Jon Munson

Jon Munson serves as a Professor of Computer Science at Manhattanville University, a position he has held since 2013. Prior to his academic career, he spent fifteen years as a Research Staff Member at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center, where he contributed to projects in collaboration systems, digital rights management, location-based services, telematics, and cloud computing. His industry experience also includes a role as an Applications Engineer at Applied Dynamics International, working on simulation of physical systems such as aircraft engines. At Manhattanville, he teaches foundational courses including Computer Programming I and II, Data Structures and Algorithms, Database Systems, and Interactive Media - System Design.

Education:

• Bachelor of Arts in Religion/Ancient Civilization from Hope College
• Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan
• Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Research Interests: Dr. Munson's research trajectory spans from mechanical engineering simulations to diverse areas of computer science. His early work at IBM focused on practical systems for telematics, location-based services, and ubiquitous computing. In his academic role, he has increasingly concentrated on computer science education, investigating challenges faced by novice programmers. His recent publications address the timely assessment of programming skills, the interpretation of compiler error messages by beginners, and the development of models to identify struggling students early in their learning process. He also expresses a strong interest in integrating computational thinking with the liberal arts.

Publication Trends: An analysis of Dr. Munson's publications reveals two distinct phases. From 2002 to 2007, his research centered on mobile and ubiquitous computing, producing work on location-based notification, in-vehicle user interfaces, and rule-based telematics services. More recently (2015-2018), his focus has shifted to computing education, with multiple papers presented at the SIGCSE conference and published in the Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, addressing pedagogical challenges in introductory programming.

Advising and Grants: The available information does not specify any graduate students advised by Dr. Munson or details of research grants he may have secured.