People
Current officers
Ethan Kulman, President
PhD student studying Computational Genomics.
Ethan is a 2nd year PhD student studying Computational Genomics under the supervision of Dr. Rui Kuang. He is particularly interested in modeling the biological mechanisms of cancer, i.e., what causes cancer initiation, metastasis, relapse, etc. Ethan wants to help foster a fun, inclusive environment for graduate students in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). He’s very open to ideas about how to go about doing this, and encourages any student in CSE to share their thoughts and experiences with the CSGSA leadership team. Ethan’s biggest hobby is hiking, and is currently working on hiking the highest peak in all 50 U.S. states. When he’s not doing some outdoor activity, you’ll find him trying new restaurants in the Twin Cities, at the university gym or nearby rock climbing gym, or taking care of his new Golden Retriever puppy.
Risako Owan, Treasurer
PhD student working in NLP and Affective Computing.
Hi, my name is Risako and I’m a 4th-year PhD student working in NLP and affective computing. I enjoy going to the gym, self-learning on YouTube, and reading (mostly Japanese fiction and English nonfiction). Due to the pandemic, I’ve also started growing some plants; I have a pet lemon tree that has only given me one-inch lemons so far and some rice stalks growing in a bowl (my ancestors would be so proud). I graduated from Carleton College, which is about an hour south of here, and worked in the Bay Area as a software engineer before coming back to Minnesota for grad school.
Jason Carpenter, GRaDS Coordinator
5th Year PhD working in Networking, Zhi-Li Zhang's Networking Lab.
Jason is a 5th year PhD, working in emerging network architectures both in terms of hardware technologies (such as 5G) and information handling (such as semantic web). Jason is a native of the La Crosse, Wisconsin area.
Karin de Langis, GRaDS Coordinator
Charlie Broadbent, Events coordinator
PhD student studying Computational Biology.
Charlie is starting his third year as a PhD student as an advisee of Dr. Rui Kuang. His current research interests are in spatial transcriptomics, tensor decomposition and completion methods, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) classification and analysis. In his free time he enjoys playing piano, bouldering, board games, video games, and spending time with his cat Raven.
Camden Sikes, Events Coordinator
PhD Student studying spectral graph theory.
Camden is a third year PhD student advised by Dr. Yousef Saad. He hopes to help build community to make this program easier and more enjoyable for everyone. In addition to making the staple events like coffee hour better, he plans on organizing outdoor events for every season.
Daniel Keyes, Events Coordinator
PhD student studying Virtual Reality.
Daniel is a 4th year PhD student studying VR interaction techniques in Evan Suma Rosenberg’s lab, and this is his 2nd year as a CSGSA event coordinator. He knows that grad school is tough, so he likes to host events that let students get together, relax, and socialize. Look for him at happy hours and board game night! He also likes to cook in his free time.
Allie Hanson, Events Coordinator
Allie (she/her/hers) is a third year PhD student advised by Eric Van Wyk. Her research interests are in programming languages and formal methods; She is specifically interested in specifications for extensible languages and ensuring their correctness, as well as the correctness of the software created with these tools. Some things she enjoy include: her little doggy Basil, trying new and delicious foods, knitting, thrift-shopping, creative writing, reading comic books, and drinking coffee!