The Team

Jason Chalecki

…has a good blend of academic training and real world experience with computers. He earned a B.S. in Computer Science (with a minor in Business Administration) here at Carnegie Mellon University several years ago. He then joined Microsoft where he was a developer for five years, most of which was spent in the Office division. During that time he earned a Masters in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Washington. Now finding the human challenges more interesting than the technical ones, he has returned to Carnegie Mellon University to pursue a Masters in Human-Computer Interaction.

Julian Missig

…thinks simplicity is key to usability: Rejecting features is hard. He hopes to be able to work between designers and programmers, speaking the language of both and resolving their differences in favor of usability.

Julian has held programming positions with various large companies since high school. A fascination with the way people interact with computers led him to study psychology in high school and ultimately to study Cognitive Science and Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon. He is currently going through the accelerated Masters program.

Daniel Zinzow

…graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S. in Computer Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, and Psychology. Daniel is greatly interested in understanding how people think — the heuristics and schemas that drive everybody's decisions. Through his experience of being an engineer and with engineers, he has become an avid fighter to allow the technology that engineers create to actually be useable for the rest of the world. On the track of helping make technology intuitive and seamless, Daniel is now working on his Masters in Human-Computer Interaction.

Karen Taxier

…graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Bioengineering. Her coursework in human factors and cognitive psychology sparked her desire to create intuitive products that people truly wanted to use. This led her to the Human Factors group within Corporate Design & Usability at Eastman Kodak, where she spent the past four years working on Mac and PC software, digital cameras, and everything in between. She’s excited to be back in the classroom as a full time HCI Masters student, and is expecting to graduate in August 2006.

Samantha Rubin Konwinski

…is a 2nd year part-time MHCI student expecting to graduate August 2006. After graduating Magna Cum Laude from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Art History, she worked as communications manager for her alma mater, overseeing advertising and media design, planning, and copywriting. Since completing her first year in the Masters program, along with an intensive independent study concentrating on appliance interface design, Samantha has decided to put her UI design skills to use by relieving the world of complicated mobile applications.