Gaetano Borriello, Open Data Kit
Professor Gaetano Borriello holds the Jerre D. Noe Chair of Computer Science &
Engineering at the University of Washington. He holds a PhD in CS from the University of
California at Berkeley (1988) and an MS in EE from Stanford University (1981). He was a
member of the research staff at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center from 1980-87. From
2001-2003, he was on leave from UW to found the Intel Research laboratory in Seattle,
which quickly became one of the premier research labs for work in ubiquitous computing. Borriello is directing efforts in applying mobile technologies to the problems of public health
and development in low-resource settings. His group's open-source mobile data collection
tools, Open Data Kit, are in use on six continents in programs ranging across public health,
documentation of human rights violations, and environmental monitoring.
Daren Brabham, Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism
Daren C. Brabham, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Annenberg School for
Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. He studies
crowdsourcing and online communities, with a focus on how to use crowdsourcing and new
media for the public good. He is the author of the book 'Crowdsourcing' (MIT Press, 2013)
and more than a dozen articles and chapters on the topic. His work has been supported by
the Federal Transit Administration, the IBM Center for the Business of Government, and
the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Amos Budde, Civis Analytics
Amos Budde is senior analyst at Civis Analytics, the corporate incarnation of the 2012
Obama for America analytics team. His campaign work including building predictive models
that forecast election outcomes, informed where to hold campaign rallies, and helped manage
volunteer time and resources.At Civis his current focus is in health care, addressing the
behavioral and targeting challenges associated with health insurance enrollment and costcontrolling. His most recent work in this field, a census-tract map of the uninsured
population, was featured on Washington Post's WonkBlog.
Waylon Brunette, Open Data Kit: http://opendatakit.org
Llewellyn Cox, Bioprogramming Solutions/Research 2.0
Llewellyn Cox is a research scientist, research manager, and open science advocate. He is the
founder of Bioprogramming Solutions, a company that developed automated cell culture
technologies; March Metrics, an open-source competition for young academic researchers;
and Research2.0, an academic initiative to expose university research to new techniques and
tools in the digital sphere, and to promote a more open, entrepreneurial research paradigm.
Nolan Doesken, CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network)
Nolan Doesken is a life long weather and climate enthusiast. He grew up in rural Illinois and
received his formal education in the stormy and humid Midwest. He headed west in 1977
and has spent almost all of his working career (36 years so far) at the Colorado Climate
Center at Colorado State University. Nolan currently serves as "State Climatologist" for
Colorado, Director of the Fort Collins Weather Station and Founder and Director of the
"Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow" (CoCoRaHS) network. While working
with most aspects of climatology, his emphasis is on the patterns, variability and impacts of
precipitation.
Shannon Dosemagen, Public Laboratory
A founder of Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science. Shannon is based in New
Orleans as President of the organization. With a background in community organizing, prior
to working with Public Lab, Shannon held a position with the Anthropology and Geography
Department at Louisiana State University as a Community Researcher and Ethnographer on
a study about the social impacts of the BP oil spill in coastal Louisiana communities. She was
also the Oil Spill Response Director at the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, conducting projects
such as the first on-the-ground health and economic impact surveying in Louisiana post-spill
and crowdmapping environmental impacts via civic reporting. Shannon is specifically
interested in infusing traditional organizing methods of the environmental sector with new
media technologies and tools. Shannon has an MS in Anthropology and Nonprofit
Management and has worked with nonprofits for over thirteen years.
Julia Kumari Drapkin, iSeeChange
Julia Kumari Drapkin is the lead producer of iSeeChange and theAlmanac.org, a
crowdsourced climate change reporting project that seeks to reimagine the Farmer’s
Almanac for the 21st century and a changing climate. She is a radio, television, and
multimedia producer based in New Orleans with a passion for finding innovative ways to
connect people to their environment and to each other. iSeeChange was born out of over 7
years of covering natural disasters and climate change science across the globe and in her
own backyard. Drapkin has worked as the Senior Science Reporter for The Nature
Conservancy; a foreign correspondent and multimedia producer for PRI's The World and
Global Post in South America; and as a photojournalist for the Associated Press in South
Asia and for the St. Petersburg Times. She was a NSF Polar Fellow in 2009 and a Metcalf
Environmental Reporting Fellow for PRI's The World in 2007. Drapkin earned an MA at
Columbia University. Prior to journalism, Julia did research anthropology and archaeology
for over 7 years in Latin America, including analysis of Mayan Farmer’s Almanacs and
weather records.
