July 22, 2024
Building and retaining a team of talented leaders is a priority at SCI, and we are pleased to announce that five new faculty members will join the SCI community in the 2024-25 academic year. The incoming faculty will continue our vision of transforming lives for a better digital future, from our community to the world. Join us in welcoming the newest faculty members of the SCI community!
Raquel Coelho, Assistant Professor, DINS/LRDC
Raquel Coelho will join the Department of Informatics and Networked Systems as an assistant professor in the tenure stream in artificial intelligence and learning sciences. Dr. Coelho is jointly appointed as a research scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center. She holds a PhD in learning sciences and technology design combined with education data science from Stanford University and has experience as a researcher at the Centre for the Science of Learning and Technology (SLATE) at the University of Bergen, Norway. Her research, rooted in sociocultural theories of learning, examines novel applications of text analytics and text generation technologies in educational contexts.
Junyu Liu, Assistant Professor, CS
Junyu Liu will join the Department of Computer Science as an assistant professor in the tenure stream in quantum computing. Dr. Liu holds a PhD in physics from the California Institute of Technology and has experience at the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter. Previously, he worked as a computer scientist and theoretical physicist at the University of Chicago and IBM. He specializes in combining physics and computing, particularly in machine learning and modern computing technologies. His research focuses on quantum machine learning, variational quantum circuits, quantum optimization, and quantum data centers.
Nils Murrugarra-Llerena, Teaching Assistant Professor, CS
Nils Murrugarra-Llerena will join the Department of Computer Science as a teaching assistant professor in the appointment stream. Dr. Murrugarra holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Pittsburgh and has experience as an assistant professor in computer science at Weber State University. His teaching and research interests encompass computer vision, machine learning, and natural language processing, with a focus on attribute recognition and projects involving deep learning, gaze prediction, transfer learning, reinforcement learning, and metric learning.
Patrick Skeba, Teaching Assistant Professor, CS
Patrick Skeba will join the Department of Computer Science as a Teaching Assistant Professor in the appointment stream. Dr. Skeba holds a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science and computer science from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in computer science from Lehigh University. His teaching and research interests lie in internet privacy, and responsible use of AI and data. He teaches courses in machine learning and computer programming.
Michael Miller Yoder, Teaching Assistant Professor
Michael Miller Yoder will join SCI as a teaching assistant professor in the appointment stream. Dr. Yoder is a postdoctoral researcher in the Software and Societal Systems Department at Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a part-time instructor in computer science (CS) at Pitt. His teaching includes graduate-level CS courses and introducing machine learning to students outside of CS. His teaching and research background is in natural language processing and computational social science, with applications in countering hate and extremism online.
--Alyssa Morales