Learning Analytics Workshop - Participants
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Microsoft Participants
Alicia Boaz, Microsoft
Alicia has worked at Microsoft for over 3 years – her current role is a Senior Business Strategy Analyst within the Learning Experiences team that offers modern learning experiences for IT professionals, Developers, and Students to gain technology skills. Her passion is around using data insights to help inform and guide business strategy. She comes with a business, training, and human resources background in technology and engineering and holds an MBA from University of Washington in Seattle.
Asif Makhani, Senior Director, LinkedIn
Asif heads the Learning Solutions engineering organization at LinkedIn, leading the lynda.com organization that was acquired by LinkedIn in 2015, as well as the recently released LinkedIn Learning product. Prior to that, he was a founding member for A9.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com and was the General Manager for Amazon CloudSearch.
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Björn Rettig, Microsoft
Björn is the Senior Director for Technical Content in the Learning Experiences team at Microsoft, a husband, a father of two STEM girls, and proud geek.
After 23 years at Microsoft in different engineering roles Björn got exposed to MOOCs through an intern in his team. He then set his goal to join the Learning Experience team to be part of the learning revolution. 6 months after he joined the team, Microsoft started a pilot with 6 courses on edX. Today, 18 months later, Microsoft has run a total of 82 MOOCs with more than 2.5 million registered students.
Chris Roy, Senior Director of Learning Services for Microsoft Corporation.
Chris has spent the last 25 years in the education industry and uses that experience as in his position as the Senior Director of Learning Services for Microsoft Corporation. He is responsible for the global learning strategy for commercial and academic readiness. Chris and his team focuses on innovation in learning and is driving transformation change across Microsoft learning groups. Prior to his current role, Chris was New Horizons United President of Sales since 2010, a position he choose upon the sale of his business, United Training. Chris was the President and CEO of United Training, a technical training consortium for over 10 years. He was the original founder of United Training which was based on an initial concept developed to support enterprise accounts in Massachusetts. Under his leadership, United Training grew its membership to well over 65+ physical locations throughout North America, and struck multimillion dollars agreements with vendors and customers. Chris holds a varied background of experiences that include marketing, consulting, sales and management roles bringing a diverse perspective to the largest technical training consortium in North America. He was owner, President and CEO of Pinnacle Training Corporation; a Massachusetts based training company with 3 locations. This provided him with the skill set and hands–on experience needed to be responsible for all revenue generating activities, overseeing employees, profit and loss, marketing, strategy and sales.
Cindy Ball, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft
For the past 5 years at Microsoft, I’ve led engineering teams to design and implement online learning platforms for technical training and skills development, and prior to joining the Learning Experiences team, I developed services for the Microsoft Hololens.
Prior to joining Microsoft, I worked on TV animation production, co-founded an animation studio, and developed massively-multiplayer games for children.
I have a M.S. in computers science from Caltech.
Corey Hynes, Learn on Demand Systems
CEO and Learning Platform Architect. Learn on Demand Systems provides hands-on learning platforms for software companies worldwide.
Graeme Malcolm, Microsoft
I build learning experiences for aspiring data professionals.
Greg Bayer, Director of Engineering at LinkedIn
Greg leads the LinkedIn Learning team that builds the Web, iOS and Android apps you can use to learn on LinkedIn. Greg previously led engineering for LinkedIn Pulse, which leverages LinkedIn's unique data to surface timely, must-read, professional content. He was also a founding engineer, architect, and the backend team lead at Pulse News (a startup acquired by Linkedin in 2013). Before Pulse and LinkedIn, Greg was a Senior staff member at Sandia Labs, where he started/led Sandia's Hadoop research program, and a CS grad student at Stanford.
Julie Parsons, Manager of Engineering Program Management Team
Since joining Microsoft in 2000, Julie has delivered online services and experiences for learning, advertising, and device management. Within engineering organizations, she has led teams focused on collecting and analyzing data, delivering industry standard APIs, ensuring effective customer engagement, and enhancing critical environments. Julie currently manages the engineering program management team for Microsoft's Learning Experiences.
A native Seattleite, Julie earned her BS Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington and holds a Professional Engineering license. She has volunteered since 1996 as a King County Master Gardener. She has a techy daughter in college, too many plants, and over 90k miles with convertible top down.
