John Sun

Member Since: 2009

Fluent Languages: Mandarin

Department: EECS

Affiliations: RLE

John is working towards his PhD with Prof. Vivek Goyal in RLE. His research interests include information theory and compressed sensing. He grew up in Vancouver, Canada, and did his undergrad at Cornell University. John likes movies, basketball, photography, and indie music. He is currently the GSA co-president and has served in the SP house government.

Myung Jin Choi

Member Since: 2008

Fluent Languages: Korean

Department: EECS

Affiliations: LIDS

Jin Choi is a fourth-year graduate student in LIDS working with Prof. Alan Willsky on stochastic signal processing and machine learning. Born and raised in Korea, she did her undergraduate studies at Seoul National University, and also spent one year at University of California, Santa Barbara as an extension student. At MIT, she participated in the Africa Internet Technology Initiative program, spending six weeks in Kenya teaching Java programming to high school and college students. Jin also served as a co-president of GW6 and a co-chair of the diversity committee in EECS GSA. She enjoys skiing, swimming, and reading in her free time.

MinJi Kim

Member Since: 2009

Fluent Languages: English, Korean, Mandarin

Department: EECS

Affiliations: RLE

MinJi is a Ph.D. student working with Prof. Muriel Medard. Her research interests include wireless communications, security and reliability of networks, algorithms and optimization on networks, and network coding. She received her B.S. degrees in Mathematics and EECS in June 2006, and an M.Eng degree in EECS in Sept 2007, all from MIT. Before coming to Boston, MinJi lived in several countries -- Korea, China, Japan, Belgium, and Australia. She has been involved with the GSA for a few years now, and is currently the GSA co-president. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, playing the piano, going to concerts, hanging out with friends, and cooking/baking/eating out (actually, anything involving good food).

Patrick Schmid

Member Since: 2007

Fluent Languages: English, German (and Swiss German), Japanese

Department: EECS

Affiliations: CSAIL

Patrick Schmid was born in Switzerland and then spent most of his youth in Tokyo, Japan. At the age of 16 he moved to America, where he finished high school and his undergraduate studies. At home he speaks Swiss German with his family while he spoke Japanese to many of his childhood friends. As a matter of fact, he still tutors a middle school boy in Japanese. At MIT his research focuses on disease prediction using large-scale microarray expression databases. When he is not pounding away on his keyboard, he can be found riding his fixed-gear bicycle, watching movies, and doing all the fun things associated with being a Graduate Resident Tutor in one of the undergraduate dorms at MIT.

James Cowling

Member Since: 2009

Department: EECS

Affiliations: CSAIL

James Cowling is a fourth-year graduate student in CSAIL, working with Prof. Barbara Liskov in reliable distributed computer systems. He's an international student from Sydney, Australia, and is well acquainted with the "unique" culture at MIT, especially as contrasted with the more laid-back atmosphere he grew up in. In his spare time he enjoys cycling, playing guitar, DJing on WMBR radio, and building/repairing random things.

Dennis Wei

Member Since: 2007

Department: EECS

Affiliations: RLE

Dennis Wei is a third-year graduate student working with Prof. Alan Oppenheim in the area of signal processing.  He received S.B. degrees in electrical engineering and physics in June 2006 and an M.Eng. degree in electrical engineering in February 2007, all from MIT.  A native of the multicultural city of Toronto, Canada, Dennis is very interested in other places, cultures, languages, and cuisines.  In addition to English, Dennis also speaks Mandarin and some French and Spanish.  He has played in the MIT Symphony Orchestra since 2001 and is currently principal violist.

Mohamad Araghchini

Member Since: 2008

Fluent Languages: English, Farsi (Persian)

Department: EECS

Affiliations: MTL, RLE

Mohammad is currently a Ph.D. student working with Prof. Kolodziejski. His research interests include integrated optics and optoelectronics. He got his S.M. degree under the supervision of Prof. Kaertner. He holds an S.M. from MIT and a B.S. from the University of Tehran, both in electrical engineering.

Grace Wang

Member Since: 2009

Fluent Languages: Mandarin

Department: EECS

Affiliations: RLE, HST

Grace is a third year graduate student working with Prof. Bertrand Delgutte in the Neural Coding Group at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Her research interests include auditory physiology and neural coding of complex sounds. Originally from Chicago, she did her undergrad at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. At MIT, she served as the EECS GSA social chair and is currently VP of Publications. Grace enjoys swimming, traveling, playing piano, slickdealing, watching movies, and cooking.

Shirley Shi

Member Since: 2009

Fluent Languages: Mandarin

Department: EECS

Affiliations: RLE

Shirley is currently an PhD student working with Prof. Muriel Medard in the areas of communication and signal processing. Born in mainland China, Shirley moved to the city of Victoria, Canada, with her family at the age of 16 and completed high school there before entering the University of Victoria. She obtained her BEngr degree in Electrical Engineering from UVic in 2005, and MS degree from MIT in 2008. She has previously served as a co-president of GW6 and is currently a GSA representative for EECS. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, reading, and hiking.