Mung Chiang
Arthur LeGrand Doty
Professor of Electrical Engineering

Member of a group helping the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology write a report on education information technology and online education to the president.

“The development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) is both promising and challenging. This will be a long-term experiment, and we need to better understand the empirical, data-driven science of learning. Advances in pedagogy have to catch up with technology development and business hype.”

Eric Wood
Susan Dod Brown
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Works with UNESCO and regional governmental organizations in Africa to develop a monitor to measure drought in vulnerable regions of the continent.

“Drought is perhaps the most devastating natural disaster, especially in sub-Saharan Africa where livelihoods depend on climate sensitive subsistence agriculture and the capacity to cope is so limited. Our African Drought Monitoring system provides information to regional governments, local commu- nities and nongovernmental aid organizations as a drought develops, which will allow better and more timely coping decisions.”

Clarence Rowley III BSE ’95
Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Recent member of the Defense Science Study Group, a DARPA- supported program that seeks academic input on improving aspects of the Defense Department.

“I produced a report on dynamic graphs – for example, networks of vehicles that talk to each other and how the network changes as the vehicles move around – and techniques for analyzing these changing systems. I gained a greater perspective about the Defense Department and much greater respect for the department, just how capable it is and how impressive are many of the people who work there.”

Jennifer Rexford BSE ’91
Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor in Engineering and acting
Chair of the Department of Computer Science

Serves on the Federal Commu- nications Commission’s Open Internet Advisory Committee and runs its group on mobile broadband networks.

“Mobile broadband is a newer technology than fixed broadband and the network resources are constrained, making it harder for carriers to manage these networks. Part of our purpose is to under- stand this and evaluate whether the open-Internet rules treat mobile broadband appropriately. Protecting user choice and fostering healthy competition is important, and yet decisions about openness should be informed by what is technically possible and the challenges that carriers face in building and managing their networks.”