Keith Boyd, Microsoft
Keith Boyd is a 16 year Microsoft veteran where he manages the Online Learning portfolio in the Learning Experiences group. He's currently pursuing his MBA from Seattle University
Luke Nyswonger, Office 365
Luke is the Director of content publishing for Office 365 where he's responsible for delivering the educational experience for the Office developer ecosystem.
Rob Rubin, Director Microsoft Professional Degree
Boeing Participants
Alan Cheville, Bucknell University
Brian Nasralla, Program Administrator - Ed Wells Partnership (SPEEA/Boeing Initiative)
Brian has been at Boeing over 26 years and is currently on a rotational assignment with Ed Wells Partnership developing and coordinating technical training. He is a Boeing Designated Expert (BDE) in seven Composite Manufacturing areas and Composite Repair. Brian has represented Boeing on numerous industry panels for Composite Technician curriculum requirements in the state of Washington. He is currently an advisory board for Peninsula Community College and Bellingham Technical College.
Catherine Spann, Research Scientist, University of Texas at Arlington
Catherine Spann is a Research Scientist in the Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge (LINK) Research Lab at the University of Texas at Arlington. Catherine’s research focuses on the role of contemplative practices in mental and physical health and well-being, exploring the psychophysiological assessment of the impact of such practices. She has led numerous research studies in controlled lab settings, museums, and classrooms with both children and adults on the topic of mindfulness and self-regulation. Her research engages in wearable and mobile technologies in order to increase understanding of the physiological and psychological factors that lead to well-being and successful learning.
Charles Camarda, NASA’s Senior Advisor for Engineering Development
Charles Camarda was born in Queens, New York and received his undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1974. Upon graduation, he began work at NASA’s Langley Research Center (LaRC), received his M.S. from GW in Mechanical Engineering in 1980 and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from VPI in 1990. He was Head of the Thermal Structures Branch at LaRC in 1996 when he was selected to be an Astronaut. He flew on the return-to-flight mission of Space Shuttle, STS-114, in 2005. He was selected Director of Engineering at JSC in December 2005, was the Deputy Director for Advanced Projects for NASA’s Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), NASA’s Senior Advisor for Innovation, and is currently NASA’s Senior Advisor for Engineering Development at NASA’s Langley Research Center.
Charles Pezeshki, Professor / Director, Industrial Design Clinic
School of MME Washington State University
Chuck is a pioneer in experiential learning and writes about the role of social connection, relationships and empathy in design thinking, neurological development, knowledge construction and information coherence. His blog/latest book is: http://empathy.guru/readers-guide
David Lee, Boeing
Ellen Lettvin, U.S. Department of Education
Dr. Ellen Lettvin is Senior Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education. She leads efforts that integrate STEM content and activities from several Federal agencies into program offerings for the nation’s largest out-of-school program and serves as liaison to the STEM Learning Ecosystems initiative. She previously served as Vice President for Science and Education at Pacific Science Center and as Assistant Director of the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington.
Krishna Madhavan, Associate Professor Purdue University
Dr. Krishna Madhavan is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He leads a major NSF-funded project called Deep Insights Anytime, Anywhere (http://www.dia2.org) to characterize the impact of NSF and other federal investments in the area of STEM education. He also serves as co-PI for the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (nanoHUB.org) that serves millions of researchers and learners worldwide. In 2008, Dr. Madhavan was awarded an NSF CAREER award for research on learner-centric, adaptive cyber-tools and cyber-environments using learning analytics. Dr. Madhavan served as a Visiting Researcher at Microsoft Research (Redmond) focusing on big data analytics using large-scale cloud environments and search engines. Industry partners such as The Boeing Company also support Dr. Madhavan’s research on big data and learning analytics. He interacts regularly with many startups and large industrial partners on big data and visual analytics problems. He was one of 49 faculty members selected as the nation’s top engineering educators and researchers by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering to the Frontiers in Engineering Education symposium.
