SMU – Page 11 – Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity

September 16, 2019March 2, 2022

Manuela Murillo Sanchez ’21

Manuela Murillo Sanchez graduated form Southern Methodist University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics. She was also a Logistics Coordinator at the Maguire Center for Ethics, President of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers at SMU, Tunes for Texas volunteer, and Second Century Scholar.

She was born in Bogota, Colombia and moved to Houston, Texas as a young child. She is driven by her passion for learning, but beyond that she strives to find areas in which she can apply her knowledge for the betterment of her community. Her current community focus area revolves around the STEM access, support, and development pipeline within minority communities. Under her vision, she spearheaded the robust SHPE SMU community service program involving mentorship, STEM workshops, and Math tutoring for students from underprivileged areas of Dallas. Due to her active support of the Hispanic community in Dallas, she was awarded the prestigious SHPE DFW (Professional Chapter) Hispanic Leadership Award.

Manuela was a project manager for the Hunt Institute where she translated scholarly research into driving local and global impact.

Manuela was drawn to work at the Institute because “of the opportunity to transfer my skills and knowledge into real-world impact and solutions,” seeing the Institute as “an opportunity to work with like-minded peers across SMU to create a tangible difference.”

While not working at the Hunt Institute, she built professional experience through co-ops and internships, either serving as an Engineering Data Analyst at BMW in Spartanburg, South Carolina, or working for Global Operations for the largest world’s largest companies, AT&T.

After graduating from SMU, Manuela has been working as an Associate Consultant at Bain and Company.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

July 29, 2019March 2, 2022

James Olivier, Ph.D

Dr. Olivier is a Hunt Institute Fellow, a researcher, engineer, and educator. As an adjunct professor at SMU’s Lyle Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Olivier brings over 30 years of experience in the areas of telecommunications and computer networking to his classes. As a Fellow at the Hunt Institute, Dr. Olivier leads research efforts into the application of transformational technologies to the Hunt Institute’s mission of developing sustainable and affordable technology solutions to local and global challenges.

Dr. Olivier is the program lead for the Hunt Institute’s Maps4good/ MapInDallas effort. This project seeks to connect individuals in need with free service providers in Dallas to increase the number of eligible individuals taking advantage of local services. The maps created by MapInDallas will empower individuals to use the services available to them by providing them with tools and resources to seek out the services they require.

Dr. Olivier is also the principal researcher for the Hunt Institute’s investigation into the use of AI to provide legal services to the underrepresented. This investigation is studying the applicability of AI systems known as expert systems, integrated with Web-based technologies, to automate simple legal tasks and improve access to legal resources for the underserved in Dallas.

When asked about his motivation for working at the Hunt Institute Dr. Olivier commented, “When I was first introduced to the Hunt Institute, I was impressed from the start, the people, their commitment and even its name, ‘The Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity’. The idea of an institute dedicated to engineering and humanity spoke to me. I was honored when they asked if I would join them. I try to bring my experience and understanding of various advanced technologies to help out in any way I can.”

As chairman of the IEEE Dallas Blockchain group, Dr. Olivier has given numerous presentations on transformational technologies, speaking at Dallas Startup Week, Villanova’s Engineering Entrepreneurship Summer Institute, and SMU’s InpactNights. He also volunteers to serve on the board for Dallas College’s Bill J. Priest Institute’s Innovation Lab.

Over the past 20 years Dr. Olivier in addition to acting as a consultant on the design of both advanced networking equipment and the design of advanced networks, Dr. Olivier has also been an intellectual property consultant in the area of networking and telecommunications technologies. Dr. Olivier’s education and background have allowed him to be recognized as an expert in such areas as Packet Switching, Cellular Networks, and Network Security before United States District Courts and the International Trade Commission.

Dr. Olivier currently lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife Margaret. A native of Cincinnati Ohio, Dr. Olivier received his Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University during which he was named a Kodak Fellow, one of twelve fellowships given out nationally by the Kodak Corporation in the areas of physics and engineering.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

April 10, 2019March 7, 2022

Liam Lowsley-Williams ’21

Liam Lowsley-Williams ’21, worked for the Hunt Institute through his undergraduate studies and now as a masters student. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with a minor in Engineering Management Information Systems from Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University. Currently, he is pursuing a Master of Science in Computer Science and is the Head Full Stack Development Teaching Assistant for Lyle in the Computer Science department. He continues to be a Technical Consultant for the Hunt Institute where he mentors other students as well as leads development in the evolving Map INDallas (formally called Map 4 Good).

Liam was born in Fairfield, CT and transferred to SMU after his first year of college. He originally attended Chapman University in Southern California and was pursuing business and economics with an emphasis on real estate development. However, while working over the winter months in Telluride, CO, he realized his true calling was engineering. He identified and solved an issue as an intern by developing a digitized inventory management system for a hotel where he worked. That solution was integrated into the company’s standard operating procedures resulting in a cost savings for the company as well as increased customer satisfaction.

