student – Page 4 – Seidenberg School News

Siddhesh is spending his summer at Moody Analytics

1. Who are you working with this summer? (…and what do they do?)

I am working with Moody’s Analytics as an Associate in Financial Modelling and Data Analysis.

2. Can you tell us a little about what you are doing? (We might not understand the technicalities, but we’d love details!)

I work closely with the in-house software tool to develop cash-flow water models, which are used by the investors to value and evaluate their portfolios. I also acquire, organize, refine and deliver financial data to clients through analytic software libraries and client databases

3. Is there a particular class or professor at Seidenberg that has helped you prepare specifically for your current internship?(Clearly, we’re all about shout outs this summer!)

The Data Mining and Data Warehousing class made me comfortable to work closely with data.

4. Does your new office have a favorite restaurant/hangout they go to after work? (No! we’re not going to show up like proud parents!)

No, but we like to explore different places!

Siddhesh Lele is working towards his MS in Information Systems, set to complete his degree in 2016.

Eiman Ahmed continues Seidenberg’s DS3 legacy at Microsoft

1. Who are you working with this summer? (…and what do they do?)

I am a student at Microsoft Research’s Data Science Summer School. Otherwise known as DS3, this program’s initiative is to introduce and teach college students how to acquire, clean, and utilize real data for research purposes.

2. Can you tell us a little about what you are doing? (We might not understand the technicalities, but we’d love details!)

My team and I (we call ourselves the “Subway Surfers”) are using the MTA’s subway/turnstile data to compute a network flow of New York City to make better predictions and assist social projects like “Stop-and-Frisk” by providing them with information as to how many people (estimated) are at any given place in New York City at any given time.

3. Is there a particular class, peer, or professor at Seidenberg that has helped you prepare specifically for your current internship? (Clearly, we’re all about shout outs this summer!)

Briana Vecchione, a Seidenberg student (and an amazing friend) introduced me to this program! She was a part of DS3 last year (the first year the program took place) and worked on the “Self-Balancing Bikes” project.

4. Does your new office have a favorite restaurant/hangout they go to after work? (No! we’re not going to show up like proud parents!)

Every Tuesday the researchers here get together to discuss a project that they are working on at around noon – (this is known as “Tea Time”). Though the students and I don’t particularly have a favorite restaurant/hangout, we do like to tune into some of the Tea Talk sessions that occur.

Microsoft Presentation — Eiman and her DS3 team after presenting their work on August 6th.

Eiman Ahmed is going into her sophomore year of undergrad, earning her BS in Computer Science.

Brandon Weaver is spending his summer working for Tudor Investment

1. Who are you working with this summer? (…and what do they do?)

I am working with IT Client Services at Tudor Investment. We handle all front-end and a decent amount of back-end technical issues in the firm

2. Can you tell us a little about what you are doing? (We might not understand the technicalities, but we’d love details!)

We image machines for offices, set up conferences, troubleshoot issues with users, provision phones, etc. Essentially we cover everything technical in the firm.

3. Is there a particular class or professor at Seidenberg that has helped you prepare specifically for your current internship? (Clearly, we’re all about shout outs this summer!)

Professor Courtney provided me the opportunity and coding background for this internship. Professor Frank’s Networking class provided a majority of the knowledge that I use on a regular basis.

Brandon Weaver is a student at our Pleasantville campus, and alongside of classes works as a CS/CIS tutor and supervisor for Educational Media.

Nachiket is spending his summer at Argus to work in financial analytics

1. Who are you working with this summer? (…and what do they do?)

I am working with Argus Information and Advisory Services. They perform a broad range of financial analytics ranging from benchmarking, wallet analysis, syndicated studies as well as regulatory functions with credit card transaction and account-level data.

2. Can you tell us a little about what you are doing? (We might not understand the technicalities, but we’d love details!)

I am presently working on a regulatory project. Our client is a US government institution and we are vested with the task of performing data validation and ensuring a high quality of data is maintained when millions-upon-millions of transaction-level data comes in every month. This requires that I have good Excel and SQL Server skills, and that I am able to scan through thousands of lines of code to edit segments that need to be re-written when something changes with the way data was sent in the current month. We also routinely run ad-hoc projects that involve querying the data or performing certain data-manipulations to derive specific insights or answer questions the client needs.

3. Is there a particular class or professor at Seidenberg that has helped you prepare specifically for your current internship? (Clearly, we’re all about shout outs this summer!)

Since I am working with databases all day long in this position, I think my database specialization is proving useful. Dr. Namchul Shin’s courses have given me a good background that I have an opportunity to seriously enhance this summer and beyond.

