Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

I am an experimental and behavioral economist working primarily on issues surrounding limited attention, reciprocity, and risk preferences. I received his PhD in Economics in 2019 from the University of Maryland, College Park under the advisement of Erkut Ozbay and Emel Filiz-Ozbay.

Dr. Peng Joined RPI in 2018. Prior to that, he taught at SUNY Albany from 2008 to 2017. He received his PhD in Economics from Yale Univeristy in 2008, his Master in Statistics in 2001 and Bachelor in Economics and Mathematics in 1999 from Macquarie University in Australia. Dr. Peng is an econometrician, He currently works on measuring forecasting accuracy and high dimensional statistics.

Dr. Holly A. Traver received her B.A. and Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York. While she has published and presented in various journals and at conferences, her passion lies in interacting with and educating the bright and talented students at Rensselaer. In addition, she has served as a consultant for the New York State Police, Academy of Certified Archivists, and Snowslip Equine Center. In 2010, Dr.

Yalun Helen Zhou has an interdisciplinary background in applied linguistics, curriculum design, and program evaluation. Her work involves second language acquisition, sociolinguistics, multimodal literacy design with emerging technology, and user experience research on virtual platforms (e.g., gamified, game-based, and cognitive immersive). Before joining RPI, Zhou worked at Michigan State University, collaborating with Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute to offer an online Chinese program through massively multiple-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs).

Dr. Ameres returned to RPI after a successful career in industry developing multimedia tools and technology in a number of fields. He has developed groundbreaking MIDI and music software, tools for game developers as well as video and audio compression and streaming technology (including over a dozen patents now held by Google) that has become the format of choice on many of the most popular video platforms on the internet. Ameres completed his M.S. and Ph.D.

Elizabeth Press (EP) is a media-maker and educator based in Troy, NY, interested in socially engaged practices, experimental documentary, and politics. Press cut their teeth in journalism as a producer for the independent TV/Radio program, Democracy Now!. As a videographer, producer, and editor, Press worked with BRIC Arts Media, StreetFilms, PBS, and covered years of the UN climate negotiations. Press is a Senior Lecturer in the Arts Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute teaching classes in filmmaking and television production.

Daniel Thero is a Lecturer in Cognitive Science, specializing in Philosophy, and currently serves as coordinator of the undergraduate program in Philosophy. A dedicated educator, he regularly teaches such Philosophy courses as Introduction to Philosophy, Philosophy of Biology, Metaphysics and Consciousness, and Environmental Philosophy, along with the HASS-Inquiry courses Great Ideas in Philosophy, and Philosophy, Technology and the Human Future. Dr. Thero’s graduate degrees are in Philosophy, including an M.S. from Rensselaer (1993), along with an undergraduate background in science.

Pianist Chrysi Nanou combines a career as a performer, curator, and researcher in music psychology. She is currently a Music Fellow and Lecturer at RPI, NY. Born in Greece, Chrysi’s personal and professional aesthetics were formed in Paris and further shaped in the United States with her studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris / Alfred Cortot, The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, and at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).

I study the history and culture of technology. My most recent book, For Fun and Profit: A History of the Free and Open Source Software Revolution (MIT Press, 2017), explores the history of software whose source code is freely shared, and the cultural and economic impact of such software. I am also interested in "new" military history.