OMSCS Buzz

Dr. David Joyner, Executive Director of OMSCS at Georgia Tech, shares his journey from the College of Computing to the birth of OMSCS. Discussions include the importance of academia, the evolution of OMSCS from 2014 to 2024, future outlook, recommended reads, and opportunities for research assistants. Dr. Joyner highlights the value of interdisciplinary approaches and the impact of online education on global accessibility.

Dr. David Joyner, Executive Director of OMSCS, discusses Georgia Tech rankings, learning new skills, AI in teaching, and assessing in online education. Explore his journey, research, teaching challenges, and the future of OMSCS.

On this episode, Tanmay chats with Zoey Beda. Zoey is a TA for CS 6750: Human-Computer Interaction in OMSCS along with being a musician and developer. Tune in to hear about the intersection of mathematics, music, and computer science, and more!  TIMESTAMPS-  (0:00) - Intro  (13:35) - Journey as a musician  (24:32) - OMSCS Experience  (28:05) - After OMSCS  (30:05) - Favorite Books  (31:56) - Outro  VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for the entire catalog of episodes and our Feedback Form.  EDITOR – Serge Nino Martin Villasica 

On this episode, Tanmay chats with Professor Rich Vuduc. Dr. Vuduc is a Professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering. He researches high-performance computing, and he created the Intro to HPC course CSE 6220, one of the earliest courses in the OMSCS program. Tune in to hear about automated performance tuning, synergies between AI and supercomputing, post-Moore's Law computing, Dr. Vuduc’s career journey, and much more!  TIMESTAMPS-  (0:00) - Cold Intro  (0:45) - Intro & Welcome  (2:10) - What is Super Computing all about?  (4:00) - Vuduc’s Areas Research: Sparse Matrices, Autotuning, and Super Computing  (13:00) - Emerging Trends in High Performance Computing  (29:00) - C.R.N.C.H  (33:00) - Dr. Vuduc’s Early Years  (38:00) - Post Doc and Academia  (47:00) - Dr. Vuduc and GA Tech  (51:00) - Online Teaching Experience- CSE6220 (57:00) - How the Field Has Evolved   (1:00:00) - Dr. Vuduc’s Hobbies and Parting Words  (1:04:00) - Connect with Dr. Vuduc    ADDITIONAL LINKS-  Center for Research into Novel Computing Hierarchies (C.R.N.C.H.): Center for Research into Novel Compute Hierarchies – Just another Sites @ Georgia Tech site (gatech.edu)  Supercomputing @ GT Student Group Student Organizations | College of Computing (gatech.edu)  HPC Garage - The HPC Garage | A parallel computing research lab at Georgia Tech    VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for our entire catalog of episodes.  EDITOR – Serge Nino Martin Villasica 

On this episode, Tanmay chats with Sagar Badlani. Sagar hails from Mumbai, India where he completed his undergraduate studies in computer science. He’s currently a Master's student in Computer Science at Georgia Tech where he also is a TA for Global Entrepreneurship. Tune in to hear more on this course, blockchain, ML research, the Indian innovation landscape, and more.   TIMESTAMPS-  (0:00) - Cold Intro  (0:47) - Intro & Welcome  (2:00) - How Did You Become Interested in Block Chain?  (4:15) - How Does Block Chain relate to Primary and Higher Education?  (7:15) - Healthcare and Machine Learning  (19:30) - News Break (20:35) - Sagar’s Journey  (25:00) - Technology and Innovation in India  (35:15) - News Break (36:30) - OMSCS Journey  (40:15) - TA Experience   (45:30) - Words of Advice  ADDITIONAL LINKS-  To register for the 2nd Annual OMSCS Conference VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/2024-omscs-conference  To register to attend the Alumni Speaker Series VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/alumni-speaker-series  VISIT ⁠https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast⁠ for our entire catalog of episodes.  EDITOR – Nikita Burks-Hale 

On this episode, Tanmay chats with Cherie Lum. Cherie is a graduate student in the OMSCS program as well as founder of a startup called In the Park. As a Chapter Head of an OMSCS meet up group, she’s also active in creating community-building events for our online students.     TIMESTAMPS-  (0:00) - Cold Intro  (0:55) - Intro & Welcome  (2:18) - OMSCS Research Project  (4:55) - OMSCS Meet Up Groups  (5:50) - In The Park Start Up  (8:10) - Bringing People Together  (10:15) - Cherie’s Journey  (13:36) - The Physics Journey  (19:40) - OMSCS Journey  (20:55) - Being a TA   (22:00) - OMSCS Degree  (23:00) - OMSCS Meet Ups (continued)  (26:00) - Philosophy Journey  (29:00) - Words of Advice  (29:55) - Resources/Connect with Cherie    ADDITIONAL LINKS-  Cherie's Start Up: www.inthepark.co  VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for our entire catalog of episodes.  EDITOR – Nikita Burks-Hale 