Liam accepted a role as Frontend Web Developer at SiriusXM after successfully completing his internship there over the summer of 2021 where he works while pursuing his master’s degree. He holds a Board of Directors member position for Treasure Map, Inc., and continues as the Chief Technology Officer for Learning Alpha, LLC that he co-founded in 2019. His background experience include an internship as a software engineer at McKinsey & Company in NYC, a Full Stack Developer for Signo Capital, and as a Graphic and Web Designer for the AT&T Center for Virtualization partnering with Southern Methodist University, to name a few

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

March 6, 2019March 2, 2022

Cole DeYoung ’20

Cole DeYoung

Class of 2020

Undergraduate Program Manager

Engineering Management, Information and Systems major

Economics Minor

SMU Discovery Scholarship

Founders Scholarship

INFORMS VP of Finance

“I love my major and that it challenges me and I know that what I’ve learned at SMU and through my work experience will enable me to do something great, but that won’t matter to me if I’m not passionate about the work I am doing. What inspires me, what feeds my soul, is working with people. I am lucky I found the Hunt Institute because I finally get to apply the technical business side of me to something that I am deeply passionate about.”

Cole DeYoung graduated from Southern Methodist University studying Engineering Management, Information and Systems and Economics. She served as the VP of Finance for the SMU chapter of INFORMS and as a Project Manager here at the Hunt Institute.

Cole’s EMIS major teaches math and computer science skills, optimization techniques and business principles. She uses this breadth of skills in her various work experiences. Cole worked as a Reliability Engineering Intern for Abbott Nutrition her freshman year, as a Business Excellence Intern for Abbott Diagnostics her sophomore year and will be working for a Management Consulting firm in New York City this summer.

It is Cole’s lifelong passion for helping others that brought her to the Hunt Institute.

“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.” ― Leo Buscaglia

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

February 27, 2019March 2, 2022

Scott Douglas, PhD, Hunt Institute Fellow

Scott Douglas, PhD., is a Hunt Institute Fellow and professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Scott C. Douglas, Ph.D. Hunt Institute Fellow, is the author or co-author of two books, eight book chapters, and more than 200 articles in journals and conference proceedings. He is a senior member of the IEEE and a past Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (IEEE), the IEEE Signal Processing Letters (IEEE), and the Journal of Signal Processing Systems (Springer). He has served in numerous roles to the IEEE, including General Chair of ICASSP 2010, Chair of the Neural Networks for Signal Processing Technical Committee, and Secretary of the Signal Processing Education Technical Committee of the IEEE Signal Processing Society.

Dr. Douglas has played an integral role in developing and managing the Infinity Project, an effort among university faculty, high-tech industry, and civic educational leaders to bring an exciting and practical engineering curriculum to high school students both in the U.S. and internationally. He was one of the first researchers to demonstrate acoustic source separation of speech signals, and he manages the Multimedia Systems Laboratory housing an acoustic chamber with real-time recording and processing capabilities for microphone arrays.

When discussing Dr. Douglas motivation, he said, “Research begins as an act of creativity through a myriad of choices: what problem or issue to explore, what questions to ask, and the ways to collect or develop new knowledge or expertise. Then, it turns into a task of execution. In these ways, it is a lot like an artistic performance. Preparation is key.”

Scott C. Douglas received the B.S. (with distinction), M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA. He is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX. His research activities include acoustic blind source separation, wireless geolocation/direction-finding, and VLSI/hardware implementations of digital signal processing systems.

February 25, 2019March 2, 2022

Jaclyn Soria ’20

SMU Class of 2020

Journalism and Spanish major

Advertising minor

Jaclyn graduated from Southern Methodist University with a B.A. in Journalism and Spanish and minor in Advertising. As a Miami native, Jaclyn enjoys being immersed in different cultures and has participated in study abroad programs in countries like Spain and the United Kingdom.

Like the Hunt Institute itself, Jaclyn is committed to fostering a world to better the human condition and has realized this goal with her work at the institute. She believes that innovation, together with the written word, gives the Hunt Institute the means to create a better tomorrow.

As the previous VP Recruitment of the Iota Sigma chapter of Alpha Chi Omega, Jaclyn was very involved in various committees for her sorority. After completing her undergraduate studies at SMU, she is currently working as a Copywriter at Miami Advertising School.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

February 4, 2019March 2, 2022

Daniel Dewan

Daniel is a rising junior at Southern Methodist University working towards a B.A. Computer Science and B.BA. in Finance. He is also Treasurer of SMU’s Men’s Club Soccer Team and a member of Beta Theta Pi, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the McLane Teammates Scholars Reading Group through SMU’s O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom.

Daniel has also been recognized as a Distinguished Scholar and has been awarded the SMU Discovery, Lyle UG Engineering, and Embrey, J Lindsay Scholarships as well as SMU Honor Roll with Distinction – Spring 2019. In July, he will be interning at American Express as a Software Engineer. After completing his undergraduate studies at SMU, Daniel will pursue a career in management consulting and eventually return to school to earn an MBA.

At the Hunt Institute, Daniel is an undergraduate Web Developer where he has project managed the Hunt Institute’s transition in gathering content that would be used for its page in SMU Lyle School of Engineering’s new site, created new pages using Sitecore, HTML, and CSS as well as made edits to current pages, and posted articles on the Hunt Institute’s blog focusing on SEO.

