Faculty

David is an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco. His research interests are natural language processing, machine learning, and databases — specifically on the personal and cultural/demographic information transmitted during speech and typing. This research may lead to more accurate speech recognition systems. Prior to joining USF, David was a research assistant in the Speech Lab at Queens College and an instructor at Hunter College. He has previously worked for the City of...

Sophie’s research interests include data visualization and computer science education. She is a co-founder of the Visualization and Graphics Lab (VGL) and on the steering committee for the Symposium on Visualization for Cyber Security (VizSec). She is passionate about supporting diverse learners in the classroom, and integrating one-on-one student/faculty interaction into her courses on software development and data visualization. https://sjengle.cs.usfca.edu

Associate Professor of Finance Jeff Hamrick has been instrumental in developing USF's MS in Data Science (MSDS) program. His teaching also supports the university's Master of Science in Financial Analysis (MSFA) program. For the MSDS program, he has designed courses in linear regression analysis, time series analysis, multivariate statistical analysis, and SAS programming. In the MSFA program, he teaches econometrics and financial econometrics. Professor Hamrick contributes his extensive...

Yannet is an assistant professor in the Master’s in Data Science program, and her research interests lie in the application of machine learning and deep learning to medical data. She holds a PhD in applied mathematics from Cornell University and a BS in mathematics from the University of Havana, Cuba. After a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley, she worked for five years as a data scientist at Google. Yannet co-founded Akualab, a start-up that helped organizations develop data-driven...

Terence is a professor of computer science and is the creator of the ANTLR parser generator. He herded programmers and implemented the large jGuru developers web site, during which time he developed and refined the StringTemplate engine. Terence has consulted for and held various technical positions at companies such as IBM, Lockheed Missiles and Space, NeXT, and Renault Automation. Terence was an expert witness for Google in the Oracle v Google Android lawsuit. His passion is writing software....

Brian Spiering is an Assistant Professor at University of San Francisco. His passions are teaching, Python, and Data Science for social good.

Rachel Thomas is the co-founder of fast.ai, which created the Practical Deep Learning for Coders course taken by over 200,000 students and which has been featured in The Economist, MIT Tech Review, and Forbes. She was selected by Forbes as one of 20 Incredible Women in AI, earned her math PhD at Duke, and was an early engineer at Uber. Rachel is a popular writer and keynote speaker on topics of data ethics, AI accessibility, and bias in machine learning.

Shan is an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco and currently teaching full time for USF's Data Science programs. Her research interests are nonparametric estimation, prediction models, and applied statistics. Shan also works closely with experts from different fields. She has experiences in NIH and NSF grants in cancer research and GIS. She holds a PhD in statistics from Purdue University (IUPUI campus) and a BS in mathematics from Fudan University in China.

James is an Assistant Professor of Statistics and Co-Director of the BS in Data Science program at the University of San Francisco. He has joint appointments in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the MS in Data Science program, where he has developed and taught courses in Bayesian statistics, machine learning, data science, and network analysis. In research, James develops new statistical and computational techniques to model, analyze, and explore high-dimensional and relational (...

Diane Woodbridge is an assistant professor in the MS in Data Science program at the University of San Francisco. Her research interests include database management systems, data fusion and data mining in various domains including biomedical, geoscience and geospatial remote sensing. Prior to joining USF, Professor Woodbridge was with the scalable analysis and visualization department at Sandia National Laboratories.