Speakers/Professionals

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Hi! My name is Lodewijk "Lou" Brand and I have spent the past four years working in the MInDS@Mines Lab directed by Dr. Hua Wang. My research is centered on the development of scalable machine learning algorithms applied to problems in bioinformatics with a focus on problems involving multi-modal and multi-instance data. I have applied my research to identify which genetic variants and regions of the brain contribute to a future diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. When I'm not in the lab, I spend the majority of my time rock-climbing outside.

Hello there! I'm Professor Daniel Pittman, an Associate Professor of the Practice in Software Development and Architecture in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Denver (DU). I worked in the software industry for 13 years, most recently as a principal software architect at Comcast, and have just recently started a full-time position at DU. Since joining DU, I have taught Web Programming I, Web Programming II, Web Programming III (Web Projects), NoSQL Databases, Computer Forensics, and Machine Learning. 

I received my PhD in Computer Science from DU in 2012. The focus of my research was modeling player movement within MMORPGs and creating cheat-proof gameplay algorithms in peer-to-peer multiplayer games. I've been teaching at DU since the summer quarter of 2017. 

I am very excited to have been given this opportunity. I am looking forward to working with you all!

Hi! My name is Grace, and I'm from Austin, Texas. I first was introduced to Computer Science in high school through Girls Who Code, and I'm now studying CS as a junior at Colorado School of Mines. I work as a mentor and lead TA for our Intro to Computer Science course to support students new to college. I'm also an instructor for DECtech, which is a camp at Mines for K-12 girls interested in STEM! I love CS because it allows me to be very creative and think in different ways.

Dr. Tom Williams is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Colorado School of Mines, where he directs the Mines Interactive Robotics Research Lab. Prior to joining Mines, Tom earned a joint PhD in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from Tufts University in 2017. Tom’s research focuses on enabling and understanding natural language based human-robot interaction that is sensitive to environmental, cognitive, social, and moral context. His work is funded by grants from NSF, ARL, and USAFA, as well as by Early Career awards from both NASA and the US Air Force.

Dr. Sayanti Roy is Postdoctoral Fellow in MIRROR lab of Colorado School of Mines under Dr. Thomas Williams and also working with Ames Research Centre NASA. She received her PhD in Computer Science from  Oklahoma State University under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Crick and her bachelors degree (B.tech) from West Bengal University of Technology , India in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Her primary area of research interest include Human Robot interaction and Reinforcement Learning. She is a member of multiple organizations including SGAC (Space Generation Advisory Council in support of the United Nations Programme) and is highly involved in space oriented research.