Brandon Harvey, Oblong
Brandon Harvey is a software engineer at Oblong Industries, which seeks to transform the
way people work, create, and collaborate. Oblong believes the era of one human, one mouse,
one screen, one machine is giving way to what's next: multiple participants, working in
proximity and remotely, using a groundbreaking spatial interface to control applications and
data spread across every display. A few years ago, Oblong helped Jer Thorpe create a glovecontrolled exo-planet visualization.
Brandon’s interest in groundbreaking user interfaces has led from
wall-sized touchscreens to glove interfaces, gesture, smart rooms, and
other emerging forms of interface between people, machines, and
people. Recent work includes Oblong's free Greenhouse SDK for
building spatial interactions.
Jenna Lang, SciStarter
Jenna is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the laboratory of Jonathan Eisen at UC Davis. She began
her research career with work on the Human Genome Project at the DOE Joint Genome
Institute in Walnut Creek, CA. She now works in the field of microbial ecology and
genomics. She became interested in citizen science and involved with SciStarter.com through
a collaboration with Darlene Cavalier on Project MERCCURI.
SciStarter.com is a citizen science hotspot. SciStarter aims to bring together the millions of
citizen scientists in the world; the thousands of potential projects offered by researchers,
organizations, and companies; and the resources, products, and services that enable citizens
to pursue and enjoy these activities.
Lea Shanley, Commons Lab – Woodrow Wilson Center
Lea Shanley directs the Commons Lab within the Science and Technology Innovation
Program of Woodrow Wilson Center. The Commons Lab advances research and
independent policy analysis on emerging technologies that facilitate collaborative, sciencebased and citizen-driven decision-making. In 2009, Lea served as an Association for the
Advancement of Science Congressional Science Fellow and primary science adviser to the
Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space, managing the Senator's priorities
for federal R&D and crafting legislation on earth observation, oceans issues, and hazards
research and mitigation. Previously, she conducted her dissertation research at the
Environmental Remote Sensing Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, engaging local
and tribal communities in the development and use of GIS-based decision support systems to
enable collaborative decision-making for improved natural resource management, coastal
management, precision agriculture, and emergency response.
Jonathan Stray, The Overview Project
Jonathan Stray is the project lead of The Overview Project, a visualization and analysis
tool intended to help journalists, researchers, and other curious people make sense of
massive, disorganized collections of electronic documents. Stray began his career in
computer science, then moved into journalism. From 2000 to 2009 he worked in
a research group at Adobe Systems on products such as After Effects and Flash. In 2009
he moved to Hong Kong and worked as a full-time freelance reporter, contributing to
Foreign Policy, the New York Times, and China Daily. From 2010 to 2012 he was the
Interactive Technology Editor at the Associated Press, overseeing team of developers
and producers creating interactive news stories. He has an MSc. in Computer Science
from the University of Toronto and a Master of Journalism from the University of Hong
Kong.
Eric and Dan Leininger, Happy Fun Planet
Eric Leininger, PhD is the founder/owner of Leininger Patents, a bio-tech consulting and
patent agency firm. In addition to being a patent agent, he is a full-stack web application
developer, and a part time researcher at Tulane University in the department of Cell and
Molecular Biology. He has several scientific research publications and five patents pending.
Dan Leininger, Eric's brother, is also a full-stack web application developer, UI designer,
musician and inventor. He is working on several notable projects, including Sciphundify, a
crowd-funding science application with an emphasis on bridging the gap in understanding
between researchers and the general public, and ISeeChange, a socially networked weather
Almanac for communities to collectively journal climate observations.
