Stephen P. Tarzia
education
Northwestern University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Evanston, IL
PhD in Computer Engineering and Systems division
Thesis: Acoustic sensing of location and user presence on mobile computers
Sep. 2006 to Aug. 2011. 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
P. Seetharaman, S. P. Tarzia. The Hand Clap as an Impulse Source for Measuring Room Acoustics. In Proc. Audio Engineering Society 132nd Convention. April 2012. [app]
S. P. Tarzia. Acoustic sensing of location and user presence on mobile computers. Doctoral Dissertation and Technical Report NWU-EECS-11-09, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University. August 2011.
S. P. Tarzia, P. A. Dinda, R. P. Dick, G. Memik. Indoor Localization Without Infrastructure Using the Acoustic Background Spectrum. In Proc. 9th Intl. Conf. on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MobiSys’11). June 2011. pages 155-168.
S. P. Tarzia, P. A. Dinda, R. P. Dick, G. Memik. Demo: Indoor Localization Without Infrastructure Using the Acoustic Background Spectrum. In Proc. 9th Intl. Conf. on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MobiSys’11). June 2011. pages 385-386. [demo]
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]
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.
conference stats
paper acceptance rates:
| MobiSys 2011: | 18% | ICAC 2010: | 26% | UbiComp 2009: | 12% |
awards
Knight Lab Professional Fellowship (6 month stipend); Northwestern University, 2016.
Dr. John N. Nicholson Fellowship (full tuition and stipend); Northwestern University, Fall 2007- Spring 2011.
Walter P. Murphy Fellowship (full tuition and stipend); Northwestern University, Fall 2006 - Winter 2007.
Magna Cum Laude (top 15% of graduating class); Columbia University, 2005.
research experience
Empathic Systems research, Northwestern University; Evanston, IL; Aug 2008 to Aug 2011
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Indoor Localization of Smartphones using Acoustics
For my thesis work I developed a set of techniques for determining the location of smartphones while indoors (where GPS is unavailable). Specifically, we extract a sound "fingerprint" for the location using the smartphone's microphone. [report] [software]
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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 Peter Dinda, Robert Dick 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
work experience
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, Northwestern University; Evanston, IL; Sep 2017 to present
Assistant Department Chair and Lecturer
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; Evanston, IL; Feb to Aug 2017
Sr. Computational Research Consultant
I helped faculty and Ph.D. students do research involving "big data."
Gun Memorial; Evanston, IL; Dec 2015 to Feb 2017
Founder and Publisher
Created http://GunMemorial.org, a website showing photos of U.S. gun violence victims, updated daily. Built a custom content management system. Searched for victim photos every day. Maintained social media presence.
FastModel Sports; Nov 2014 to Nov 2015
VP of Engineering
Led a team that built, tested, and delivered desktop, web, and mobile software used by elite basketball coaches, including all 30 NBA teams.
Signal.co; Chicago, IL; Sep 2014 to Nov 2014
Software Engineer
Implemented key back-end queueing technologies for this global, high-volume digital marketing platform company.
Pumpkin Box LLC; Evanston, IL; May 2014 to Aug 2014
Founder and President
Created thepumpkinbox.com, a unique Internet candy store.
Vaporstream, Inc.; Chicago, IL; Sep 2011 to Apr 2014
VP and General Manager of Consumer Products; Nov 2013 to Apr 2014
Responsible for all aspects of Vaporstream's consumer product line -- including marketing, PR, software development, and operations.
VP of Engineering; Jun 2012 to Oct 2013
Hired and managed a team of 8 engineers whose responsibilites include software development, quality assurance, and network operations.
Software Engineer; Sep 2011 to May 2012
Built "Vaporstream Enterprise" iOS app for iPhone and iPad. Participated in to redesign and implementation of the service's backend software and network infrastructure.
Rise Telecom; Chicago, IL; Jan 2006 to Aug 2006
Software Engineering Consultant
Built and tested a complete VoIP service-provider platform using Asterisk, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.
Emergent Communications; New Canaan, CT; Jan 2005 to Aug 2006
Solutions Engineer
Evaluated and reported on various IP telephony (VoIP) products. Provided installation and maintenance support for 3Com and Cisco VoIP products. General Linux system administration.
teaching experience
Northwestern University; Evanston, IL
Teaching assistant for EECS311: Data Structures (Spring 2007). Supervised by Professor Chris Riesbeck
Teaching assistant for EECS101: An Introduction to Computer Science for Everyone (Spring 2010). Supervised by Professor Peter Dinda
Amundsen High School and South Shore High School; Chicago, IL; Mar. 31 and Apr. 30, 2009
Guest science teacher.
Taught Earth Science labs through Northwestern’s Meaningful Science Consortium. Supervised by Leslie Lepeska
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
professional service
Referee, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2018
Referee, IEEE Sensors Journal, 2018
Referee, IEEE Pervasive Computing, 2017
Referee, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2017
Referee, EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, 2013
Referee, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS), 2010-2011
Referee, IEEE Computer Magazine, 2010
Volunteer, Emerging Computational Methods for the Life Sciences Workshop 2010
Session Summarizer, USENIX Annual Technical Conference 2009, (published in login; magazine, Oct. 2009)
Referee, Asia South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC) 2008
selected course projects
VLSI Systems Design course project, Northwestern University; Evanston, IL; Fall 2007
32-bit Radix-4 Kogge-Stone adder in 0.25 micron technology
Schematic capture and layout were done with Mentor Graphics Falcon Framework CAD tools.
This work was done in collaboration with two other students and was supervised by Ryan Cortez and Professor Yehia Ismail.
Embedded Systems Design course project, Columbia Univerisity; New York, NY; Spring 2004
Vehicle Data Acquisition and Telemetry System
Worked with a team of electrical engineering students to design and prototype an onboard data acquisition system for a formula-style racecar. The sampled data were wirelessly transmitted to a pit computer for display. [report]
Supervised by Professor Stephen A. Edwards