Faculty

Bio

Background

I received a bachelor's degree in 1996 in electrical engineering and a master's degree in biological engineering in 2005 from Cornell University. From 1996 to 1999 I worked as a software developer at Actel Corporation and Cadence Design Systems. From 2000-2005 I worked as a firmware engineer at Harris Corporation. I studied law at the University at Buffalo from 2005-2008, during which I interned at Erie County Medical Center, SmartPill Corporation, and Xerox Corporation. After receiving a JD in 2008, I worked as an Intellectual Property attorney at Phillips Lytle, LLP until 2013. In 2013 I commenced PhD studies at University of Rochester in Computer Science.

Research Statement

My research aims to leverage techniques from artificial intelligence and computational modeling in order to understand and improve human behaviors. More specifically, I model and capture the dynamics of human interactions using machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. My projects have included:

• an investigation of communication between physicians and patients in advanced cancer and applying computational modeling to identify effective communication techniques,
• the development of a system for automated assessment of Parkinson's Disease symptoms using an web application with a webcam using automated facial expression analysis,
• the development of algorithms to automatically evaluate of speaker trustworthiness in online video chat, and
• a study of competitive debate speech and the identification of effective patterns of combined facial expression, language usage, and speech dynamics.