Eric and Dan live in New Orleans and are co-founders of HappyFunPlanet, a web-based
peer-to-peer learning platform. They are developing applications that focus on peer-to-peer
accreditation, micro-publications and collaborative repeatability in scientific experiments.
Brian Nosek, Center for Open Science
Brian Nosek received a Ph.D. in from Yale University in 2002 and is an associate professor
in the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia. He co-founded Project
Implicit an Internet-based multi-university collaboration of research and education about
implicit cognition – thoughts and feelings that exist outside of awareness or control. Nosek
also co-founded and directs the Center for Open Science that operates the Open Science
Framework, which aims to increase openness, integrity, and reproducibility of scientific
research.
Lela Prashad, NiJeL and 100 Cities Project
Lela Prashad is the Chief Data Scientist and a co-founder of NiJeL.org, an organization that
provides mapping and data services for community and environmental impact. Prashad
directed the 100 Cities Project at Arizona State University until 2012 and is still active in
urban research with ASU. Prior to NiJeL she established and ran the water program for the
environmental non-profit Arizona PIRG and worked with the United States Geological
Survey's Earthquake Hazards Team and Arizona Departments of Environmental Quality
and Water Resources. Prashad holds an M.S. in Geological Sciences from ASU and a B.S. in
Geosciences from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
Lindsey Wagner, iSeeChange
Lindsey Wagner is an interactive producer, user experience designer and artist who loves
working with others to produce inspiring and valuable experiences. Previously she worked
in a Los Angeles woodshop before founding a user experience design division at a leading
interactive agency. Through early 2013, Wagner worked as Zeega's director of projects +
user experience through early 2013 and was instrumental in co-leading the production 8
national public media projects, including iSeeChange and theAlmanac.org. Her specialties
include conceptual development, user experience / interaction design, user research,
information architecture, project management, multimedia production, team leadership, and
client management. When not working, she’s often creating sculptures at my clay studio or
curating bike rides around Boston.
Aline Betancourt, Wibi+Works and Schiphundify
Aline M. Betancourt is a recognized expert in the field of stem cells, cancer, and stem cellbased therapies. She has greatly contributed to the understanding of many aspects of human
bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) over the last decade. Dr. Betancourt
received her Doctor of Philosophy degree from Georgetown University Medical Center. Her
postdoctoral training in cancer research began at the National Cancer Institute. She has been
a faculty member of Tulane University School of Medicine for the last eighteen years.Her
current efforts as the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Wibi+Works, LLC are to
advance an improved cell-based therapy for rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases
associated with inflammation. She is also currently devoting herself to Sciphundify, a new
crowdfunding project that she founded along with Dan Leininger and others, as a way to
overcome the growing hurdles for scientists to advance their ideas and thus to more quickly
fuel innovation.
Alexander Smith, NASA JPL
Alexander Theophilus Parsons Smith received a masters degree in library and information
science, focused in information science and technology, from Kent State University. After a
few years of university faculty positions spread across the US, he soon found himself
relocating to Los Angeles downtown arts district after he got a foot in the door at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a systems librarian.
Shortly after starting, other JPL departments discovered Alex's hobby of doing unthinkable
projects with Javascript and data visualization would prove valuable in other areas around
lab. At JPL, Aex works with various communities of scientists, artists, and programmers by
prototyping 2D and 3D data visualization tools for both web and mobile web. Alex
thoroughly enjoys helping scientists and end-users to view meaningful data in an elegant
manner from the mountains of 0's and 1's and 0.00001's.
Sharon Ray, NASA JPL
Sharon Ray received a degree in computer science and mathematics from the University of
Illinois and began her career at JPL as a computer system administrator in the Guidance and
Control division. This was followed by a position with the Galileo Mission to Jupiter where
she became lead of the Flight Software Group for the spacecraft's Attitude and Articulation
Control Subsystem. Following Galileo, Ms. Ray took a position in the Earth Science Remote
Sensing Group where she wrote software that assisted scientists using satellite data in their
research. She later transitioned into the Communications Division at JPL, where she is
currently directing the web site and outreach efforts for the Center for Climate Sciences. Ms.
