Daniel DiTursi

I hold undergraduate degrees in mathematics and computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., and a doctorate in Computer Science from SUNY-Albany. I came to Siena after eight years at the K-12 level as a classroom teacher and administrator. I live in Troy with my spouse and two children. In my spare time, I read science fiction, play games of all sorts, and officiate high school football and lacrosse.

My Siena Experience

My Teaching Philosophy

"How to tell students what to look for without telling them what to see is the dilemma of teaching." --Jane Abercrombie

Students need to be treated as adults with the agency to make their own decisions. They need to be provided with the freedom to try out ideas and make mistakes without the overbearing fear of failure. Finally, they need to be challenged - if everything comes easily, then we are doing them a disservice. 

What I Love About Siena

Siena provides an amazing environment - there are no barriers between students and the faculty. Our department's hallway intersperses offices, classrooms, and spaces where students can gather to work together. The people who work here are also wonderful - everyone from my fellow faculty members to the maintenance staff is friendly and eager to help.

My Favorite Courses to Teach

Theory of Computation - This course is truly the heart of computer science, exploring the limits of what can be computed at all.

Assembly Language and Computer Architecture - This course examines what actually happens "under the hood" in a computer system. I believe this experience is critical for anyone who wants to claim to understand computers.

Machine Learning - This is not the "wave of the future", but of the present. These algorithms are used in myriad applications here and now, and the results can be awesome... and terrifying. It is incumbent on us, as educators and professionals, to ensure that their use enhances the quality of life for all of us rather than magnifying existing injustices in the world.

My Professional Experience

Articles & Book Reviews

• Optimal Timelines for Network Processes
  IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM)
  2019
• A Mindful Approach to Teaching Emotional Intelligence to Undergraduate Students Online and In Person
  Information Systems Education Journal, vol. 15
  2017
• Local Community Detection in Dynamic Networks
  IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM)
  2017
• Network Clocks: Detecting the Temporal Scale of Information Diffusion
  IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM)
  2017
• Improving computational efficiency and tractability of protein design using a piecemeal approach. A strategy for parallel and distributed protein design
  Bioinformatics, vol. 38
  2014

Presentations

• How to create, host, and successfully run a high school programming contest
  2020
  CCSCNE (Consortium For Computing Sciences in Colleges NorthEast region), Ramapo, New Jersey
• Optimal Timelines for Network Processes
  2019
  IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM), Beijing, China
• Local Community Detection in Dynamic Networks
  2017
  IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM), New Orleans, Louisiana
• Network Clocks: Detecting the Temporal Scale of Information Diffusion
  2017
  IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM), New Orleans, Louisiana