Lee Rubenstein edX
Marc Nance, Director, Competitiveness & Integration, The Boeing Company
Marc has 30 years of experience with Boeing and has an extensive background in complex systems development projects and strategic planning. He led successful teams in the development of space and airborne systems that “connect and protect” our world. His strategic planning background includes complex systems planning and integration in a system-learning, multi-horizon environment. Marc also works with Dr Michael Richey as an executive sponsor of the AerosPACE program, which leverages complex, adaptive techniques with university students in the design, development and testing of aircraft design. http://www.boeing.com/features/2016/01/careers-students-01-16.page
Michael Richey, Associate Technical Fellow, Boeing
Dr. Michael Richey is an Associate Technical Fellow currently assigned to support workforce development and learning science research at the Boeing Company. Dr. Richey is responsible for leading learning science research, including mapping the network structure of the engineering, technical and support workforce. His research encompasses, Complex Adaptive Systems, Learning Curves focusing on understanding the interplay between innovation, wealth creation, and economies of scale as they are manifested in questions of learning, evolvability, adaptability and sustainability. Additional responsibilities include providing business leadership for engineering technical and professional educational programs. This includes topics in systems engineering, advanced aircraft construction, composites structures and product lifecycle management. Michael is responsible for leading cross-organizational teams from academic, government focusing on how engineering education must acknowledge and incorporate this new information and knowledge to build new methodologies and paradigms that engage these developments in practice.
Pete Smith, Chief Analytics Officer and Senior Associate VP at the University of Texas Arlington (UTA)
Pete Smith is Chief Analytics Officer and Senior Associate Vice President at the University of Texas Arlington, where he oversees the office of University Analytics, as well as the Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge (LINK) lab, a learning analytics research laboratory. He is also a Professor of University Studies, and he previously served for 18 years as Vice Provost for Digital Teaching and Learning. His teaching and research focuses on natural language processing and understanding, translation automation, and “big data” in education.
Rob Walbrun, Sr. Manager - Engineering Skills & Knowledge Management - Boeing Commercial Airlines
Robert Walbrun is a Sr. Manager in Boeing Commercial Airplanes Engineering. He is responsible for Engineering employee development through multiple training and employee coaching programs at Boeing.
Sherry Leeson, Senior Manager of ALEI Systems Engineering & Integration (SE&I) for Engineering Integration within BCA Engineering.
Systems Engineering & Integration's mission is to develop and deploy systems engineering capabilities that drive effective and efficient development & delivery of products and services to our customers.
With 11 years of Boeing experience, Sherry has worked in the Certification Programs group on various programs including, 737-900ER, 747 Dreamlifter, 747-8/-8F and 777F. In 2008 she transferred to Airline Support in CAS and was the main focal for airlines such as Alaska Airlines, Airtran and COPA. She provided technical customer support to CAS and Airline executives. In 2009 Sherry transferred to the 767/777 Program as the Program Integration Manager working with the SC&P leader. She managed certification work and supported the engineering teams to ensure on time AC-E (Aircraft Certification and Eligibility) to support Ticket and Delivery to customers. In 2011 she became the Manager for Flammability - IRC. In 2013 she joined the Airplane Level Engineering Integration organization to support Airplane Integration throughout BCA and was promoted to Senior Manager in 2014.
Sherry has a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a Masters of Science in Engineering Management from the University of Michigan. She began her career with Ford Motor Company in Aero, Business Development, Vehicle Integration and Manufacturing. After Ford, she moved to Aerojet (Seattle, WA) working in research and development in fire suppression for military aircraft and combat vehicles. Outside of her professional career she plays volleyball and softball in local tournaments and leagues and enjoys all forms of exercise. She is married with two children.
Steve Holt, Associate Technical Fellow, Boeing
Steven Holt is currently focused on the management of large scale, complex product development and production systems. He is also a Board Member at Theory of Constraints International Certification Organization (TOCICO)
Santa Fe Institute Participants
Caterina De Bacco, Postdoctoral Fellow, Santa Fe Institute
Caterina works with Professor Cris Moore on problems at the interface between computer science and statistical physics. Her research interests range from combinatorial optimization, inference, message passing and random walks on networks. She is interested in developing novel models and deriving fundamental limits to finding hidden structures behind noisy and incomplete datasets. Her approach combines Bayesian likelihood maximization with techniques borrowed from linear algebra such as low rank matrix approximation and non-negative tensor factorization. Applications range from clustering of sparse high dimensional data to community detection in networks with multiple types of edges. Starting from the theoretical findings, part of the challenge will be to develop efficient algorithmic ideas that are applicable to a broader range of problems and in different settings.
