Santa Clara University

Ahmed Amer

Associate Professor

Ahmed Amer joined the faculty of the Santa Clara University Computer Engineering department in September 2009. His research areas are systems, particularly storage and file systems, operating systems, and distributed systems. His work focuses on the predictive management of data and storage. His recent work involves automated data grouping with applications to data placement, caching, energy management and reliability. He is especially interested in alternative and upcoming storage technologies, and their most practical and effective application. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Darren Atkinson

Associate Professor

Dr. Atkinson started teaching at Santa Clara University in the fall of 2000, was associate department chair from 2007–2009, and has been acting department chair every summer since 2007. He is also the faculty advisor for Upsilon Pi Epsilon, the computing honor society. His research interests are in the areas of software engineering and compilers, and usually teaches courses related to all of those areas: software engineering, compilers, data structures, and programming languages. His publications include works in software engineering tool design and implementation, language design, and hypertext visualization of large citation databases. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego.

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Ron Danielson

Associate Professor, Vice Provost, and Chief Information Officer

Ron Danielson is Vice Provost and CIO at Santa Clara University, leading the Information Services Division in providing computing, communication, instructional technology, and library services. He also co-heads Santa Clara's Information Technology Leadership Program, an educational program on leadership and soft skills offered through the Executive Development Center. Currently, much of his attention is focused on construction of a new Learning Commons, Technology Center and Library for the University, scheduled to open in spring 2008. Ron is also an Associate Professor of Computer Engineering and holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include the impact of information technology on organizations and human-computer interaction.

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Ruth E. Davis

Professor and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies

Dr. Davis joined the University in 1979, her dissertation "Generating Correct Programs From Logic Specifications" won the 1979 ACM Doctoral Forum Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis in Computer Science. Her research has been focused in functional and logic programming, formal methods in software engineering, and more recently in efforts to increase the participation and impact of women in engineering. Her books include a whimsical though rigorous introductory computing book Thinking About TLC-Logo, with John Allen, and the textbook Truth, Deduction, and Computation. She serves on the steering committee of the Santa Clara University Center for Science, Technology, and Society, and as faculty advisor for the award-winning SCU student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. Her activities to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering include work with: the Summer Engineering Seminar at SCU, Women of Vision for the Tech Museum of Innovation, the Society of Women Engineers, GetSET, and the Institute for Women and Technology. She is also on advisory panels for AAUW's STEMplates Publication Dissemination Project, and for "Real Science!" - a local PBS series.

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Silvia Figueira

Associate Professor

Silvia M. Figueira received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil, and the Ph.D. degree also in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego. She was involved in R&D as a member of the technical staff of NCE/UFRJ (Computing Center of UFRJ) from 1985 to 1991. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Computer Engineering at Santa Clara University. Her research interests are in the areas of parallel and grid computing, particularly in performance modeling, performance prediction, and resource scheduling.

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JoAnne Holliday

Associate Professor

JoAnne Holliday received her B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and her M.S. degree from Northeastern University.  She got the PhD degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara.  She has been on the faculty of the Santa Clara University  Computer Engineering department since September 2000.  Her research interests include distributed systems, mobile computing, wireless networks and replicated databases.

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Daniel W. Lewis

Associate Professor

Dr. Lewis’s efforts led to the creation of the Computer Engineering department in 1988, where he served as Chair until January of 2007. During his tenure, Dr. Lewis established unique co-op and study abroad options that fit within the normal undergraduate four-year plan, certificate programs for working professionals, and a cross-disciplinary minor in Information Technology and Society that has become one of the most popular minors on campus. Dr. Lewis is author of the book, “Fundamentals of Embedded Software,” which won national recognition in the 2003 Alpha Sigma Nu book competition. He also served on the advisory board for the National Youth Leadership Forum on Technology.

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Nam Ling

Sanfilippo Family Chair Professor and Department Chair

Dr. Ling received B.Eng. from Singapore, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from U.S.A. Since 2010, he is the Sanfilippo Family Chair Professor of Santa Clara University and the Chair of its Department of Computer Engineering.  He was an Associate Dean for its School of Engineering during 2002-2010. Dr. Ling is an IEEE Fellow for contributions to video coding algorithms and architectures. He has more than 150 publications and standard contributions. He was named IEEE Distinguished Lecturer twice and received the IEEE ICCE Best Paper Award (First Place). He received awards from the University (Outstanding Achievement, Recent Achievement in Scholarship, President’s Recognition, and Sustained Excellence in Scholarship) and the Engineering School (Researcher of the Year and Teaching Excellence). He served as Keynote/Distinguished Speaker, General Chair, Technical Program Co-Chair, and Committee Chair for many conferences and technical committees. He served as Editor for journals and delivered more than 110 invited colloquia worldwide.

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Rani Mikkilineni

Lecturer

Dr. Rani Mikkilineni received her B.S. degree from Maris Stella College, India.  She received her Ph.D. from Santa Clara University.  Her areas of interests include object-oriented design methodologies, software engineering, and database systems.

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Maria Pantoja

Lecturer

Maria Pantoja was born in Merida, Spain. She received her B.S. and M.S. degree in engineering from Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain, in 1994, and a second M.S. in computer science from California State University of the East Bay, Hayward, CA, in 2004. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Engineering at Santa Clara University (SCU) in 2009. She has worked as a senior software engineer for Logical Automation, JDS Uniphase and Nuko. She received the Packard fellowship in 2008 and worked as a teaching assistant for the department of computer engineering at SCU. She is currently a full time lecturer at the computer engineering department at SCU. Her current research interests lie in the areas of video compression, video transcoding and reconfigurable video coding. She is a member of the IEEE.

Apryl Roberts

Administrative Assistant

Apryl Roberts joined the university staff in 2004. Prior to working at SCU, Apryl worked for 6 years as a principal's secretary, and later as the registrar at Independence High School in San Jose. She graduated summa cum laude from Mission College in 1990, with a degree in Liberal Arts.

Weijia Shang

Associate Professor

Dr. Weijia Shang received the BS degree in electrical and computer engineering from Changsha Institute of Technology (The National University of Defense Technology), China in 1982, and MS and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, in 1984 and 1990, respectively. Her research interests include parallel processing, computer architecture, algorithm theory, special-purpose VLSI bit-level processor array design, parallelizing compiler techniques, and nonlinear programming. She received scholarship for studying abroad from Chinese Academy of Sciences and Research Initiation Award and CAREER award from National Science Foundation, respectively. She is a member of the IEEE and IEEE Computer Society.

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