In this final episode for 2023, Tanmay chats with Steven Bryant. Steve is the Founder and CEO of Bryant Research, an AI advisory and consulting firm. Outside his day job, he’s a co-head TA for Georgia Tech’s Machine Learning for Trading course… as well as the author of “DISRUPTIVE: Rewriting the rules of physics”.  Happy Holidays, and we'll see you in 2024 for more exciting conversations! TIMESTAMPS-  (0:00) - Cold Intro  (0:33) - Intro & Welcome  (1:25) - Current Work  (1:55) -  Self-Driving Money  (4:40) - AI as collaborator  (6:37) - LLM for Academic Research / Teaching  (10:50) - Bryant Research   (13:36) - The Physics Journey  (18:28) - OMSCS Journey  (23:16) - OMSCS Degree  (26:24) - Being a TA  (29:47) - Approach on Learning      ADDITIONAL LINKS-  Assessing GPT-4’s role as a co-collaborator in scientific research: a case study analyzing Einstein’s special theory of relativity: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44163-023-00075-3  Bryant Research: https://bryantresearch.ai/    VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for our entire catalog of episodes.  EDITOR – Serge Nino Martin Villasica 

On this episode, Tanmay chats with Brittney Exline. Brittney is a software engineer and technology leader who has worked for years in advertising technology and educational tech. She attended the University of Pennsylvania at 15, where she was the youngest African American to be accepted into an Ivy League school. She’s also a passionate public speaker and writer and is currently a TA for OMSCS’s CS7637 Knowledge Based AI course.    ADDITIONAL LINKS-  Lighthouse Writers Workshop: https://lighthousewriters.org/  The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324050308  Find Brittney on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackgirlbaker    VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for our entire catalog of episodes.  EDITOR – Eric Wallace 

On this episode, Tanmay chats with Chinmay Anaokar. Chinmay has been a Principal Solutions Architect at Brainfloss, a company he co-founded, since Feb 2022, where he leads the development and delivery of innovative cloud solutions for diverse clients. He’s in his last semester of OMSCS.    TIMESTAMPS-  (0:00) - Cold Open  (0:33) - Intro & Welcome Chinmay!  (1:23) - Brainfloss  (9:46) - News Break  (10:58) - Chinmay’s backstory  (24:14) - OMSCS Experience  (32:16) - Next 3 years  (35:48) - Closing thoughts from Chinmay  ADDITIONAL LINKS- Brainfloss: https://www.brainfloss.com/  AWS YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@amazonwebservices?si=KVdA1Zg7477CuQfu  Big Technology: https://www.bigtechnology.com/ Find Chinmay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/canaokar/  VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for our entire catalog of episodes.  EDITOR – Eric Wallace 

On this episode, Tanmay chats with Miguel Morales. Miguel is an instructor for CS 7642: Reinforcement Learning, the author of Grokking Deep Reinforcement Learning, and an Associate Fellow at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs group. Tune in to hear about Miguel's experiences growing up and working in Venezuela, his perspective on reinforcement learning, and the impetus that led him to write his first book! TIMESTAMPS-  (0:00) - Cold Open (1:00) - Welcome Miguel! (1:58) - Deep Dive into Reinforcement Learning (4:29) - News Update (30:05) - Life in Venezuela (41:51) - OMSCS Experience (54:03) - Life outside of work (59:42) - Closing thoughts VISIT ⁠https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast⁠ for our entire catalog of episodes.  EDITOR – Serge Nino Martin Villasica  ADDITIONAL LINKS  Find Miguel on Twitter: @mimoralea  Grokking Deep Reinforcement Learning by Miguel Morales: https://www.manning.com/books/grokking-deep-reinforcement-learning  Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction by Richard S. Sutton and Andrew G. Barto: http://incompleteideas.net/book/the-book-2nd.html  “Introduction to Reinforcement Learning” lecture series by David Silver: https://www.deepmind.com/learning-resources/introduction-to-reinforcement-learning-with-david-silver  “Deep Reinforcement Learning” course by Sergey Levine (UC Berkeley): https://rail.eecs.berkeley.edu/deeprlcourse/