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV), leading Research Unit UR 4290 (OCIA - Optimisation Combinatoire, Images et Applications). Her office (Room 302, Tel: 5900) serves as the hub for her research group focused on combinatorial optimization and artificial intelligence applications. Her research spans: Combinatorial Optimization : Developing metaheuristics for NP-hard problems Healthcare Logistics : Patient flow optimization, facility location, simulation training Logistics Engineering : Parcel distribution, vehicle routing with time windows Algorithm Design : Ant Colony Optimization, Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search, portfolio methods She applies these methodologies to solve complex real-world problems, particularly in healthcare systems where resource constraints and scheduling complexity demand innovative optimization approaches. Her work bridges theoretical advances with practical implementation through industrial partnerships. Current research projects include: SMILE PICK UP (CIFRE industrial partnership) Simusanté (healthcare simulation) LORH (logistics optimization) These projects secure ongoing funding and provide doctoral training opportunities through industry collaboration. Her publication record demonstrates consistent methodological innovation applied to healthcare and logistics challenges across multiple European conferences and journals. Professor Lucet-Vasseur actively mentors junior researchers through co-authorship on conference papers and journal articles. Her supervision style emphasizes practical problem-solving with industry relevance, preparing students for both academic and industrial careers in optimization. The OCIA research unit provides a collaborative environment for tackling complex combinatorial problems with real-world impact. The OCIA laboratory serves as UPJV's center for combinatorial optimization research, specializing in metaheuristic development for healthcare and logistics applications. The lab maintains strong industry connections through CIFRE contracts and applied projects, ensuring research relevance while providing students with exposure to real business challenges. Current focus areas include adaptive algorithm selection using reinforcement learning and fitness landscape analysis for optimization problems.

• Combinatorial Optimization
• Operations Research
• Artificial Intelligence
• +3 more

Rui SA SHIBASAKI is a Lecturer at the University of Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV), France, affiliated with research unit UR 4290. Her work bridges optimization theory and industrial applications, with a growing focus on sustainable manufacturing and robust decision-making under uncertainty. She maintains active collaborations across France, Brazil, and the USA. Her research spans optimization , artificial intelligence , and operations research , specializing in constraint programming applications for assembly line balancing, network design, and energy efficiency. Recent work innovates by applying MaxSAT solvers to combinatorial problems and developing robustness metrics for production systems. Analysis of her 13 publications (2020-2025) reveals three dominant trends: (1) Energy-aware manufacturing optimization (40% of recent work), (2) Advanced decomposition techniques for network problems (30%), and (3) Diversified solution approaches for satisfiability (20%). Her research increasingly addresses sustainability through energy peak minimization in production systems. Dr. Shibasaki actively supervises graduate students and collaborates internationally with researchers from Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), CNRS (France), and IBM Research (USA). Her work is supported by competitive grants enabling participation in major conferences like ROADEF and IEEE ICTAI. As part of UPJV's UR 4290 research unit, she contributes to optimization and cryptography initiatives. While no formal lab name is specified, her work centers on developing practical AI-driven optimization tools for industrial challenges, particularly in manufacturing and logistics.

• Optimization
• Artificial Intelligence
• Constraint Programming
• +4 more

Gustaf Arrhenius is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Stockholm University, Sweden, specializing in foundational questions of population ethics, future generations, climate change, and democratic theory. His research addresses how moral theories evaluate populations with varying size, identity, and well-being—most famously exposing the Repugnant Conclusion paradox where maximizing population size could override quality-of-life considerations. Arrhenius's work centers on Population Axiology, investigating whether creating additional lives with positive welfare inherently improves the world. He has pioneered formal impossibility theorems demonstrating that no population ethics theory satisfies all intuitively plausible conditions. His research extends to democratic theory through reconstructions of the All Subjected Principle for voting rights and climate ethics via analyses of intergenerational compensation in energy policy. This theoretical rigor connects to urgent real-world issues like sustainable development and long-term policy planning. Recent publications (2022-2024) reveal intensified focus on resolving population paradoxes through non-transitive frameworks and incommensurability concepts, while his democratic theory work examines enfranchisement principles for marginalized groups. The 2022 Oxford Handbook he co-edited represents a field-defining synthesis, with ongoing projects addressing risk assessment in population ethics and egalitarianism's relational dimensions. As a supervisor, Arrhenius mentors graduate students in analytical philosophy with emphasis on formal methods. His international collaborations—particularly with Stefánsson and Goodin—demonstrate strong cross-institutional networks. While operating without a traditional laboratory, his conceptual work influences policy debates through philosophical precision applied to intergenerational justice and democratic inclusion.

