New Employee Biographies

Meet the New Employees at ITS' Academic Computing Services!

ITS Computer Labs

Tal Halpern is the newest Instructional Technology Specialist at the recently renovated Faculty Technology Center, 35 West 4th St., 2nd Floor. Tal works closely with NYU faculty and staff to develop, produce and manage new media projects. He gained his expertise in instructional technology in numerous academic and commercial settings as a program developer, project manager and new media designer. As project coordinator for the global reproductive health forum affiliated with the Harvard School of Public Health, Tal developed and managed the South Asia section of the Health and Reproductive Rights Information Service. He has also worked for a wireless software development company, consulted on new media communications projects for commercial and United Nations organizations, and designed and produced websites for Silicon Valley agencies and independent clients. Tal earned his undergraduate degree in Urban Studies with course work in Visual Arts, and his masters in Literature and Media Theory. Within the field of Instructional Technology, Tal is particularly interested in the interface between technology and organizational form, especially the ways in which new technologies are implicated in changes in the organization of work and the production of new types of knowledge.

Any NYU faculty or staff member who is interested in learning more about the services offered at the Faculty Technology Center should visit www.nyu.edu/its/ftc/ or call 998-3044.

Jamil Hamilton joined ITS in late November as Lab Manager of the ITS computer lab at 14 Washington Place. Jamil's background is in both architecture and networking. In his last position, he worked for a design firm in Washington, DC as the network administrator and as an architectural designer. For him, this was on-the-job training in network design, implementation, hardware maintenance, and vertical application integration. He also learned some valuable lessons about planning for the future. Last fall, Jamil moved to New York from his hometown, Washington DC, in pursuit of his goal to redevelop under-utilized areas in American cities. His previous volunteer work with non-profit organizations dovetails nicely with his current academic pursuits: a Masters of Science in Real Estate Development here at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Jamil is glad to be part of the NYU community, both as a student and as an employee, and looks forward to providing the best possible service for NYU students, faculty and staff. Due to the fact that the computer lab that Jamil manages is primarily Windows-based, it is used by a large number of Computer Science students. To that end, ITS is working to improve the availability of key applications for CS students, such as: Kawa, C++, Java, and statistical packages like SPSS, MapInfo, and S-PLUS.

If you would like more information about any of the ITS computer labs, please visit www.nyu.edu/its/labs/.

The Arts Technology Group

Jed Weaver recently joined ITS as a Senior Arts Technologist in the Arts Technology Group with Phil Galanter and his team. For the previous two and a half years, Jed worked in Tisch's Department of Film and Television as their Digital Media Coordinator in the Video Post-Production area. Jed is a native New Yorker and an alumnus of NYU, with a BFA in Film Production and Cinema Studies from Tisch School of the Arts. He specializes in audio and video post-production and motion graphics design, and brings a variety of valuable work experience to his new position. His background includes Avid non-linear editing, film and video production, music composition, electronic synthesis and sound design; and he has worked as a Macintosh consultant for many corporate clients. He has also worked at Lifetime Television and many other professional broadcast facilities. His role with the ATG involves, among other things, supporting video users at the Digital Multimedia Lab in the Education building (35 West 4th Street, 2nd floor) upgrading multimedia systems, and providing systems support. Jed is excited about the artistic implications for students and faculty in this rapidly developing field, and values his new job as a means of fulfilling his professional and creative goals working with evolving digital technologies.

If you are interested in learning more about the Arts Technology Group, visit their website at: www.nyu.edu/its/atg/.

The Humanities Group

Matthew Zimmerman joined ITS in November 2000, and is working in the Academic Computing Services' Humanities Computing Group under Lorna Hughes. Matthew came to NYU from the University of Georgia where he received his M.A. in English Literature with a focus on Renaissance Literature, History of English, and Humanities Computing. While at the University of Georgia, Matthew worked as a research assistant for the Linguistic Atlas of North America ({http://us.english.uga.edu} Replacement URL: http://www.english.uga.edu), an online sociolinguistics project, where he was responsible for web development, technical support and digitization of analog recorded interviews. Matthew was also on the development team of Online@UGA ({http://www.uga.edu/online} Replacement URL: http://www.uga.edu/online/), a computer and information literacy course developed by the University of Georgia Information Technology Advisory Committee and the University of Georgia Libraries. Matthew's particular interests in Humanities Computing are electronic editions and digital archives, computer-assisted instruction, textual analysis, and multimedia development. His immediate duties at NYU, however, will be to help organize the ACH/ALLC conference that will be held here in June (see ACH/ALLC 2001). Matthew is happy to be here at NYU and looks forward to facilitating the use of technology in the humanities.

Gary Shawver joined ITS' Academic Computing Services in July 2000 as a Humanities Computing Specialist. Since coming to NYU, Gary has worked on a variety of projects, including overseeing the operation of the new Language Lab in Room 618 of the Main Building and the King Juan Carlos computer lab, and collaborating with the NYU Libraries to develop digital resources. He is also responsible for creating digital content for the Web, facilitating communication between humanities instructors and various branches of ITS, managing servers and new applications in the humanities, and installing software at computer labs. Gary finds the inherent variety of his new job particularly appealing, and enjoys the range of learning opportunities created by his interaction with NYU's humanities departments. Gary earned a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies, basing his thesis on a computer-aided text analysis of Chaucer's works. Gary has also published a number of e-texts. A list of his publications and papers can be found at {www.geocities.com/gary_shawver} Replacement URL: http://homepages.nyu.edu/~gs74/. His educational background in the humanities, professional experience as an English instructor at York College, CUNY, and expertise in text analysis markup make Gary an excellent fit for his new role at NYU.

If you are interested in learning more about the Humanities Computing Group, please visit their website at: www.nyu.edu/its/humanities/.