Fillia S. Makedon is a Greek-American computer scientist whose research has spanned a broad variety of areas in computer science, including

VLSI Very large-scale integration (VLSI) is the process of creating an integrated circuit (IC) by combining millions or billions of MOS transistors onto a single chip. VLSI began in the 1970s when MOS integrated circuit (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) ...

design,

graph algorithm The following is a list of well-known algorithms along with one-line descriptions for each. Automated planning Combinatorial algorithms General combinatorial algorithms * Brent's algorithm: finds a cycle in function value iterations using on ...

numerical linear algebra Numerical linear algebra, sometimes called applied linear algebra, is the study of how matrix operations can be used to create computer algorithms which efficiently and accurately provide approximate answers to questions in continuous mathematic ...

sensor network Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) refer to networks of spatially dispersed and dedicated sensors that monitor and record the physical conditions of the environment and forward the collected data to a central location. WSNs can measure environmental c ...

s, algorithm visualization, bioinformatics,

recommender system A recommender system, or a recommendation system (sometimes replacing 'system' with a synonym such as platform or engine), is a subclass of information filtering system that provide suggestions for items that are most pertinent to a particular ...

s, and

human–robot interaction Human–robot interaction is the study of interactions between humans and robots. It is often referred as HRI by researchers. Human–robot interaction is a multidisciplinary field with contributions from human–computer interaction, artificial i ...

. She is Jenkins-Garrett Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas. The university was founded in 1895 and was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of ...

Early life and education

Makedon is originally from Samos, and came to the US as a Fulbright Scholar to study

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a Private school, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,650 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Scien ...

, graduating in 1968. After a master's degree in

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

at Penn State York in 1971, she shifted to graduate study in computer science at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, earning a second master's degree in 1979 and completing her Ph.D. in 1982.

Career

She was a postdoctoral researcher with

Christos Papadimitriou Christos Charilaos Papadimitriou ( el, Χρήστος Χαρίλαος "Χρίστος" Παπαδημητρίου; born August 16, 1949) is a Greek theoretical computer scientist and the Donovan Family Professor of Computer Science at Columbia Un ...

at the

National Technical University of Athens The National (Metsovian) Technical University of Athens (NTUA; el, Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο, ''National Metsovian Polytechnic''), sometimes known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest higher education institution ...

, and joined the faculty at the

Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...

in 1983. She moved to the

University of Texas at Dallas The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD or UT Dallas) is a public research university in Richardson, Texas. It is one of the largest public universities in the Dallas area and the northernmost institution of the University of Texas system. It w ...

in 1985, and in the same year took up an affiliate faculty position with the

University of Patras The University of Patras (UPatras; el, Πανεπιστήμιο Πατρών, ''Panepistímio Patrón'') is a public university in Patras, Greece. It is the third-largest university in Greece with respect to the size of the student body, the s ...

. At UT Dallas, she founded the Computer Learning Research Center (CLEAR) in 1987. She moved to

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

in 1991, as a professor of computer science, director of the Dartmouth Experimental Visualization Laboratory (DEVLAB), and director of the Summer Institute for Advanced Graduate Studies (DAGS), at the same time holding an adjunct position at the

University of the Aegean The University of the Aegean ( el, Πανεπιστήμιο Αιγαίου) is a public, multi-campus university located in Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes, Syros and Lemnos, Greece. It was founded on March 20, 1984, by the Presidential Act 83/1984 ...

. She became a program director in the Office of Cyber-Infrastructure at the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

in 2005, and returned to academia with her present position as Jenkins-Garrett Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington in 2006. At UT Arlington, she became the founding director of the Integrative Computational Science Program, director of the Human Centered Computing Laboratory (HERACLEIA), and headed the department of computer science and engineering from 2006 to 2013.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Makedon, Fillia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Greek computer scientists Greek women computer scientists American computer scientists American women computer scientists Skidmore College alumni Pennsylvania State University faculty Northwestern University alumni Illinois Institute of Technology faculty University of Texas at Arlington faculty People from Athens 21st-century American women