Associate Professor, CS Dept. Chair

Professor Hunsberger’s research focus is on collaborative multi-agent systems. In particular, he is interested in endowing computer agents with intentions, as well as an ability to reason about temporal constraints, especially in group situations. Luke teaches CMPU-101 (Introduction to Computer Science), CMPU-145 (Foundations of Computer Science), CMPU-245 (Declarative Programming) and CMPU-365 (Artificial Intelligence). Luke's web site contains more information re: his research interests, publications and courses.

Associate Professor

Professor Ellman has done research in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Problem Reformulation, Computer Aided Design and Automated Software Engineering. His research is currently focused on methodologies and software tools for designing computer games. Tom teaches introductory and intermediate Computer Science courses (CMPU-101, CMPU-102 and CMPU-203) as well as upper-level courses in Graphics (CMPU-378), Animation (CMPU-379) and Game Design (CMPU-389). Tom’s personal web site is located here.

Professor of Computer Science

Professor Ide earned her B.A, B.S., M.A., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from The Pennsylvania State University, where she studied in several areas including neuroscience, linguistics, and computer science. Professor Ide is an active researcher in the field of computational linguistics, and has received several grants to support her research from the National Science Foundation, the European Commission, and others. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of the journal Language Resources and Evaluation and co-editor of a book series Text, Speech, and Language Technology for Springer Publishers.

Associate Professor

Professor Smith earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Central Florida. He worked for AT&T for fifteen years, in several different IT capacities, during which time his Ph.D. studies were sponsored by AT&T’s Doctoral Support Program. His research spans elements of theoretical and experimental computer science, in the area of parallel and distributed computation. His interests include models of concurrency, bioinformatics (specifically, computational phylogeny), and programming languages (semantics, paradigms, and unifying theories).

Associate Professor

Professor Walter’s research concentrates on the development and simulation of distributed algorithms. Her particular focus currently involves adapting existing distributed algorithms for use on wireless ad hoc networks and creating new motion planning algorithms for self-reconfigurable robotic systems. Jenny teaches introductory computer science (CMPU-101 and 102), analysis of algorithms (CMPU-241), formal language theory (CMPU-240), computational complexity, computational geometry, and distributed algorithms. Jenny's website contains a list of her publications.

Adjunct Professor

With Bachelors and Masters degrees in Computer Science, Alan has spent the past 20 years as a teacher and independent technology consultant. In addition to his academic pursuits, Alan has practical expertise in a wide variety of industries, with clients from Publishing (Scholastic, Simon & Schuster), Education (New York Institute of Finance, NYU), Risk Management (PriceWaterhouse Coopers, A&A), Showbiz (Dick Clark Corporate Productions, Ray Bloch Productions) and many others. In the public sector he’s consulted for the New York State Office of Mental Health and the Westchester County Department of Child Welfare.

Alan continues to consult on large- and small-scale projects in the areas of Database Systems, Browser-based Applications, Mobile Solutions, and Software Development. Learn more about Alan at his web site.

Departmental Administrative Assistant. Linda originally started work for Vassar in 2006 for the department of Chinese & Japanese, and is now enjoying work with the CS faculty and students.

She has spent the many years since graduating from Swarthmore College on a variety of adventures, some paid but many not. Highlights include providing pastoral care for people with terminal illnesses, for seriously ill patients at Westchester Medical Center as well as in local hospitals and nursing homes, and for search and rescue workers at Ground Zero on a weekly basis for 8 months following 9/11. As non-medical personnel she has suited up to enter an operating room, held tiny premature newborns, ridden with patients in the working area of ambulances, and appreciated high-speed driving skills from the back seat of a cruiser as a police officer rocketed through congested NYC traffic. At times Linda’s adventures have had the makings of a fast-paced book, but thus far she has preferred to edit the work of others.

Systems Administrator

Ben Stoutenburgh earned his B.S. in Computer Science from Marist College. He started his server administration career there as a freshman and moved up to full time work totaling eight years of experience. He has since worked briefly in the private sector and is now back to academia. He fuels his interests in linux and open source technologies by aiding in organizing meetings for the Mid Hudson Valley Linux and Open Source Users Group and the Hudson Valley Drupal Users Group. Ben’s ramblings can be read on his blog at parazoid.net or follow him on twitter, @maristgeek.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Professor Jones earned his BS in Electrical Engineering at Cooper Union, MS in Computer Science at Marist College, and is currently completing his doctorate in Computer Science at Pace University. He was an Industry Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science for 18 years at the Polytechnic University Graduate Center, Westchesterr, NY. During that period he was also an Engineering and Computer Science Consultant to a number of organizations. He spent the following 3 years at The Sage College of Albany as an Associate Professor of Computer Science, with 2 years as department chair. His research is in computational music composition systems. His interests include digital hardware design and issues in multicore and distributed operating systems.

Louis Voerman, Visiting Associate Professor. Retired Spring 2009. We wish Lou all the best in his retirement after 26 years of wonderful service to Vassar and the Computer Science Department.

Greg Priest-Dorman, Systems Administrator and Lab Coordinator March 1992 - July 2011. Greg came to Vassar as a student in 1978 and began working in the Computer Science Department that Fall. He returned to the department in 1992 as a part time Faculty Research Associate and became our full time Sys Admin shortly there after. We wish Greg all the best in his new position at Google!

We wish Elle the best in her retirement as the departmental administrative assistant with thanks for 30 wonderful years!