• Population Ethics
• Future Generations
• Democracy
• +5 more

Olivier Serre is a CNRS Research Director working at the Institute for Research in Fundamental Computer Science (IRIF), a joint research unit of CNRS and University of Paris. Since September 2021, he serves as Deputy Scientific Director at the Institute for Information Sciences and Technologies (INS2I) at CNRS. His research focuses on theoretical computer science with particular emphasis on automata theory and formal verification frameworks. Dr. Serre completed his education at ENS Cachan (1999-2003) and earned his PhD in Computer Science from Paris-Diderot University (now University of Paris) in 2004. Following a postdoctoral position at RWTH Aachen, he joined LIAFA (now IRIF) as a research fellow in 2005 and became a CNRS Research Director in 2016. His academic journey reflects deep engagement with foundational theoretical problems and their practical verification applications. His research centers on automata theory and formal languages, with particular expertise in games and logic, infinite structures, and verification of higher-order functional programs. Dr. Serre has made significant contributions to collapsible pushdown systems, recursion schemes, and parity games, bridging theoretical foundations with practical applications in program verification. His work demonstrates exceptional depth in developing decision procedures for complex verification problems previously considered intractable. Dr. Serre's extensive publication record in premier theoretical venues shows consistent contribution to advancing the state of the art. His research trajectory reveals a clear evolution from foundational automata theory toward increasingly sophisticated systems involving higher-order computation and imperfect information, with notable breakthroughs in establishing decidability results for complex verification problems.

• theoretical computer science
• automata theory
• formal languages
• +7 more

Aaron Burgess is an Assistant Professor of Music Education in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Ithaca College. He teaches instrumental music education courses, supervises student teachers, and conducts ensembles including the Ithaca College Symphonic Band and Trombone Troupe. Additionally, he serves as music director of the Ithaca Community Orchestra and resident conductor of the Ithaca New Music Collective. His educational background includes: Master of Music in Wind Conducting from Ithaca College (2018) Bachelor of Arts in Music and Bachelor of Science in Music Education from the University of Connecticut (2007) Professor Burgess specializes in conducting techniques, wind band pedagogy, and brass instruction. His professional work emphasizes non-verbal communication in ensemble leadership and music-forward rehearsal planning, as demonstrated in presentations like "Teaching Through Gesture" and "Satisfying and Effective Rehearsal Planning." He has commissioned new works for winds and percussion while collaborating with artists including Vienna Philharmonic trombonist Peter Steiner and composers Dana Wilson and Eric Ewazen. As supervisor of junior and senior student teachers, he mentors future music educators through Ithaca College's teacher preparation program. His conducting roles provide practical training for students in the Trombone Troupe and Symphonic Band, with recent performances documented in multiple video recordings from 2021-2023. Professor Burgess actively leads the Ithaca College Trombone Troupe, Symphonic Band, Ithaca Community Orchestra, and Ithaca New Music Collective. His upcoming engagements include the Orange County and Oswego All-County Honor Bands in 2025-2026, reflecting his ongoing commitment to community music education.

• Conducting
• Wind Bands
• Instrumental Music Education
• +1 more

Đorđe Žikelić is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the School of Computing and Information Systems at Singapore Management University (SMU) in Singapore. He completed his PhD in 2023 at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) under Krishnendu Chatterjee and Petr Novotný, receiving both Outstanding PhD Thesis and Outstanding Scientific Achievement awards. Prior to his doctorate, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from the University of Cambridge. His educational background includes: PhD in Computer Science, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), 2023 Bachelor's and Master's in Mathematics, University of Cambridge Dr. Žikelić's research focuses on advancing formal methods to ensure software and AI systems are correct, safe, and trustworthy. His work bridges theoretical aspects of formal reasoning about probabilistic systems with practical automated verification methods. His primary research interests span three interconnected areas: Program Analysis and Verification: He develops techniques for analyzing probabilistic programs, numerical programs, and efficient quantifier elimination methods, addressing fundamental challenges in verifying complex software systems. Trustworthy AI and Safe Autonomy: He creates formal verification frameworks for learning-enabled control systems and neural networks, ensuring AI operates safely in uncertain environments through methods like runtime monitoring and certificate repair. Probabilistic System Verification: He explores broader applications including bidding games on graphs and blockchain protocol analysis, extending formal methods to novel domains beyond traditional finite-state verification. His publication trajectory shows a consistent progression from theoretical foundations to practical applications, with recent work increasingly focused on integrating formal verification with machine learning. His 2024-2025 publications demonstrate growing expertise in verifying learning-based systems and developing practical tools like PolyQEnt for quantified entailment solving. His scientific achievements have been recognized with: Outstanding PhD Thesis Award at ISTA Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award at ISTA Distinguished Paper Award at FM 2024 Dr. Žikelić serves on program committees for major conferences including TACAS, PLDI, AAAI, and CAV. He actively mentors through the Programming Languages Mentoring Workshop (PLMW) at PLDI 2025. His research group at SMU focuses on developing novel algorithms for verifying correctness of programs and AI systems, with current projects spanning formal methods, artificial intelligence, and programming languages.

