About Me

Hello!

I am an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Computer Science department at UC Santa Barbara. I primarily teach undergraduate courses in Computer Science, mentor students, and engage in research in CS education, computational social science, and in data & information science.

I am currently the CS Department’s director/coordinator of the Early Research Scholars Program (ERSP) and the co-director of the Undergraduate Learning Assistants (ULA) program. I am also the faculty advisor for the Class of 2026 undergraduate CS students.

I earned my Ph.D. in Information Science at Rutgers University from the School of Communication and Information (SC&I) in 2018. I also have an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from USC Viterbi. I previously had a career of many years in the tech industry as an engineer and manager.

I am passionate about teaching computer and information technology to everyone (i.e. those with and without an affinity for computers, math, or engineering) and see a continued huge demand by people of different work and educational backgrounds wanting to learn computational and data science technologies at all levels. At my core, I am an educator, an engineer, and a social technologist. I have had the honor of being recognized several times for my teaching, most recently winning the Outstanding Faculty in Computer Science Award at UCSB in 2025.

My Erdős number is no more than 5; my Berners-Lee number is no more than 3; my Matni number is exactly zero! :)

My decidedly non-academic hobbies include music performance, international cooking, open-world gaming, and reading (well, does listening to a lot of audiobooks count?)