Ray also acts as the web site manager and outreach director for the Atmospheric Infrared
Sounder Mission on NASA's Aqua spacecraft.
Charles Thompson, NASA JPL
Charles Thompson is an award-winning software developer, team leader and manager with
23 years of JPL experience. He has a broad knowledge of Earth science and planetary data
systems and a proven history of success serving the science community in identifying,
developing and implementing innovative data analysis and visualization software solutions.
Ralph Basilio, NASA JPL
Dr. Ralph R. Basilio is employed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of
Technology (Caltech) in the Earth Science and Technology Directorate as the
Project Manager for Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) and OCO-3. He has over 20
years of professional experience, anumber working with international partners, in leading
development and mission operations teams, developing flight hardware and software, and
designing ground support equipment.
Dr. Basilio received two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals -- one for leading the
CloudSat spacecraft development effort and the other for leading the Deep Space 1 in-flight
technology validation work. Additionally, Dr. Basilio received a NASA Space Act Award for
design and development of the Mars Pathfinder ground support equipment and more than a
dozen NASA Group Achievement Awards on these and other unmannedspace missions.
Dr. Basilio earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in aerospace engineering from the
University of Southern California (USC). He also earned a Master of Science degree in
aerospace engineering (with an emphasis on astronautics) also from the USC, a Bachelor of
Science degree in aerospace engineering from the California State Polytechnic University,
Pomona, and is a graduate of the Engineering Management Program at Caltech.
Chris Mattmann, NASA JPL
Chris Mattmann has a wealth of experience in software design, and in the construction of
large-scale data-intensive systems. His work has infected a broad set of communities,
ranging from helping NASA unlock data from its next generation of earth science system
satellites, to assisting graduate students at the University of Southern California (his Alma
mater) in the study of softwarearchitecture, all the way to helping industry and open source
as a member of the Apache Software Foundation. When he's not busy being busy, he's
spending time with his lovely wife and son braving the mean streets of Southern California.
Christian Frankenberg, NASA JPL
Christian Frankenberg's area of research interests include Remote sensing of atmospheric
trace gases, Biogeochemical cycles, Hydrological cycle and distribution of water
isotopes, Inverse methods, and Applied spectroscopy. His current flight project work include
Tropospheric EmissionSpectrometer (TES) on Aura and the Greenhouse gases Observing
Satellite (GOSAT).
Frankenberg did his studies at the University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany, Vordiplom
in Geoecology, with honors (1999) and Diplom in Geoecology, with honors (2002), and
received his Ph.D from Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg, Germany, Dr. res. Nat.,
summa cum laude, Institute of Environmental Physics in 2005. Frankenberg has been a
working at JPL since 2010 and was previously at the Netherlands Institute for Space
Research, Utrecht, in The Netherlands. He was a recipient of the Lew Allen Award for
Excellence in 2012.
Karen Yuen, NASA JPL
Karen Yuen began her career at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2001 as the Earth Public
Engagement Manager, and led an experienced EPO team in supporting the missions, while
thematically aligning the work with NASA’s goals and objectives for nearly a decade. Since
2010, Ms. Yuen has been the Project element manager-EPO for the Soil Moisture Active
Passive Mission (SMAP) and the Orbiting CarbonObservatory (OCO-2). She is also the
NASA Applied Sciences Program Performance Lead. Ms. Yuen has received 7 NASA Group
Achievement awards for her work on various missions.
Yuen received her Bachelor’s degree with majors in Chemistry/Physics and French from
Saint Mary’s College/Notre Dame. She pursued a MA in Scientific Journalism at New York
University, while working as an Editorial Assistant for “Neuroscience”. Then she continued
her graduate studies for a Ph.D (not completed) in Organic Chemistry at Universite de
Paris-VI Jussieu and Universite de Paris-V Rene Descartes, working in studying rates of
reaction and stereo specific synthesis of bioorganic compounds.