February 4, 2019March 7, 2022

Kelly Little ’19

Class of 2019

Research Analyst

Major: Health and Society

Minor: Biology

Second Century Scholar and Honor Roll

Kelly Little graduated from SMU majoring in Health and Society and minoring in Biology. She was a recipient of the Second Century Scholarship at SMU.

Kelly has worked as a medical assistant in a top New York Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery office for the past two summers. She was also a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma and was the 2018 Philanthropy Chair of the Gamma Phi Chapter at SMU. As the Philanthropy Chair, Kelly established a brand-new fundraising event that doubled the amount of money raised by the Chapter, when compared to the previous year. She organized over 10 different volunteer and fundraising events for the Gamma Phi Chapter and partnered with foundations such as the Akola Project and Reading is Fundamental.

At the Hunt Institute, Kelly worked as a Research Analyst on various projects. Her research interests are public health, nutrition, sustainability, and underserved populations both globally and locally.

After graduating from SMU, Kelly is currently attending Pace University’s Lenox Hill Hospital Physician Assistant Studies Program.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

October 15, 2018March 2, 2022

Chris Kelley

Chris Kelley is an award-winning writer with more than 35 years of experience in journalism and strategic communications.

An ardent champion of truth and getting the story behind the story, Kelley began his career as a newspaper reporter fresh out of college, working his way through the ranks of The Dallas Morning News (Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corp.) — from street reporter to city editor over the course of 27 years — and ultimately becoming the founding editor of DallasNews.com, the evolutionary step of the Dallas Morning News, as the major news operation entered the new millennium.

A relentless problem solver, Kelley, after accepting a voluntary severance arrangement from A.H. Belo Corp in 2006, formed The Kelley Group to bring his communications skills to select non-profits, humanitarian organizations and visionary corporations to expand the reach of their message effectiveness, using both traditional media and New Media formats to inspire a greater audience worldwide to take positive action on society’s challenges.

Focusing on human causes and social justice issues, Kelley is an expert in media relations and crisis communications, and through his media consultancy he has partnered with the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, Refugee Services of Texas, SMU, the Lighthouse for the Blind (Envision Dallas), the Deaf Action Center, and Alliance for Greater Works, among other institutions that engage in what he describes as having a big difference to make but needing some help to make it more efficiently and effectively.

When asked for his motivation behind his impactful work, he replied, “At the start of every day and before sleep every night, I ask: ‘What will I do/what have I done to level the playing field for others who are unable to pursue this aim themselves.'”

As an author, Kelley has traveled the world to get the first-person accounts of those who’ve lived through the indescribable trauma of human atrocities, specifically in an effort to keep the stories of those who’ve survived the horrors of the Rwandan genocide of the late 20th Century from being buried by the passing of time. And, through the friendships he’s forged with people of all walks of life, who’ve endured monumental hardships and nevertheless prevailed to grasp their own purpose and meaning and forge their own successes, Kelley has gained an appreciation for the potential within every person and strives to present the triumph of the human spirit in all his work.

Among his works, Kelley is the author of Rwanda: 25 Years Later: A primer on the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and what’s happened since then (2019, Amazon) and I Was a Stranger: Hope for a Hidden World (2008, Brown Books).

He also served as executive producer of the DVD, JFK: Story Behind the Story, on the 40th anniversary of the JFK assassination. He is executive producer of Tragedy Over Texas: The Columbia Shuttle Disaster. And, he has also helped produce an online resource for KERA-TV and Radio, Living with the Trinity (TrinityRiverTexas.org).

Kelley is a contributing author for Demographics: A Guide to Methods and Data Sources for Media, Business, and Government (2006, Routledge).

Kelley is a graduate of Texas Christian University and is a member of both the News Leaders Association and the Dallas Press Club.

Kelley and his wife, Sheryl, live in Dallas and have raised two children who have both followed in their parents’ footsteps of living to enjoy life with meaning and purpose while striving to be servant-leaders in collaboration with others who are seeking to achieve equity and equality for all persons.

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October 15, 2018March 2, 2022

Andrew Quicksall, Hunt Institute Fellow

Associate Professor, SMU
B.S., Environmental Sciences, Texas Christian University, 1998
M.S., Geology, Washington State University, 2000
Ph.D., Earth Science, Dartmouth College, 2009

It is with pleasure we announce Andrew Quicksall as a Hunt Institute Fellow. The Hunt Institute Fellows are appointed for their expertise and demonstrated excellence in their fields. During their tenure, they will collaborate on projects and contribute to the endeavors of the Institute.

Andrew Quicksall, Ph.D., as assistant professor of enviornmental engineering, studies aqueous metal enrichment and water contamination in the natural environment by probing both solution and solid chemistry of natural materials.

Supported by a grant from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Quicksall and a team of his graduate students collected water samples in UNHCR camps and brought them back to SMU for analysis and also trained workers in and around the refugee camps to test water supplies. The group is integrating information from other sources to develop a database that will help UNHCR planners provide safer drinking water in existing and future refugee camps.