Kristen Maria Summers

Education

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. (1991 - 98)

• PhD in computer science with English minor, August 1998.
  • National Physical Science Consortium Fellowship.
  • Thesis title: Automatic Discovery of Logical Document Structure.
• MS in computer science, May 1994. GPA: 3.9.

Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. (1987 - 91)

• BA in computer science and English.
  • Magna cum laude in computer science, magna cum laude in English. Phi Beta Kappa. Independent Order of the Foresters Scholarship. GPA: 3.9.
  • Computer science thesis: A Study of Possible Improvements to the Backpropagation Learning Algorithm.
  • English thesis: Fidelity and Betrayal in the Works of Milan Kundera.

Experience

Teaching Assistant, Cornell University. Ithaca, New York.

• Summer 1998:  Hold office hours, grade assignments and exams for introductory level computer science course.
• Spring 1998:  Lead weekly sections, participate in development of homework assignments and grading schemes, grade homework and exams for 200-level computer science course.
• Fall 1997:  Led occasional review sessions, graded homework and exams, offered individual help for 300-level computer science course.
• Summer 1994:  Led semi-weekly review sessions, graded homework assignments, and exams for introductory level computer science course.

Computer Analyst, National Security Agency. Fort Meade, Maryland. (Summer 1992)

• Extended ontology for knowledge-based natural language understanding system. Moved the domain from Dunkin' Donuts to joint ventures.
• Researched location-specific idiosyncracies in Spanish pronunciation

Programmer, Laboratory for the Physical Sciences. College Park, Maryland. (Summer 1991)

• Designed and implemented windows-based user interface for purchase request system.

Programmer, Institute for the Learning Sciences. Evanston, Illinois. (Summer 1990)

• Worked with educator to design and prototype foreign language tutoring system for children.

Database Administrator, Carpet Care, Inc. Highland Park, Illinois. (Summers 1988-89)

• Designed, implemented, and maintained customer database.

Publications

Using Non-Textual Cues for Electronic Document Browsing

Co-authored with Daniela Rus. In Nabil R. Adam, Bharat K. Bhargava, and Yelena Yesha, eds., Digital Libraries: Current Issues, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, chapter 9, pages 129 -- 162.

Versions in:

• ``Geometric Algorithms and Experiments for Automated Document Structuring.'' Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 26(1), pages 55 -- 83, 1997.
• ``Using White Space for Automated Document Structuring.'' Workshop on the Principles of Document Processing, Seeheim, Germany. April, 1994.

Toward a Taxonomy of Logical Document Structures

Electronic Publishing and the Information Superhighway: Proceedings of the Dartmouth Institute for Advanced Graduate Studies (DAGS 95), pp. 124 -- 133, Boston. May, 1995.
Donald B. Johnson Memorial DAGS Scholar award for the best student paper, co-recipient.

Near-Wordless Document Structure Classification

Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR 95), pp. 462 -- 465, Montreal. August, 1995.

Lectures

Automatic Derivation of Logical Document Hierarchies

University of Western Ontario, October 27, 1994.

Information Access and Automated Document Structuring

Cornell University Cognitive Studies Graduate Research Forum, October 15, 1994.

Automatic Discovery of Logical Structure in Text Documents

National Physical Science Consortium Annual Symposium, October 2, 1995.

Skills

Programming Languages

Lisp, C, Java, Pascal, Visual Basic, Tcl, Perl.

Natural Languages

Proficient in Spanish, some Russian.

Activities

Expanding Your Horizons, Registration Chair: 1994, 1995.

Organized and ran registration for annual day of introducing middle-school girls to science.

Access to College and Employment, Tutor: Spring 1992 -- Spring 1993.

Tutored and mentored at-risk local teenagers.

Amherst College Hillel, Treasurer: Fall 1988 -- Spring 1991.

Proposed and managed budgets of approximately $2000 per semester.

Cambodian Tutoring, Tutor: Spring 1989 -- Spring 1991.

Tutored Cambodian refugees in English and reading.

References available upon request.