Scott D. Anderson


thumbnail picture of me

Lecturer
Computer Science Department
Wellesley College
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481
781-283-1000 (Wellesley General number)
781-283-3249 (my office: W118 in the Science Center)
scott.anderson@wellesley.edu (email)

Office Hours

These are listed on the pages for my classes. If you're not in my class, email me to make an appointment, or suggest something via my Google Calendar.

Appointments/Calendar

I use Calendly so you can book an appointment with me

Teaching

Research Interests

I'm always open to students who would like to do independent research with me. The following sections describe some of my interests.

However, you should know that I am non-tenure-track faculty member, meaning that my job requires me to focus on teaching, rather than the balance between teaching and research that is expected of tenure-track faculty. In particular, that means that (1) I don't have research funding, so I can't pay you, (2) I don't have a research lab with equipment and other research students, and (3) the time I have for research is fairly limited. Nevertheless, we can consider an independent study or volunteer project for the right project.

Diabetes Research

I'm currently involved in a research project collecting real-time data on a person with Type 1 diabetes, trying to determine the best way to dose the patient with insulin to control their blood sugar. This work involves databases, web applications, data science (statistics and data processing) and other skills. It's best for a student who has taken CS 304.

Artificial Intelligence

In graduate school, my research interest was in Artificial Intelligence, particularly Planning and Real-Time Planning, which was my dissertation work. Before working in planning, I worked in Natural Language Processing, and that continues to be a strong interest of mine. If these interest you, please come talk to me or send me email.

Computer Graphics

I've developed some software and demos of graphics programming for use in my graphics course, and someday I think it would be fun to do a "advanced graphics" course, so if you share this interest and would like to work in this area, talk to me. Some ideas:

Simulation

An important aspect of my dissertation research is in simulation, and that's an interest that I have continued since getting my Ph.D. In fact, there's a simulation and computer graphics overlap in the area of animation, so if you're interested in that, do talk to me.

System Software and System Administration

I also serve as System Administrator for the CS department and that leads to an interest in system software (databases, web servers), computer security, and things like that.

Personal

I've been teaching at Wellesley since 2000. Before that, I taught at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. I went to college at Yale, class of 1983, majoring in Computer Science and in English. I worked for a few years at ITT's Programming Technology Center in Stratford, Connecticut. I went to grad school at UMass, Amherst, and finished my Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1995.

I'm married (since 1992) to Holly B. Anderson, who is a lawyer with the Department of Industrial Accidents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We have a son who was born in 2002 and a daughter born in 2008. My mother is retired from a career at the U.S. Treasury; she now live nearby in a senior living facility. My dad was a professional, free-lance speechwriter; he died in 2013 and is now buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

I enjoy playing tennis, reading (usually non-fiction) and playing bridge (although I haven't played bridge in years).

Favorite books:

email: scott.anderson@acm.org