Graduate School

Completed Courses @ Worcester Polytechnic Institute

• Temporal Sequence Mining Independent Study
• Artificial Intelligence in Design ( CS 540 )
• Machine Learning ( CS 539 )
• Design of Software Systems ( CS 509 )
• Computer Systems Performance Evaluation ( CS 533 )
• Analysis of Computations and Systems ( CS 504 )
• Advanced Topics in Theoretical Computer Science - Randomized Algorithms ( CS 559 )

      I started my graduate academic career while still an undergraduate at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI ) in December of 1996. I enrolled in WPI's BS/MS program which combines a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree into a five year program. Through this program, I earned 12 credits (out of 33 total needed) towards my Master's degree while still an undergraduate. I became a full-fledged graduate student in May of 1998. As of May 2000, I have successfully completed an additional four courses (12 credits) towards my Master's. This leaves only my intended Master's Thesis to complete my degree.

      Unfortunately, I have a bit of bad news. Since starting full-time at EMC, I have lost the credit I earned through WPI's BS/MS program. This is due to a discrepancy in WPI's policy regarding the program. The WPI's Registrar's Office maintains that students in the BS/MS program be enrolled as full-time students. The Course Catalog states that students need to enroll continuously to avoid being dismissed from the program. I only discovered this discrepancy after inquiring about credit not appearing on my graduate transcript (August, 1999).

      I have filed two petitions with the Committee on Graduate Studies and Research (CGSR) requesting to be let back into the BS/MS program since my discovery. The first was denied due to the review committee's assumption that I was requesting to be re-admitted as a part-time student, which is, of course, the reason I was dismissed from the program to begin with. My second petition, explicitly requesting re-admittance as a full-time student, is still pending (as of June, 2000).

      Well, my second petition has been denied. Want to know why? Because I have never been a full-time graduate student. Funny, huh? At times like this I try to remember that it is folly to blame the entire institution for the errors of a select few. There are too many good people doing the very best they can. They make WPI the great place it is. I hope that other people who happen to cross paths with the select few who tend to tarnish the WPI experience are still able to recognize WPI and the majority of its people for the good they bring to the world.

      Since the last petition was denied things took a turn for the better. I came back to WPI as a full-time graduate student after being awarded a Geo. I. Alden Fellowship. During my Fellowship I completed my required course work and started upon my thesis. For the Fellowship I conducted a six month study at the Norfolk County Sheriff's Office. A technology needs assessment was done and data model and user interface technologies were developed and demonstrated. These technologies were created to show what functionality a next-generation information system for the operations of the Sheriff's Office should have. After the project was done these technologies matured into a pending patent.

      Also during the course of my thesis I also held a research assistant position in the CREDIA lab of the Computer Science Department and then a Research Engineer position at the Bioengineering Institute (BEI) of WPI. I also work out of BEI as a Research Scientist pursuing other patents and business opportunities for my data model and user interface technologies.

      I realize that this all seems more related to my professional career than my student career. I wanted to give an idea of the atmosphere in which I completed my thesis, Apriori Sets And Sequences. I had quite a lot going on.

      In addition to my academic and professional efforts I accepted the position of President of the Massachusetts Alpha chapter of Upsilon Pi Epsilon. UPE is the internationally recognized Honor Society for the Computing Sciences. When I returned to WPI as a full-time student the UPE chapter was dormant and had been for a few years. I was asked to get things running again. Since we have held the two largest induction ceremonies in the chapter's history. It has been an honor to help recognize these new members' academic and professional achievements. Serving as UPE president for two years has rekindled my passion for leadership. I look forward to where this passion will lead me now that my Master student career is over.

I graduated in May of 2004.
My full-time student GPA was 4.0.
My part-time and full-time combined GPA was 3.55.