Ab Mosca, PhD

(they\them)

Assistant Teaching Professor, Khoury College of Computer Sciences
at Northeastern University

I'm currently an Assistant Teaching Professor at Northeastern's Khoury College of Computer Sciences. I graduated from Tufts University with my PhD in computer science in August 2021. At Tufts, I worked with Remco Chang in the Visual Analytics Lab at Tufts ([v]alt). Before Tufts, I worked as a Data Associate for Mathematica Policy Research, and graduated from Smith College in 2014 with a BA in Mathematics.

CV

Papers

A. Suh, A. Mosca, S. Robinson, Q. Pham, D. Cashman, A. Ottley, and R. Chang. Inferential Tasks as an Evaluation Technique for Visualization. EuroVis 2022 - Short Papers, 2022. Best Paper Award (PDF, DOI)

A. Mosca, A. Ottley and R. Chang. Does Interaction Improve Bayesian Reasoning with Visualization?. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama, Japan, 2021. (PDF, DOI)

M. Procopio, A. Mosca, C. Scheidegger, E. Wu and R. Chang. Impact of Cognitive Biases on Progressive Visualization. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2021. (PDF, DOI)

A. Mosca, S. Robinson, M. Clarke, R. Redelmeier, S. Coates, D. Cashman, and R. Chang. Defining an Analysis: A Study of Client-Facing Data Scientists. EuroVis 2019 - Short Papers, 2019. (PDF, DOI)

D. Cashman, S. R. Humayoun, F. Heimerl, K. Park, S. Das, J. R. Thompson, B. Saket, A. Mosca, J. Stasko, A. Endert, M. Gleicher, and R. Chang. A User-based Visual Analytics Workflow for Exploratory Model Analysis. Computer Graphics Forum, 2019. (PDF, DOI)

G. Ryan, A. Mosca, R. Chang, and E. Wu. At a Glance: Pixel Approximate Entropy as a Measure of Line Chart Complexity. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2018. (PDF, DOI)

D. Cashman, G. Patterson, A. Mosca, N. Watts, S. Robinson, R. Chang. RNNbow: Visualizing Learning via Backpropagation Gradients in RNNs. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2018. (PDF, DOI)

R. S. Lester, C. V. Irvin, A. Mosca, &C. Bradnan (2015). Tipping the Balance: The Balancing Incentive Program and State Progress on Rebalancing Their Long-Term Services and Supports. Medicaid.gov. (PDF)

A. Mosca, & N.D. Teitelbaum (2015). Pancreas. In Brehm, B.A. (ed.), Nutrition: Science, Issues, and Applications. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press.

A. Mosca (2015). Microbiota and Microbiome. In Brehm, B.A. (ed.), Nutrition: Science, Issues, and Applications. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press.

A. Mosca (2015). Polyphenols. In Brehm, B.A. (ed.), Nutrition: Science, Issues, and Applications. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press.

Papers in Submission and Preparation

A. Suh, Y. Jiang, A. Mosca, E. Wu, and R. Chang. A Grammar for Hypothesis-Driven Visual Analytics. (In preparation)

Workshops and Posters

A. Mosca, A. Ottley, and R. Chang. Does Interaction Improve Bayesian Reasoning with Visualization? In IEEE Visualization Workshop on Visualization for Communication (VisComm), 2020. (PDF)

A. Mosca, Sh. Robinson, M. Clarke, R. Redelmeier, S. Coates, D. Cashman, and R. Chang. Towards Data Science for the Masses: A Study of Data Scientists and Their Interactions with Clients. Poster, IEEE Conference on Information Visualization (InfoVis), 2018.

D. Cashman, G. Patterson, A. Mosca, and R. Chang. RNNbow: Visualizing the Learning Process in Recurrent Neaural Networks. In IEEE Visualization Workshop on Visual Analytics for Deep Learning (VADL), 2017.

G. Ryan, A. Mosca, R. Chang, and E. Wu. Approximate Entropy as a Measure of Line Chart Complexity. Poster, IEEE Conference on Information Visualization (InfoVis), 2017.

