On this episode, host Tanmay Shah chats with Dr. Ana Rusch, Alex Duncan, & Hannah Moon, three key members of the OMSCS community and masterminds behind the annual OMSCS conference. Tune in to hear about the origins of this conference, highlights from the 2025 edition, and what to expect in next year's event.

VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for the entire catalog of episodes and our Feedback & Guest Nomination Form. 

EDITOR – Serge Nino-Martin Villasica 

On this episode, host Tanmay Shah chats with Dr. David Joyner, Associate Dean for Off-Campus & Special Initiatives and the Executive Director of Online Education & OMSCS in the College of Computing, a Principal Research Associate at Georgia Tech, and the inaugural holder of the Zvi Galil PEACE (Pervasive Equitable Access to Computing Education) Chair. He is the author of multiple books and 50 plus papers on online CS education. He's been a leading figure in the OMSCS community since its inception, and he has won several awards over the years including the 2022 College of Computing Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award. Excited to have him back on the show! 

TIMESTAMPS- 

(0:00) - Cold Intro 

(1:21) - Episode Intro 

(2:45) - New initiatives in OMSCS 

(9:20) - Partnership with companies 

(16:04) - New course offerings 

(20:13) - How AI affects the curriculum 

(23:04) - Impact of research funding in OMSCS 

(28:40) - Book: Teacher’s Guide to Conversational AI 

(40:59) - Final thoughts 

VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for the entire catalog of episodes and our Guest Nomination & Feedback Form. 

EDITOR – Serge Nino-Martin Villasica 

On this episode, host Tanmay Shah chats with Maritza Mills. Maritza is a product manager who most recently was at Google focused on cloud and AI. Previously, she has held product management roles at AWS and a startup acquired by Thomson Reuters. She's an OMSCS alum and Instructional Associate for KBAI.  Tune in to learn about her career journey, OMSCS experience, and her unique perspective as an AI product manager for one of a handful of companies at the forefront of AI innovation. 

TIMESTAMPS- 

(0:00) - Cold Open 

(1:22) - Episode Intro 

(5:22) - Early Years 

(10:45) - Product vs Project Management 

(13:28) - Product Management at Google and Amazon 

(22:28) - OMSCS journey 

(29:31) - Music as Discovery: GenAI and Creativity 

(36:30) - Further Research Plans 

(42:46) - Impact of OMSCS in career 

(52:36) - Final Thoughts 

VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for the entire catalog of episodes and our Feedback & Guest Nomination Form.

EDITOR –  Serge Nino Martin Villasica

On this episode, host Tanmay Shah chats with Dr. Jon Duke. He is the Director of the Health Emerging and Advanced Technologies Division at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Principal Research Scientist in the Georgia Tech College of Computing, and instructor for CS 6440 Graduate Intro to Health Informatics. He holds an MD from Harvard Medical School and a Master’s in Human Computer Interaction from Indiana University.  In this episode, you’ll hear about topics like healthcare data interoperability and large-scale health data analytics.  

TIMESTAMPS- 

(0:00) - Cold Open 

(1:22) - Episode Intro 

(2:21) - Pre-Med and History major 

(3:44) - Early interests in Japanese History 

(5:42) - Healthcare systems outside US 

(9:15) - Transitioning into Computing / HCI 

(17:55) - Regenstrief at Indiana University 

(23:08) - The OHDSI Project  

(29:03) - CHAI at Georgia Tech 

(37:10) - CS 6440 Health Informatics Course 

VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for the entire catalog of episodes and our Feedback & Guest Nomination Form. 

EDITOR – Serge Nino Martin Villasica 

On this episode, host Tanmay Shah chats with Rob Lindgren. Rob is an OMSCS alum and machine learning engineer at Capital One. Previously, he conducted applied NLP research in Dr. Ashok Goel’s Design & Intelligence Lab, and studied the effectiveness of NLP for economic forecasting at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. 

Enjoy this alumni spotlight! 

TIMESTAMPS- 

(0:00) - Cold Open 

(0:17) - Episode Intro 

(2:05) - Current work at Capital One 

(5:48) - Impact on OMSCS 

(9:58) - OMSCS Research  

(20:50) - Research outside GaTech 

(26:42) - Advice on transitioning to CS 

VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for the entire catalog of episodes and our Feedback & Guest Nomination Form.

EDITOR –  Serge Nino Martin Villasica

On this episode, host Tanmay Shah chats with Professor Irfan Essa. He’s a long-time member of the Georgia Tech community and holds numerous titles including Senior Associate Dean in the College of Computing and Director of the Machine Learning @ GT Center. He’s also a Principal Scientist and Research Director at Google  DeepMind. Professor Essa works in many areas of computing including machine learning, computer vision, robotics, human computer interaction, and computational journalism, having published over 200 articles and papers throughout his career. 

