2009
Computer & Information Science, Algorithmic game theory
Hometown: Edicott, NY

Community is an important factor in the Northeastern graduate experience. Smaller classes, opportunities to work in multiple disciplines of study, and close working relationships with professors build the foundation of academics at the University. Laura Poplawski, a doctoral candidate in the College of Computer and Information Science, says the community environment has helped her in the emerging field of Algorithmic Game Theory. "We have a very interactive department," she explains, "so all of the professors work together. If one professor doesn't know something, they will turn you over to the right individual and that person will be happy to work with you. It is the perfect mix of working by yourself and working with others." In this sense, the College of Computer and Information Science offers the atmosphere of a small, close-knit college with all of the resources of a large, urban university.

"Algorithmic game theory is a relatively new area in computer science; a lot of things could fit into it." Laura describes her current research: In layman's terms, let's say you have a social network and everybody is only allowed to connect to a certain, limited number of other people. But everybody is trying to get as few hops as possible to everyone else in the network by strategically picking who to connect to. So the question is: what happens when everybody is selfishly deciding who to pick as their friends in order to connect to everybody . . . do you end up with a stable condition or do people keep moving? You can take this theoretical question and apply it to wireless networks, or to fractional connections, like time-based, or all sorts of different versions."

The new facilities that house the College of Computer and Information Science are an added bonus for Laura. "The brand new building," she says with a smile, ". . . I'm a big fan of that." Built in 2004, the building offers state-of-the-art classrooms and all the necessary technology for vanguard research and development. Accompanying the advanced technology in the classrooms is a refined architectural aesthetic quality that is unmatched. The building was awarded the 2005 Harleston Parker Medal by the Boston Society of Architects as the best new building in the Boston metro area.

2009
Computer & Information Science, PhD in Programming Languages
Hometown: Lewiston, ME

Collaboration is an important facet of the Northeastern graduate experience. So says Sam Tobin-Hochstadt, a doctoral candidate in the College of Computer and Information Science. "There are about six or seven professors who teach programming languages and close to twenty grad students," he explains. "We have a big lab where everyone is together. There's a lot of cross collaboration and a lot of opportunity to talk to other grad students who are working on related topics, bounce ideas off of them, get ideas from them." Collaboration among graduate students has aided Sam in his work with typed scheme—a system "we have developed to enable the porting of untyped script into larger typed or maintainable programs."

Faculty support at Northeastern has provided a great base for Sam as well. "There are so many professors who have interesting and useful insights. It's been a great place to work . . . My advisor is Matthias Felleisen, and he's been terrific. He's a really supportive advisor, he knows a ton about the subject, and he's really helped me refine ideas for my thesis."

Collaboration does not end at the department or even University level. Sam says that the city of Boston is beneficial to his education as well. "Boston is great because it has so many universities where there are people working on similar things. I've been to seminars at Harvard, BU and Tufts, at MIT of course . . . so there are great opportunities to meet people." Connecting with people at various other prestigious establishments, from universities to businesses, is part of the educational and cultural Bostonian experience Northeastern graduate students encounter. "There's even a programming language workshop series that is run in New England and that is mostly based in Boston, because that's where the big conglomeration of research is. So it's a great environment to do research in. There are so many people to collaborate with and learn from all over the area."

"The College of Computer and Information Science has been great for me. We have a really strong program in programming languages, which is what I study."