Abraham is a Cognitive Science PhD student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research interests lie in conversational AI – particularly in the areas of dialogue agent architecture, dialogue representation and understanding, and response evaluation in both open-domain and goal-oriented settings. Previously, Abraham completed his B.S. in Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and spent ten years working as a software engineer in the healthcare industry.
Outside of work, Abraham enjoys hiking, kayaking, traveling, and spending time with his family. He hopes to one day climb all 46 Adirondack high peaks with his daughter.
Contact info:
Office: Winslow building, 2nd floor
Phone: 518-276-6472
Email: sandea5@rpi.edu
Peter is a Computer Science PhD student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research interests are in Natural Language Processing, Sentiment Analysis, and Computer Vision. Previously, he completed his B.S. in Computer Science at Stony Brook University with a Minor in Creative Writing and then completed his M.S. in Computer Science at Hofstra University.
In his free time, he likes drawing, playing video games, and trying to see how effective AI models can be at generating content for entertainment. He’s currently interested in how AI could be used to help prototype stories for novels and assets for game development.
Contact info:
Office: Winslow building, 2nd floor
Phone: 518-276-6472
Email: lyp2@rpi.edu
Tiziana is a Computer Science PhD student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Her research interests lie in NLP and social computing, with a focus on online interactions, social influence, and the analysis of information ecosystems and their threats. She is also interested in large language models, particularly in understanding and improving uncertainty estimation. Her overarching goal is to promote healthier and more trustworthy online interactions.
Before beginning her PhD, Tiziana earned her B.S. in Computer Science from Stonehill College in Massachusetts.
Outside of academia, she enjoys being outdoors and staying active, traveling, trying new recipes, doing puzzles, and spending time with friends and family.
Contact info:
Office: Winslow building, 2nd floor
Phone: 518-276-6472
Email: hernat@rpi.edu
Hyejin is a Computer Science PhD student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her research focuses on Human-AI Collaboration, especially intent modeling—enabling AI systems to interpret and adapt to human goals. She envisions AI that goes beyond being a tool, evolving into genuine collaborative partners with humans.
She holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Yonsei University and a B.S. in Industrial Management Engineering and Computer Engineering from Hansung University. Before joining RPI, she worked as a researcher at the Korea Electronics Technology Institute in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Outside of her academic work, she is interested in astronomy and music, and enjoys playing the piano and flower arranging. She doesn’t play video games herself, but she enjoys watching horror game playthroughs as her guilty pleasure.
Contact info:
Office: Winslow building, 2nd floor
Phone: 518-276-6472
Email: parkh12@rpi.edu
Joseph is a Cognitive Science PhD student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research focuses on large language models, cognitive architectures, and how the two can be integrated. Previously, he completed his B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from SUNY Polytechnic Institute.
Outside of work, Joseph enjoys running, golfing, reading, and gaming. He hopes to run the Boston Marathon at some point in the future.
Contact info:
Office: Winslow building, 2nd floor
Phone: 518-276-6472
Email: killij4@rpi.edu
Ian Rudy is a PhD student in Computer Science at RPI. His research interests include computer vision, visual accessibility, and otherwise visual/graphic domains in computer science. His current research involves physically-correct simulation of refractive errors (e.g. myopia/astigmatism) for analysis of web interface design accessibility. He has previously worked on research projects for computer vision systems for estimating the turbidity levels of water, and computer vision systems for monitoring oysters. He strives for employing sustainable practices in everything he does.
He has bachelors degrees in Computer Science and Communications, both from Susquehanna University, and an M.S. in Computer Science from RPI.
Outside of work he enjoys reading, biking, gaming, hiking, wiffleball, and cooking.
Contact info:
Office: Winslow building, 2nd floor
Phone: 518-276-6472
Email: rudyi@rpi.edu