Learn from Experts

in the Field of Data Science

Jeff Hovis
Program Director and Assistant Professor of Practice

Jeff Hovis, Assistant Professor of Practice, Program Director for Data Science and Product Management. Creator of the product management master’s program and assistant professor, Jeff is also a partner in a growing, boutique Strategic Innovation consulting firm, spun out of the MIT Innovation Center. Jeff connects corporate and market strategy to actionable, pragmatic technology and product roadmaps to create significant new growth.

Randhir (Randy) Agarwal
Adjunct Faculty, Data Science

Randhir (Randy) Agarwal currently leads the Data Engineering and Data Science teams at Samsung Electronics. He has over 25 years in the wireless telecommunications industry, including deploying Green-field wireless networks worldwide and fine-tuning them for optimal performance. Mr. Agarwal holds an M.S. in Data Science from Northwestern with a specialization in Analytics and Modeling and a Bachelor of Engineering in Telecommunications from the University of Mumbai.

Michael Dupin, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty, Data Science

Michael Dupin, Ph.D. is the Head (and founder) of Data Science at C Space, a market research company where he leads the efforts on Artificial Intelligence. With more than twenty years of experience in data and statistical analytics, he is a self-confessed geek, data scientist, statistician, researcher, modeler, author, and sailor.

Prior to C Space, Mike held various roles within banking where he led efforts such as macroeconomic stress testing, risk management,  financial modeling and statistical model validation. Before the corporate world, he was a Research Fellow at Harvard University modeling blood flow in tumors. He holds degrees in Nuclear Physics, Instrumentation, and a Ph.D. in Computational Fluid Dynamics.

Katherine Geist, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty, Data Science

Katherine Geist, Ph.D., holds a Ph.D. in biology with an emphasis in computational evolutionary genomics. Her research ranges from gene expression in social insects to migraine symptom tracking in multiple sclerosis patients, with big data at the core of her research.

Yamil Guevara, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty, Data Science

Dr. Yamil Guevara is an expert in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science. He holds an MBA and two master’s degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning as well as Economics. He received his first Ph.D. in Organization and Management and is working on his second Ph.D. in Computer Science with an emphasis in Artificial Intelligence.

In addition to teaching, he has eight years of experience working as a data scientist, developing machine learning models using classical machine learning and deep learning neural network (DNN) algorithms to solve business problems. Dr. Yamil Guevara has authored How to Increase Online Student Retention Utilizing Machine Learning (University of Arizona Global Campus Chronicle, 2021), Dangers of
Artificial Intelligence (Medium, 2022), The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Society (Medium, 2022), and The Utilization of Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom (University of Arizona Global Campus Chronicle, 2021).

Christopher Healey, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty, Data Science

Chris is a Data Science Lead at Schneider Electric – a multinational power electronics, energy storage, and building management company.  He leads work in industrial applications of data science for predictive maintenance, intelligent alarm management, and efficient use of devices.  He is deeply interested in robust decision-making through stochastic optimization and interpretation of machine learning models.  A long-time member of INFORMS, he has authored several refereed papers and been granted multiple patents.

Chris received a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and BS in Mathematics from William and Mary. Chris teaches Data Exploration for the Data Science & Analytics program. Chris teaches Visual Data Exploration for the Data Science program.

Jeremiah Lowhorn, M.S.
Adjunct Faculty, Data Science

Jeremiah is a Data Scientist with nine years of experience in analytics. He is currently and adjunct faculty member in the Data Science & Analytics program.  His interests include computer vision, natural language processing, time series analysis, and distributed computing. Jeremiah is fluent in R, Python, VBA, SQL, and is interested in learning new programming languages.

In his leisure he spends time with his wife Brooke and son Magnus. Jeremiah holds a BS in Financial Analysis from Ball State University, a MS in Analytics from Dakota State University, and is pursuing an MSIS and PhD from Dakota State University. Jeremiah teaches R and Python Programming in the Data Science program.

Josh Orenstein
Associate Professor, Master of Science in Data Science

Josh Orenstein is currently the NBA’s Senior Director of Basketball Strategy & Analytics and Senior Data Scientist. He has over a decade of experience in the sports industry as a data scientist. He analyzed 3D radar data that transformed performance evaluation and development in Major League Baseball. At the NBA, he uses advanced analytics to improve the competitiveness of the on-court product, evaluation of referees, and evaluation of collegiate basketball players. He teaches “Advanced Sports Analytics” at Merrimack College and is a Columbia University Lecturer.

Peter Salemi, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty, Data Science 

Dr. Peter Salemi has over 10 years of experience in quantitative research, machine learning, and statistics in both academic and industry settings. As a data scientist at The MITRE Corporation, he works with several Federal agencies ranging from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Dr. Salemi received his Ph.D. in Operations Research from Northwestern University, an M.S. in Operations Research from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in Mathematics and B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

His academic research interests lie at the intersection of machine learning and stochastic simulation, and Dr. Salemi’s research has been published in Operations Research, ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation, and Journal of Simulation. Dr. Salemi has also served as the co-chair of the Simulation Optimization track for the 2017, 2019, and 2020 Winter Simulation Conferences, and as a reviewer for several academic journals.  His teaching interests are machine learning, data management, and statistics. As an adjunct faculty member at Merrimack College, Dr. Salemi is the instructor for both the Machine Learning and Text and Image Mining courses.

Kathryn Wifvat, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty, Data Science

Kathryn Wifvat, originally from Minnesota, earned her B.S. in Mathematical Statistics and a B.A. in Applied Mathematics before completing a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at Arizona State University. With experience in data analytics and full stack web and mobile app development, she is now the founder and CEO of an EdTech startup in addition to being an adjunct faculty member.

Torrey Walker DiPalma, M.Ed.
Assistant Director & Senior Advisor, Graduate Programs, School of Science and Engineering

Torrey is our success coach for the Data Science & Analytics program and is very important to the overall student experience.  Throughout your time in working towards your degree, Torrey will help address many of the questions you may have “outside the classroom”.  In doing so, Torrey will help free more of your time to concentrate on mastering the content that is so important to your program progression.

Torrey has earned her BA in Mathematics from the College of the Holy Cross and has earned her M.Ed. in Higher Education from Merrimack College.  You will get to engage with Torrey from the time you are admitted until the time you graduate, allowing you to have a consistent point of contact as you work to achieve your goals!