Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

John Milanese explores philosophical questions about science and technology, especially those concerning the role that ethical and political values play in shaping scientific research and technological progress. In all of his classes, students have the opportunity to work closely with him and their peers on projects of their own creation that are most relevant to their interests. He currently works with students in the following classes: Minds and Machines, Critical Thinking, Ethics, Philosophy of Science, and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. 

James Hendler is the Director of the Future of Computing Institute and the Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web and Cognitive Sciences at RPI and is also director of the RPI-IBM Artificial Intelligence Research Collaboration.  Hendler is a data scientist with specific interests in open government and scientific data, data science for healthcare, AI and machine learning, semantic data integration and the use of data in government.

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.

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.

Deborah McGuinness is a leading expert in knowledge representation and reasoning languages and systems and has worked in ontology creation and evolution environments for over 20 years. Most recently, McGuinness is best known for her leadership role in semantic web research, and for her work on explanation, trust, and applications of semantic web technology, particularly for scientific applications. “I am interested in making smart systems that help people and machines function better,” said McGuinness.

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.

Chris Sims received a B.S. in computer science from Cornell University (2003), followed by a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2009). After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Sims held a postdoctoral research position at the University of Rochester, and a faculty position at Drexel University before joining the faculty at RPI in 2017.Chris Sims has made significant contributions to our understanding of human cognition through his research in computational modeling. One of his notable contributions is the application of information theory to cognitive processes.

Brett Fajen conducts research on perception and action. His main interests are the visual control of locomotion and perceptual-motor learning and adaptation. His research on these topics contributes to the development of the ecological and dynamical systems approaches to perception and action. “If you have ever been awed by the performance of a professional athlete, then you can appreciate some of the challenges that are faced when executing a skilled action,” said Fajen. “Such tasks require rapid decision-making, anticipation, and coordination.

Dr. van Heuveln is a passionate educator who continually tries to improve the effectiveness of the many different undergraduate courses he teaches in the areas of cognitive science, logic, artificial intelligence, critical thinking, and the philosophy of mind. Dr. van Heuveln’s research is in the area of visual logic: using visual representations to perform and enhance logical reasoning. Dr.

Dr. Weissman's research focuses on meaning in conversation from a cognitive and linguistic perspective. With a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Weissman has conducted research at the intersections of pragmatics, psycholinguistics, and experimental linguistics. His dissertation investigated the effects of context and different types of linguistic meaning on lie judgments; current research expands on this topic. In addition, Dr.