• Formal Methods
• Program Analysis and Verification
• Trustworthy AI
• +5 more

Dr. Fabian Schönfeld is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Neural Computation (INI), which is part of the Faculty of Computer Science at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. He works in the Theory of Neural Systems group, focusing on computational modeling of the hippocampus using Slow Feature Analysis and other machine learning techniques. His educational background includes: Diploma in Computer Science from FAU Erlangen (2004-2009) PhD in Neuroscience from the International Graduate School of Neuroscience (2010-2016) Dr. Schönfeld's research primarily focuses on theoretical neuroscience, particularly on modeling the hippocampus and spatial cognition. His work combines computational approaches with neuroscience to understand how the brain processes spatial information. He has extensively used Slow Feature Analysis to model place cell behavior in the rat hippocampus, arguing for its feasibility as a fundamental principle of cognitive data processing. His research interests also extend to deep learning, artificial intelligence, and the intersection of these fields with neuroscience. His publications demonstrate a consistent focus on hippocampal function and spatial representation, with an increasing sophistication in modeling approaches over time. The research shows how computational models can help understand neural mechanisms of spatial representation, navigation, and memory formation, with applications in both neuroscience and artificial intelligence. Dr. Schönfeld has supervised several bachelor's theses on topics related to robot navigation using Slow Feature Analysis and has taught courses on Scientific Computing with Python. His academic service includes: Supervising bachelor's theses (2012-2013) Teaching Scientific Computing with Python (2015-2017) Tutoring high school students in mathematics and physics (2007-2010)

• Theoretical neuroscience
• Computational neuroscience
• Machine learning
• +5 more

Panagiotis (Pete) Manolios is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science within Northeastern University's College of Engineering in Boston. He leads the Northeastern University Formal Methods (NUFM) research group and maintains an active research program with multiple current PhD students. His primary affiliation is with the College of Computer Science (CCS) at Northeastern University, where he holds a tenured faculty position. Manolios' research focuses on formal methods with particular emphasis on program verification, theorem proving, and safety analysis of systems. His work spans several key areas including floating-point program analysis, resource-aware program verification, protocol verification, and safety-critical systems. He has developed significant tools and methodologies such as ACL2s (a powerful theorem prover) and pioneered approaches for analyzing numeric stability in compiler optimizations. His recent publications demonstrate substantial activity in formal verification, with particular focus on numeric stability analysis, invariant discovery through gamification, and model-based safety analysis of complex system architectures. These works reflect a consistent research trajectory toward making formal verification more practical and applicable to real-world systems, especially those with safety-critical requirements. Manolios has received recognition through multiple NSF grants including the SaTC: CORE: Medium collaborative project on bridging the gap between protocol design and implementation. His work on confidentiality and integrity of deep neural networks represents cutting-edge research at the intersection of formal methods and AI security. He has successfully mentored numerous PhD students who have gone on to positions at major technology companies including Google, Facebook, Intel, and MathWorks. His students' dissertations cover diverse topics within formal methods, from rank-polymorphic programming languages to resource-aware program analysis. Manolios directs several significant research projects including ACL2s (a powerful theorem prover), CID: Confidentiality and Integrity of Deep Neural Networks, Compilation-Dependent Security Properties of Software, and Platform Dependencies of Floating-Point Programs. These projects address fundamental challenges in making formal verification more practical and applicable to real-world systems.

• Formal Methods
• Program Verification
• Theorem Proving
• +5 more

Jens Helby Petersen serves as a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, based at Blegdamsvej 3, 2200 Copenhagen N. His institutional affiliation includes Copenhagen University Hospital (Region H), with research centered on rare hematological disorders and genetic epidemiology using large-scale Danish population cohorts. His primary research investigates thalassemia, hereditary stomatocytosis, methemoglobinemia, erythrocyte membranopathies, and hemochromatosis. He employs population genetics and cohort studies to analyze prevalence, genetic mechanisms, and clinical outcomes of blood disorders, with recent work incorporating machine learning applications for disease classification and clinical trial frameworks for rare anemias. Analysis of his 2023-2025 publications reveals evolving focus from genetic case studies toward interventional trial design, particularly the SATISFY framework for erythrocyte membranopathies. His work consistently leverages Denmark's national health registries and genetic databases to explore iron metabolism disorders and their systemic complications. Dr. Petersen has received research funding, advisory board compensation, and conference travel support from Sanofi, along with advisory payments from Disc Medicine. His collaborative network spans international hematology researchers, evidenced by co-authorship on multi-center studies involving institutions like EuroBloodNet and Rigshospitalet.

• Hematology
• Genetics
• Rare Blood Disorders
• +3 more

Bruce Herring serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Software Engineering within the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Education: BS, Florida State University MS, Florida State University His expertise centers on practical software engineering with emphasis on hardware-software integration and distributed systems. Courses he teaches demand deep understanding of physical computing components to satisfy critical non-functional requirements like performance and security. His instructional approach bridges theoretical concepts with hands-on development of systems interfacing with hardware and networks. Currently teaching SWEN-340 (Software Design for Computing Systems), SWEN-342 (Engineering of Concurrent and Distributed Software Systems), and SWEN-562 (Software Engineering Project II), he guides students through synchronization patterns, distributed state management, and full software development lifecycles. His capstone project course requires students to deliver production-grade increments while presenting to both technical and client audiences. Professional Activities: Leads senior capstone projects emphasizing portfolio development and technical communication Focuses on hardware-aware software design principles in curriculum development

• Software Engineering
• Concurrent and Distributed Systems
• Hardware-Software Integration
• +3 more