I graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst in May 2006 with a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science. I have been very fortunate to have some very interesting research opportunities in several areas of computing:
- (Fall+Spring 2006) I worked on my undergraduate thesis at the LASER laboratory (The Laboratory for Advanced Software Engineering Research). My work concentrated on the use of Little-JIL, an agent coordination language, to continue modeling of a real-world medical process, Adult Outpatient Chemotherapy. My efforts were focused on identifying agents, resources, artifacts and the process they flow through. To achieve this, I met regularly with medical staff at a local hospital to expand the ever-changing process definition. Following these meetings, their accounts were converted into precise process definitions modeled using Little-JIL.
The overall goal of the project was to enhance the safety and efficiency of complex medical processes by applying new methods developed in software engineering. In my thesis I described the process and the methodology I used to elicit it, along with findings indicating that defining and evaluating the process helped in identifying weaknesses in it, thus leading to an improved medical process and greater patient safety.
Medical Process Modeling: a Case Study Modeling Adult Outpatient Chemotherapy Using Little-JIL
- (Spring 2005) I spent a semester working for the RIPPLES laboratory (Research in Presentation Production for Learning Electronically) on JManic, an existing java based application that incorporates streaming audio/video of the instructor’s lecture in combination with the presentation slides / whiteboard writing. I extended the functionality of the application by adding a collaborative note-taking service that allowed discussion among the students.
B. Wallace, W.R. Adrion, P. Dickson, W. Cooper, I. Ros and K. Watts,2006: ‘Evolution of a cross-platform, multimedia courseware presentation system’, submitted to: ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, June 2006
- (Fall 2005) I spent a semester working on an independent study with a small group of other students for the CASA laboratory (Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere). The focus of the independent study was on using the 802.11 standard in non-traditional ways — for long-distance point-to-point communication. The primary goal of the class was to measure link throughput over long distances using 802.11 together with directional antennas. Another important goal was to archive the process of setting up both the necessary hardware and software components, so that experiments could be replicated.
B. Wallace, W. Burlson, B. Donovan, J. Kurose, I. Ros, and M. Zink, 2006:‘Integrating CASA ERC Wireless Networking into Education’, 9th International Conference on Engineering Education, San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 2006