Sounak Banerjee

Area of Research / Interest:  Human Expertise

Undergraduate Education Institution:  University of Calcutta

Undergraduate Major:  Computer Science

Biography:  I was a Computer Science major in my undergrad, none of my courses involved Cognitive Science. During my masters, I became involved in Machine Learning research, at that time Reinforcement Learning systems were gaining traction in the field. I was impressed by the fact that these RL models learnt to walk, move objects, and perform incredible feats in simulated environments. However, the more papers I read, the more I was convinced there was something missing from these systems. Their ability to learn and generalize existing knowledge was still far behind human abilities. This got me interested in Cognitive Science, more specifically human learning and expertise.

Jacky Doll

Area of Research / Interest:  Intelligent Virtual Agents

Undergraduate Education Institution:  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Undergraduate Major:  Communication

Biography:  My research focuses on understanding group behavior from video content (images, audio, and speech properties). Email: dollj@rpi.edu. 

Zeming Fang

Area of Research / Interest:  Humans' learning and decision making

Undergraduate Education Institution:  Central China Normal University

Undergraduate Major:  Psychology

Biography:  I am currently a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the COGS department. I am interested in understanding humans' learning and decision-making with computational modeling techniques. Email:  fangz5@rpi.edu.

Adam Gomez

Area of Research / Interest:  Cognitive Architectures

Undergraduate Education Institution:  Universidad de Cordoba

Undergraduate Major:  Computer Science Education

Biography:  Adan Gomez is a COGS Ph.D.student from Monteria, Colombia. His master's degree in IT applied to Education is from the Universidad Pedagogica Nacional of Bogota, Colombia, and his bachelor's degree in Computer Science Education is from Universidad Cordoba in the same country. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for his doctoral studies, and his previous research on cognitive architectures encouraged him to focus on the simulation of specific mechanisms of that kind of architecture under the advisory of Dr. Ron Sun. Email:  gomeza2@rpi.edu. 

AJ Jansen

Area of Research / Interest:  Embodied cognition

Undergraduate Education Institution:  University of Evansville

Undergraduate Major:  Cognitive Science

Biography:  I grew up in Michigan, then moved to Indiana for college where I fell in love with cognitive science. I'm excited to start at RPI with the PandA lab and further explore the field! My other passions include martial arts, cooking, science fiction, and my cat.  Email:  jansea@rpi.edu

Emily Klein

Area of Research / Interest:  Language and Conspiracy Theorizing

Undergraduate Education Institution:  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Undergraduate Major:  Architecture

Biography:  Emily is a Ph.D. Candidate in Cognitive Science and Graduate Research Assistant advised by Dr. James Hendler. Her dissertation research focuses on blending natural language processing with insights from cognitive science to better understand and address real-world social phenomena like conspiracy theories.

Emily’s research lies at the intersection of computational social science and natural language processing and understanding (NLP/NLU). She is passionate about addressing structural issues in AI research and development, and leveraging data and AI to understand social issues, especially those affecting vulnerable populations.

Emily likes to spend time with her fiancé and two cats. She can be found out in the garden or starting a new DIY project.  Email:  kleine5@rpi.edu.

Noah Phillips

Area of Research / Interest:  Skill Acquisition in eSports

Undergraduate Education Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Undergraduate Major:  Psychology and Computer Science

Biography: I attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for undergraduate education, where I worked with Dr. C. Shawn Green to research the cognitive associations with world-level expertise in eSports (competitive video gaming). Here at RPI, I intend to continue pursuing the use of video games as a paradigm for cognitive science research, studying both individual skill acquisition as well as the development of skill and strategy within cooperative gaming teams.  Email:  philln2@rpi.edu.

Grace Roessling

Area of Research / Interest:  Integration of Online Visual Guidance and Spatial Navigation in High-speed Steering

Undergraduate Education Institution: SUNY Oswego

Undergraduate Major:  Cognitive Science and Psychology

Biography:  I grew up in Salisbury, New Hampshire throughout my childhood and teenage years. And, throughout my undergraduate and graduate school years, I've resided in upstate NY. I currently work in the Perception and Action Lab under the guidance of Dr. Brett Fajen. My research has led me to reading and thinking about a diverse range of research topics across disciplines, from prey pursuit strategies used by dragonflies to the visual control of driving. Email:  roessg@rpi.edu. 

Abraham Sanders

Area of Research / Interest:  Conversational AI

Undergraduate Education Institution: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Undergraduate Major:  Mathematics

Biography:  Abraham is a Cognitive Science PhD student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research interests lie in conversational AI – particularly in the areas of dialogue agent architecture, dialogue representation and understanding, and response evaluation in both open-domain and goal-oriented settings. Previously, Abraham completed his B.S. in Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and spent ten years working as a software engineer in the healthcare industry.

Outside of work, Abraham enjoys hiking, kayaking, traveling, and spending time with his family. He hopes to one day climb all 46 Adirondack high peaks with his daughter. Email: sandea5@rpi.edu

Jeramey Tyler

Hometown / Country:  Jeffersonville, Indiana

Area of Research / Interest:  Artificial intelligence

Undergraduate Education Institution: Indiana University Southeast

Undergraduate Major:  Computer Science and Mathematics

Biography: I did my undergraduate work at Indiana University Southeast where I received a bachelor's degree in computer science and an associates degree in mathematics. I received a master's degree in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I am now pursuing an interdisciplinary PhD in cognitive science under Professor Mei Si and acoustics under Professor Jonas Braasch. My research involves teaching artificial intelligence how to hear and my research areas of interest are artificial intelligence, sensing and perception, machine hearing, and machine learning. Email:  tylerj2@rpi.edu