TIMESTAMPS- 

(0:00) – Cold intro  

(0:23)- Episode intro 

(2:10) - Early work as a PhD student  

(12:00) - Computer Vision 

(24:55) - Work with Google 

(30:30) - Machine Learning and Impact at GT 

(39:58) - Perception of Technology in Society 

(49:15) - Final thoughts 

VISIThttps://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for the entire catalog of episodes and our Feedback & Guest Nomination Form. 

EDITOR – Nikita Burks-Hale 

On this episode, host Tanmay Shah chats with Jim Lohse.  Jim was born and raised in Silicon Valley, but has lived in Utah since 2007.  He’s been an Instructional Associate for OMSCS since 2020, and he’s also a full-stack developer who helps small businesses accelerate their digital initiatives. Outside of software development, he is an avid fan of playing truck and train simulation games and exploring the mountains near his home. 

Enjoy this IA spotlight! 

TIMESTAMPS- 

(0:00) - Cold Open  

(1:10) - Episode Intro 

(1:50) - Growing up in Silicon Valley 

(4:08) - Transitioning into technology 

(11:12) - Intro to Info Sec (CS 6035) 

(12:37) - Becoming an Instructional Associate 

(13:44) - Research experience with OMSCS 

(16:24) - Blogging and YouTube 

(18:21) - Hobbies 

(20:27) - Final Thoughts 

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimlohse/ 

Website for Jim's Weekly Security Postshttps://www.tekhub.live/ 

Jim's streaming channels:

https://www.twitch.tv/truckandtrain 

https://www.youtube.com/@truckandtrain 

https://www.truckandtrain.com 

VISIThttps://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for the entire catalog of episodes and our Feedback & Guest Nomination Form. 

EDITOR – Serge Nino Martin Villasica 

On this episode, host Tanmay Shah chats with Dr. Kishore Ramachandran. He is a Professor in the College of Computing where his research areas specialize in architectural design, programming, and analysis of parallel and distributed systems.  He is also one of the founders of the OMSCS program along with previous director of the STAR Center, a collaborative partnership between Samsung and Georgia Tech. He is an IEEE Fellow and has dozens of other accolades to his name for his research and teaching during his time at Georgia Tech. 

TIMESTAMPS- 

(0:00) - Cold Open 

(1:17) - Episode Intro 

(2:05) - PhD journey 

(4:08) - 37 years at Georgia Tech! 

(7:12) - Academia and PhD students 

(16:18) - Founding of OMSCS 

(24:50) - Courses in OMSCS 

(41:40) - Research Areas 

(52:22) - Hobbies 

(56:06) - Final Thoughts 

VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for the entire catalog of episodes and our Feedback Form. 

EDITOR – Serge Nino Martin Villasica 

On this episode, host Tanmay Shah chats with Peter Graening. Peter is a Lecturer and Academic Program Director for Georgia Tech Professional Education. He’s a decade-long member of the OMSCS community as a student, TA, and Instructional Associate.  Tune in to hear about his unconventional career journey and the outsized impact he's making as a Georgia Tech faculty member.

TIMESTAMPS- 

(0:00) - Cold Open 

(1:22) - Episode Intro 

(3:08) - Theatre Arts Experience 

(10:19) - Experience at UPS 

(14:18) - OMSCS Journey 

(24:02) - GTPE 

(30:43) - Final Thoughts 

VISIT https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast for the entire catalog of episodes and our Feedback Form. 

EDITOR –  

Serge Nino Martin Villasica 

On this episode, host Tanmay Shah chats with Dr. Santosh Vempala. He is the Frederick Storey II Chair of Computing and Distinguished Professor in the School of Computer Science.  

His areas of research include the theory of algorithms, Foundations of Data Science, Theory of Brain, and Computing for Good. He has made substantial advances in these fields for which he is a Sloan, Guggenheim, ACM, and American Mathematical Society Fellow. 

TIMESTAMPS- 

(0:00) - Cold Open 

(1:10) - Episode Intro 

(1:55) - 2024 Fulkerson Prize 

(3:51) - Work on Algorithms 

(18:31) - Computing for Good 

(24:24) - Advice on pursuing a PhD 

(26:42) - Theory of Computing Journal editor

(28:32) - Hobbies and Personal Life 

VISIT ⁠https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-buzz-podcast⁠ for the entire catalog of episodes and our Feedback Form. 

EDITOR – Serge Nino Martin Villasica