Reviewing Activities

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications (CGA), 2022
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2021, 2022
International Journal of Human - Computer Studies (IJHCS), 2020
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), 2020, 2022
IEEE VIS: Visualization & Visual Analytics (VIS), 2021, 2022
IEEE Conference on Information Visualization (InfoVis), 2019 - 2020
IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST), 2019 - 2020
Eurographics and IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee Conference on Visualization (EuroVis), 2019

Workshop Organization

IEEE VIS Visualization for Social Good (vis4good), Program Committee: 2022, 2021
IEEE VIS Visualization for Communication (VisComm), Student Volunteer: 2021, Program Committee: 2022
IEEE VIS Machine Learning from User Interactions for Visualization and Analytics (MLUI), Organizer: 2021, 2020

Work Experience

Assistant Teaching Professor, Khoury College at Northeastern University
August 2021 - Present, Boston, MA

• Full time teaching faculty member focusing on visualization and introductory level courses.

Research Assistant, Visual Analytics Lab at Tufts
May 2017 - August 2021, Medford, MA

• Funded graduate research assistant for the Walmart Foundation funded Nudging Online Shoppers to Healthier Meals project (OAC-1940175, OAC-1939945, IIS-1452977, DGE-1855886)
• Tufts' graduate research coordinator for the NSF HDR funded: GenoPhenoEnvo project (1939945, 1940059, 1940062, and 1940330)
• Funded graduate research assistant for DARPA D3M: User-Driven Model Steering and Curation via Inference from Interaction and Model-Space Sampling project (FA8750-17-2-0107)

Intern, IQT Labs
June 2020 - August 2020, Waltham, MA

• Designed, built, and executed a user evaluation of IQT Labs' VeriCAT system. VeriCAT is an Explainable AI (XAI) system that aims to help users understand the limitations of machine translation (MT)
• Analyzed and presented results of the VeriCAT user evaluation to senior leaders of IQT to inform next steps for XAI research. Specifically, the idea that user evaluations can inform not only user interface design, but also AI model features

Instructor, Northeastern University
August 2019, Boston, MA

• Designed curriculum for Pre-Align Math Introduction course offered to incoming Align students at Northeastern University. The goal of the course was to build math confidence for incoming students many of who are from underrepresented minorities in computer science, and/or enter the program from a field other than computer science
• Delivered lectures and practice problems on high school and introductory-college level material including binary numbers, modulo, logarithms, exponents, word problems, introductory proof techniques, polynomials, functions, and combinatorics
• Managed 5 teaching assistants

Insight Center Intern, National Renewable Energy Lab
June 2018 - August 2018, Golden, CO

• Built framework of an interactive geospatial visualization that illustrates the economic impacts of wind turbine research and development across the contiguous United States under the guidance of Kristi Potter

Data Associate, Mathematica Policy Research
June 2014 - July 2016, Cambridge, MA

• Developed, maintained, and executed programs to assess quality of Medicare and Medicaid data, to automate repetitive administrative tasks, and to perform statistical analyses for research studies
• Assisted building novel dashboard reporting systems utilized by Accountable Care Organizations and Medicaid offices to inform decisions (demo)
• Managed spending, staffing, and data access on tightly budgeted multi-year government contracts for research projects with sensitive private data
• Mentored junior staff, and aided in the development of training tools and programs

Student Researcher, National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates
June 2013 - August 2013, Potsdam, NY

• Performed an in-depth analysis of geometry of, and integration on, the Cantor Set in collaboration with other undergraduates under the supervision of Dr. Klawitter, who presented our results at the 2013 Peterson Conference at the University of Nebraska. In addition, findings were presented at the poster session of the 2014 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore, MD

Professional Memberships

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
IEEE Computer Society
American Statistical Association (ASA)

Service

Teaching Assistant Committee, Khoury College, Northeastern University
Fall 2022 -

Full-time Non-Tenure Track Hiring Committee, Khoury College, Northeastern University
Fall 2021 -

Diversity and Inclusion Full-time Non-Tenure Track Hiring Subcommittee, Khoury College, Northeastern University
Fall 2021 -

Leadership Positions

President, ACM-W Student Chapter - Tufts University
Spring 2017 - Spring 2019

Member, Tufts Computer Science Student Council
Spring 2018 - Spring 2019

First Year and Masters Representative, Tufts Computer Science Student Council
Spring 2017 - Spring 2018

Captain, Smith College Track and Field
Spring 2013 - Spring 2014

Captain, Smith College Cross Country
Fall 2012 - Fall 2013

Contact

Email: a.mosca (at) northeastern (dot) edu

Khoury College of Computer Science
Northeastern University
440 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115

When I'm not working some of my favorite things are:

Running--I did four years of cross country and indoor and outdoor track at Smith.