Gabby Beans, Manager of Online Education, Santa Fe Institute
Gabrielle came to Santa Fe in the Fall of 2013 and has settled in quickly, getting to know the local community, the hiking paths, and quirks of this beautiful city. She is excited to be at the helm of the Santa Fe Institute’s Complexity Explorer Online Education platform, helping to extend knowledge of complexity science worldwide. Previously she worked as a curriculum developer and facilitator with the Santa Fe Institute’s Project GUTS and was involved with the nationwide expansion of the middle school computational science program, in collaboration with Code.org. She also coordinated the Santa Fe Watershed Association’s Adopt the River program, getting the community involved with the restoration of the Santa Fe River.
Before coming to Santa Fe Gabrielle lived in New Zealand, where she carried out her doctoral research on the genetics of ancient and modern Adélie penguin populations at Massey University. Prior to that, she studied the evolution of pit viper phospholipase venom genes at the University of Wales in Bangor, and she received her undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Alicante in Spain. She is half Spanish and half American and fully bilingual and is an avid photographer in her spare time.
Juniper Lovato, Director of Education, Santa Fe Institute
Juniper Lovato has been a northern New Mexico resident her entire life. She currently works as the Director of Education at the Santa Fe Institute. At SFI she works across generations and geographical limits to make resources and knowledge on cutting edge complexity science more accessible to those with a hunger and curiosity for learning and exploration. Lovato received her Master’s Degree in the Western Classics from St. John’s College in 2013 where she completed a thesis on the nature of pleasure in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. She received a B.A. from the College of Santa in Business Administration and Political Science in 2009. Lovato likes to think of herself as an active community member. She holds Board positions at the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corporation, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation, the Mandela International Magnet School, and is a member of the Santa Fe Public Education Department’s Digital Learning Advisory Committee. Juniper is also a founding member of MAKE Santa Fe, a new maker space in Santa Fe.
Laurent Hebert-Dufresne, JSMF Santa Fe Institute Postdoctoral Fellow
I earned my PhD in theoretical physics from Laval University in Québec where I got involved in network theory through a simple applied problem that resided on a complex canvas: disease propagation on social networks. This problem is in part simple; we have some intuition of how people interact and how diseases are transmitted. However, complexity stems not from the question itself, but from the fact that social networks, like most systems in nature, are greater than the sum of their parts. To understand disease propagation, we must not only understand how one individual infects another, but also the complex patterns that link these individuals to the rest of the population. Unfortunately, our current understanding is a patchwork: finding relevant network properties and including them, one at a time, in our existing mathematical models without a clear view of the larger design.
Using tools from statistical physics and other methods of mathematical modeling, my research attempts to find overarching principles that could lead to a more complete view of complex networks. I hope to find a better perspective to study networks than as an ensemble of points and lines. Switching our focus toward the systems that produce these networks, such as looking at the hierarchical structure of our society rather than at local social networks, I aim to find better ways to quantify the global role of each element in the systems. This implies adopting broader definitions of what networks can be; whereas most traditional methods simply construct them like puzzles, piece-by-piece based on limited information.
Marc Van Horne, Chief Online Learning Officer and Assistant Vice Presient, Arizona State University
Nikki Pfarr, Design Researcher
Nikki Pfarr is a design researcher who specializes in helping product development teams combine insights from behavioral science with design thinking, to develop innovative products and services. She's supported innovation centers in companies like Google, Samsung, Microsoft, and T-Mobile, with an emphasis on projects related to education, healthcare, and productivity. Recent work has focused on the role of play in learning, incentive strategies to promote engagement in online programs, and how new technologies can enable social and emotional learning. Nikki received an SB in Comparative Media Studies from MIT, and an MDes from the IIT Institute of Design.
Paige Prescott, Doctorate student at the University of New Mexico in the Organization, Information and Learning Sciences department
Paige Prescott has been a classroom science teacher, a curriculum designer and is currently a doctorate student at the University of New Mexico in the Organization, Information and Learning Sciences department where she is interested in design experiences for both adults and students as they relate to learning computer science and computational thinking. She regularly conducts teacher professional development for teachers new to computer science and has helped to develop online supports for their continued professional growth.
Philippos Savvides, Arizona State University - EdPlus