Stephen P. Tarzia
Ford Engineering Design Center, room 2-221
2133 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
education
Northwestern University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Evanston, IL
Enrolled in PhD program, Sep. 2006 to present. Advised by Prof. Peter Dinda.
MS in Computer Engineering and Systems division: GPA 4.0, Oct. 2008. Advised by Prof. Robert P. Dick
Columbia University, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. New York, NY
BS in Computer Engineering, Magna Cum Laude: cumulative GPA 3.80, Feb. 2005
publications and presentations
S. P. Tarzia, P. A. Dinda, R. P. Dick, G. Memik. Display Power Management Policies in Practice. In Proc. 7th Intl. Conf. on Autonomic Computing and Communications (ICAC'10). June 2010. pages 51-60. [slides]
S. P. Tarzia, R. P. Dick, P. A. Dinda, G. Memik. Sonar-based Measurement of User Presence and Attention. In Proc. 11th Intl. Conf. on Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp'09). September 2009. pages 89-92. [slides]
Ancillary sonar publications:
S. P. Tarzia, R. P. Dick, P. A. Dinda, G. Memik. A Demonstation of Sonar-based Presence Detection. In Suppl. Proc. 11th Intl. Conf. on Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp'09). September 2009. pages 158-159.
S. P. Tarzia, R. P. Dick, P. A. Dinda, G. Memik. Sonar-Based Measurement of User Attention. Poster presentation at USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX'09). June 2009. [poster]
S. P. Tarzia, R. P. Dick, P. A. Dinda, G. Memik. Prospects for Sonar-based Measurement of User Attentiveness. Technical Report NWU-EECS-09-06, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University. April 2009.
S. P. Tarzia, H. Zhou, R. P. Dick. Fast Voltage Assignment by Convex-cost Flow. Technical Report NWU-EECS-09-07, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University. April 2009
professional service
Session Summarizer, USENIX Annual Technical Conference 2009, (published in login; magazine, Oct. 2009)
Technical Paper Reviewer, Asia South Pacific Design Automation Conference 2008
Technical Paper Reviewer, Embedded Systems Week Conference 2007
awards
Dr. John N. Nicholson Fellowship (full tuition and stipend); Northwestern University, Fall 2007- Spring 2010.
Walter P. Murphy Fellowship (full tuition and stipend); Northwestern University, Fall 2006 - Winter 2007.
Magna Cum Laude (top 10% of class); Columbia University, 2005.
research experience
Empathic Systems research, Northwestern University; Evanston, IL; August 2008 to January 2010
Sonar-based power management system for laptop computers
We detect presence of computer users using sound rather than relying on mouse and keyboard input. [report] [software]
Supervised by Professors Robert Dick, Peter Dinda and Gokhan Memik
VLSI-CAD research, Northwestern University; Evanston, IL; Fall 2007 to June 2008
Flow-based voltage assignment for High-level Synthesis
We developed an efficient algorithm to assign discrete voltages to functional units during High-Level Synthesis. [report]
Supervised by Professors Robert Dick and Hai Zhou
Science of Design research, Northwestern University; Evanston, IL; Fall 2006 to Summer 2007
Formal Methods for Unrealiable Systems
Modeled a simple consensus protocol using the TLA+ language and TLC model-checker [report]. Wrote a probabilistic model checking module for TLC [report].
Supervised by Professors Robert Dick and Hai Zhou
Metrobots group, Columbia University; New York, NY; Summer, Fall 2004
Software Development, Overhead camera 2D object tracking
Enhanced an open-source real-time video processing and vision server (Mezzanine) for use with robotic soccer. Integrated the vision server with existing agent-control software. [report] [software]
Supervised by Professor Elizabeth Sklar
teaching experience
Amundsen High School and School of the Arts (H.S.); Chicago, IL; Mar 31 and Apr 30, 2009
Guest science teacher.
Taught labs in earth science class through Northwestern's Meaningful Science Consortium. Supervised by Leslie Lepeska
Northwestern University; Evanston, IL; Spring 2007
Teaching assistant for EECS311: Data Structures course. Supervised by Professor Chris Riesbeck
Trevor Day School; New York, NY; Jan 2005 to May 2005
Lab a dab a do intern
Developed prototype educational software applications in Macromedia Director and MS Visual Studio.
Supervised by Stephen H. Lewis
Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP); New York, NY; Spring, Summer 2004
Robotics teacher
Taught high school students computer programming using Lego Mindstorms robotics. Provided classroom assistance for teachers using robotics in Elementary and Middle school classrooms. Assisted in training NYC teachers in the effective classroom use of robotics in a summer workshop.
Supervised by Professor Elizabeth Sklar
industry experience
Rise Telecom; Chicago, IL; Jan 2006 to Aug 2006
Chief Engineer
Built and maintained a complete VoIP service-provider platform using Asterisk, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.
Emergent Communications; New Caanan, CT; Jan 2005 to Aug 2006
Solutions Engineer
Evaluated and reported on various SIP-based VoIP products. Provided installation and maintenance support for 3Com and Cisco VoIP products. General Linux system administration.