4. Does your new office have a favorite restaurant/hangout they go to after work? (No! we’re not going to show up like proud parents!)

I work in White Plains, NY and we have dozens of places to go to for lunch or hang out after work. Downtown White Plains is a pretty vibrant place and it doesn’t look like we will run out of options any time soon!

Nachiket Pingle is completing his MS in Information Systems and is entering the second year of his graduate program.

Seidenberg PhD Student Ranks First in International Biometric Competition

Photo from Westchester Magazine — Photo credit: Westchester Magazine

Seidenberg student Vinnie Monaco (Ph.D. Computer Science ’16) recently participated in this Spring’s Eye Movements and Verification and Identification Competition (EMVIC 2014). The competition is one of five supported by the IEEE International Joint Conference on Biometrics (IJCB 2014). The key objective of biometric competitions is to introduce the benchmarking of state-of-the-art algorithms relating to biometric identification while using transparent evaluation protocols.

The EMVIC 2014 aimed to determine how people may be identified based on their eye movement characteristics. The eye is not only one of the most complicated human organs, but also the analysis of its movements may reveal information about the human being, which makes the analysis of eye movement a suitable approach for biometric identification.

The competition had participants analyze a dataset of eye movement recordings, then design classification models. The results were calculated as the number of correctly classified samples to the number of test samples taken into account. Vinnie came up with the most successful classification model.

As the competition winner, Vinnie has not only been awarded with an SMI RED-m eye tracker by SensoMotoric Instruments, but he has also been invited to take part in the preparation of a monograph about eye movement biometrics along with the other authors of the best algorithms. Furthermore, test results and description of methodologies will be presented at the IJCB 2014 this September in Florida. The conference has been a reputable one to which Seidenberg faculty and students have been submitting papers for publication.

Seidenberg professor Charles Tappert, Ph.D. has been leading a biometrics research group at Pace for the past ten years, producing work that has received recognition nationally and internationally. Dr. Tappert works with undergraduate and graduate students to address identification and authentication problems by analyzing behavioral biometrics on keyboard and mouse-dynamics. These are relatively new directions in biometric research, and the Seidenberg faculty and students are directly contributing to advancing knowledge in this field.

Interested in biometrics? To learn more about IJCB 2014 and the biometric competitions it supports, visit http://www.emvic.org.

Hackathons and a Seidenberg Sweep

Many of our students in Seidenberg enjoy participating in Hackathons, either for learning, the fun of competition, or a range of prizes. Just recently, Seidenberg students Sal Torcivia, Daniel Rings, and Zahid Mahir participated in ‘Hack Upon a Cause,’ a hackathon powered by XO Group, Inc., to develop apps for charities. The three, on two separate teams, placed first in their two different categories.

Sal Torcivia, pictured right, is a junior Computer Science major and ‘Hack Upon a Cause’ was his second hackathon. He mentioned that this was his first time working with strangers, whom he paired up with at the event. Not knowing the people on his team beforehand was an obstacle at first, as they all took time figuring out how they worked best together, but in the end Sal says he enjoyed getting to know other developers.

The hackathons are most often competitive and can last overnight if not longer. ‘Hack Upon a Cause’ was a 24 hour event geared towards creating apps, programs, or websites for four different charities; each charity had multiple teams and would produce separate winners. Sal’s team worked on the website for ‘Wish Upon a Wedding,’ an organization that helps provide weddings or vow renewals for the terminally ill. Sal paired his skills as an experienced WordPress developer with the skills of his other team mates to create a code ad hoc for the charity.

From the other team, Daniel Rings, a senior Computer Science major, spoke of the success he shared with his team mate, Zahid Mahir. The two worked on an app for ‘DayOne,’ an organization that works towards ending abuse in relationships. Daniel worked on the front end and Zahid on back end; the two came as a prepared team, ready to divvy up their work in respect to their fortes. ‘Hack Upon a Cause’ was Daniel’s sixth hackathon. He heard about it through Professor Scharff, who introduced him to the world of hackathon-ing in the first place. Daniel mentions the biggest benefit of competing in hackathons: learning a lot in a concentrated amount of time. All participants leave with new knowledge and a sharper skill set in whatever is what they worked in.

Many of the hackathons around NYC can be found by searching ‘hackathon’ on Eventbrite, or checking in with AlleyNYC. These hackathons are mostly free and occasionally have an entrance fee, but placing well in a competitive hackathon would be worth a small entry fee.