COMPUTER SCIENCE
Princeton has been at the forefront of computing since Alan Turing, Alonzo Church, and John von Neumann were among its residents. The department has experienced significant growth over the last few years with strong groups in theory, systems, networking, graphics/media, programming languages, computational science, security, artificial intelligence, and computational biology.
KAY OUSTERHOUT
UNDERGRADUATE
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
With research interests centering on computer systems and networking, Ousterhout has worked in the research groups of two faculty members and pursued projects ranging from supporting a clean-slate Internet architecture to implementing distributed multipath techniques for managing Internet traffic. After Princeton, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science.
ADDITIONAL STUDIES
“I also am interested in visual arts. Drawing and painting courses have been among my favorites at Princeton.”
HONORS
Hertz Foundation Fellowship and an honorable mention in the Association of Computing Machinery’s Undergraduate Researcher Award competition.
EXTRACURRICULAR
Ousterhout’s technical interests have been a common thread through her extracurricular activities: tutoring in freshman math courses; working on the Web team at the Daily Princetonian student paper; serving as a lab teaching assistant for introductory computer science courses; and building a website and helping digitize the admission process for her eating club. Along with Jennifer King, she co-founded Princeton Women in Computer Science, an organization dedicated to providing support and mentoring to women interested in computer science.
INTERNSHIPS
“I have spent the three summers following my freshman, sophomore, and junior years as a software engineering intern at Google. I spent my most recent summer in Google’s incredible Sydney office, where I worked on Google Docs.”
HIJUNG (VALENTINA) SHIN
UNDERGRADUATE
ACADEMICS
“For my junior independent work and senior thesis, I have been working on analyzing fracture patterns in wall paintings excavated from the archaeological site in Thera (modern-day Santorini, Greece). I am trying to develop a model about how the fresco broke and simulate the fracture process. The results will help us to guide fragment reconstruction algorithms for other broken frescoes.”
WHY
“I really liked working on a project where I could actually see the outcome. I want to study how people perceive things—like matching two shards together—and how to apply that to computers to help identify objects.”
ADDITIONAL STUDIES
Earned a certificate in robotics and intelligent systems. “I am also interested in photography and enjoyed working as a teaching assistant in the labs of introductory computer science courses.”
HONORS
Earned the 2011 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award from the Computing Research Association, the most prestigious recognition for undergraduates in the field of computer science.
REBECCA FIEBRINK
GRADUATE STUDENT/ASSISTANT PROFESSOR (AS OF JULY 2011)
BEFORE PRINCETON
Bachelor’s degree at Ohio State University and master’s at McGill University.
RESEARCH
“My research is at the intersection of music, human-computer interaction, and machine learning. I’m interested in how to make machine learning more usable by composers and musicians, how to build systems for real-time computer analysis of musical audio and musicians’ gestures, and how machine learning can be used in new ways as a creative tool.”
EXTRACURRICULAR
“While at Princeton, I’ve been involved with the Graduate Engineering Council, the Computer Science Graduate Committee, and the Queer Graduate Caucus. I’ve also performed with, composed for, and taught the Princeton Laptop Orchestra.”
INTERNSHIPS
Sun Microsystems, Microsoft Research, and Smule (an iPhone music app company started by several Princeton alumni). “I worked on the #1 best-selling app ‘I am T-Pain.’”
MOHAMMAD HOSSEIN BATENI
GRADUATE STUDENT
BEFORE PRINCETON
Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. While in Iran, Bateni participated in international programming competitions, winning the gold medal in the International Olympiad in Informatics in South Korea and the bronze medal in the Central European Olympiad in Informatics in Slovakia. He also was an ACM-ICPC World finalist in the Czech Republic and China.
RESEARCH
Algorithm design, especially in approximation algorithms and online algorithms. Worked on theoretical and practical problems in network design, algorithmic game theory, and database management. This work has led to more than a dozen papers in top journals and at conferences as well as three patent applications filed by AT&T.
HONORS
Gordon Wu Fellow and Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Fellow. Served as a referee for more than a dozen conferences and journals, and gave more than 10 invited talks in research labs or universities.
INTERNSHIPS
AT&T Labs–Research, Toyota Technological Institute, and Microsoft Research.
