Support for Research Computing in 2014-2015
By Kirk Anne
For the 2014-2015 academic year, there were a number of projects that fell into the
research computing area. These projects spanned many departments and directly
included ten students.
Committees
Quantitative and Digital Exploration Collaborative (QDEC)
I participated in the analysis and summarization of the department survey. I
contributed to the recommendation on objectives dealing with quantitative methods
forwarded to the Geneseo Learning Objectives for a Baccalaureate Education
(GLOBE) committee.
SUNY Information Security Officers Working Group
I am participating in the subgroup dealing with policy and have contributed a
summary of policies dealing record retention.
Project Assistance
VisoWorld (Entrepreneur Project/INTD 388)
I provided technical consultation to Luciano Scala (ls16@geneseo.edu), a School of
Business major, on the design and implementation for a system that matches
students with study abroad opportunities. The initial part of the project was to
create a database of all study abroad opportunities within SUNY and create a
matchmaking algorithm to provide students with information on programs that best
match their needs and interests.
Skooloko (Entrepreneur Project/INTD 388)
I provided technical consultation to Sewedo Whenu (smw16@geneseo.edu) and his
team for his startup called Skooloko.com.
Digital Thoreau Project (Faculty/Student Project)
I assisted Dr. Paul Schacht, the chair of the English department, and a number of
students on developing natural language processing (NLP) code to parse Walden
and other related texts. We developed programs that looked for common five word
phrases throughout the works. Another program computed various stylometric
values for all of the texts to find the similarities and differences between them. The
three main students I worked with for this project were:
 Greg Palermo (gp1@geneseo.edu)
 Becca Miller (ram19@geneseo.edu)

Jenna Cecchini (jmc62@geneseo.edu)
CADS Transcript Project (Faculty/Student Project)
I assisted Dr. Jennifer Guzman, a visiting assistant professor from Anthropology, and
her student, Joseph Teresi (jt16@geneseo.edu), on the categorization and
classification of conversations between doctors and patients. Dr. Guzman has a
corpus of over 500 transcripts of doctor-patient conversations in Microsoft Word. I
wrote a few programs to extract the information from the transcripts and put them
into a database for easier searching and classification.
Computational Study of Lyrics (Student Project)
I consulted with Tom Hartvigsen (th11@geneseo.edu) on a directed study project to
analyze song lyrics of a set of artists. I provided assistance with how to use R and
Python to extract stylometric information from the lyrics.
Reconstruction of “Kevin” (Student Project)
I taught Tyler Blank (jtb13@geneseo.edu), an Anthropology student, on the use of
our MakerBot 3D scanner. Tyler and a few other students are reconstructing the
skeleton of a dog (named Kevin) found at the Hopewell Indian dig site, led by Dr.
Paul Pacheco.
Augmented Reality Sandbox (IITG project)
I provided technical assistance to Dr. Scott Giorgis in Geology on the construction
and operation of two “augmented reality” sandboxes. These sandboxes provide
students with live interactive topological maps generated from the surface of sand
in a sand box. The sandboxes can also be configured to illustrate where water flows,
given a particular terrain.
Wireless Network Mapping (Student Project)
I worked with Colleen Garrity and one of her students to determine a method for
mapping the outdoor wireless network access on campus. This was a class project
that some students may continue, if they are interested.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Lab
I provided technical support to Dr. Eric Helms on the workstations in the lab. There
were security patches and some basic maintenance required.
Pelletron Accelerator Lab
I provided technical support to Dr. Charlie Freeman for workstations that drive the
accelerator.
Confocal Microscope
I provided some assistance to Dr. Travis Bailey in troubleshooting Biology’s Nikon
confocal microscope.
3D Printing and Scanning Support
I have been working on developing expertise on 3D printing technology. I have
worked with Dr. Aaron Heap from the Math department, along with his students on
developing ideas for a course on 3D printing and technology. In doing so, I have
talked with a few faculty on the use of 3D printing in their departments. Some ideas
include:
 Dr. Jeff Over (Geology) Printing microscopic fossils at a macroscopic scale
 Dr. George Marcus (Physics) Rapid prototyping lab equipment
 Dr. Eric Helms (Chemistry) Printing protein molecules
 Dr. David Geiger (Chemistry) Printing molecules generated by a program
 Dr. Aaron Heap (Math) Printing complex topological surfaces
 Dr. Paul Paecheco (Anthropology) Scanning/printing delicate artifacts
 Richard Maxson (Anthropology) Using 3D scanning to assess pottery shards
Guest Lectures/Class Assistance
Amanda Tucker – Honors Seminar: Big Data (HONR 205 Fall 2014)

Guest lecture on text analysis used at Geneseo
Yusuf Bilgic – Topics in Math: Applied Multivariate Statistics (MATH 380)

Guest lecture on text analysis used at Geneseo
Paul Schacht – Major Authors: Dickens (ENG 458 Fall 2014)

Provided technical support to a student group doing text analysis
Paul Schacht - Literature & Literature Study in Digital Age (ENGL 340 Spr 2015)
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Provided technical support to two student groups
Provided five lectures on the use of R to analyze literature
Jennifer Guzman – Introduction to Linguistics (ANTH 220 Spring 2015)


Guest lecture on computational linguistics
Assisted with in-class project on word list selection
Judy Albers – VentureWorks (INTD 388)

Provided technical consultation to entrepreneurial students
Stephen Padalino – Digital Electronics (PHYS 230)

Participated as a judge for the 2nd Arduino Fair/Final
Classes
INTD 121 Introduction to Programming (Python)
I developed a course that provides an introduction to programming that handles
requirements from many different disciplines. This course served 60 students (30 in
the fall, 30 in the spring).
Directed Study on Web Development
This directed study was with Audrey Froats (acf6@geneseo.edu) investigated how
to build a WordPress site and include options for selling products via the web. The
work in this directed study provided the experience for the student and led to two
job opportunities.
Directed Study on Object Tracking
This directed study was with Nicole Riggio (nar5@geneseo.edu) investigated the
possibility of replacing a program used in Physics labs called Tracker. Tracker uses
video to capture data. In this directed study, the student was successfully able to use
a laptop web camera, select an object, and track the object live.
Grant Proposals
IITG proposal for augmented reality sandbox
I assisted Dr. Scott Giorgis on the development of his successful IITG proposal. I am
working with him to extend the use in classes by writing additional programs to
extend the capabilities of the sandbox.
NSF “VIDIA” proposal with UB CCR and Oneonta
I worked on developing a proposal for NSF to extend the use and capabilities of
VIDIA, a web based portal to computational resources at the University of Buffalo’s
Center for Computational Research. The VIDIA project was a successful IITG
proposal led by Oneonta and UB.
Conference Presentations
UPSTAT 2015

Presented “Analyzing Literature using statistics”
Conference on Instruction and Technology
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Attended workshop “VIDIA - A Virtual Infrastructure for Data Analysis”
Presented “Interdisciplinary Research in Digital Humanities”
Lead special interest group on “Digital Humanities