Khoury Stories

Students. Faculty. Alumni. Community. These are our stories.

  • Praful Mathur

    Praful Mathur

      Affiliation:
    • Alumni

    Location: Boston

    When he was younger, Praful Mathur resisted the idea of college until touring Northeastern and learning about the co-op program. Now, he says, “I’ve become the type of person I admired when I was in college, and a lot of it was because of Khoury College.”

  • Natasha Noy

    Natasha Noy

      Affiliation:
    • Alumni

    Location: Boston

    Google researcher Natasha Noy credits much of her success to the strong research foundation she received at Northeastern and Khoury College: “Northeastern set me on the path of being a researcher, asking interesting questions, finding something new.”

  • Maggie Xu

    Maggie Xu

      Affiliation:
    • Align Alumni

    Location: Seattle

    In the middle of the pandemic, Maggie Xu became a mother. Being an Align graduate enabled her to work in tech roles during that period that helped support her new family while keeping her responsibilities and lifestyle balanced.

  • Melody Biringer

    Melody Biringer

      Affiliation:
    • Industry Partner

    Location: Seattle, Vancouver

    Through her WiT Regatta Conference, Melody Biringer collaborates with Khoury College to bring together women in tech from around the world to meet for a week of connection.

  • Laurel Yamaguchi

    Laurel Yamaguchi

      Affiliation:
    • Industry Partner

    Location: Boston

    For Pivotal Venture’s Laurel Yamaguchi, collaborating with Northeastern has been a highly meaningful experience: “I love working with the Center for Inclusive Computing. I learn so much from them constantly because of their deep expertise in higher education.”

  • Padmaja Vrudhula

    Padmaja Vrudhula

      Affiliation:
    • Industry Partner

    Location: Boston

    What resonates for Padmaja Vrudhula regarding Khoury College and the Align program — and how she got involved — is “trying to bring in students with non-traditional backgrounds.” As an aspiring neurosurgeon turned tech executive, it’s a journey Vrudhula knows well.

  • Daron Green

    Daron Green

      Affiliation:
    • Industry Partner

    Location: Boston

    Daron Green recognized tech's diversity gap while at Facebook Research and championed making a large investment in the Align program, about which he is a staunch advocate: “I think that every single computer science department should have an Align-equivalent program.”

  • Doreen Hodgkin

    Doreen Hodgkin

    Location: Boston

    During her 35 years at Northeastern, Doreen Hodgkin developed a reputation as a can-do manager, honest educator, and all-around asset to Khoury College. Her legacy carries on through a fund established in her honor, the Doreen Hodgkin Student Emergency Fund.

  • Melvin Simms

    Melvin Simms

    Location: Boston

    Melvin Simms launched Khoury College’s successful co-op program right from the beginning of the college in 1982. Little did he know that he would shepherd the program for the next 30 years.

  • Harriet Fell

    Harriet Fell

      Affiliation:
    • Emeritus Faculty

    Location: Boston

    Harriet Fell, a professor at Northeastern since 1971, was among those who chose to take on the challenge of creating a new computer science college. The curriculum she and her colleagues developed became the foundation for the Khoury first-year program, and won national curriculum awards.

  • Betty Salzberg

    Betty Salzberg

      Affiliation:
    • Emeritus Faculty

    Location: Boston

    Creating one of the first colleges of computer sciences was groundbreaking 40 years ago — especially when four of the six champions were women. One of those leaders was Betty Salzberg, Khoury professor emeritus.

  • Molly White

    Molly White

      Affiliation:
    • Alumni

    Location: Boston

    Since graduating in 2016, Molly White has become a leading voice in tech ethics and crypto criticism. The software engineer, frequent Wikipedia editor, and creator of "Web3 is Going Just Great" now advocates for federal regulation while researching at Harvard's Library Innovation Lab.

  • Mitch Wand

    Mitch Wand

      Affiliation:
    • Emeritus Faculty

    Location: Boston

    One of the best-known features of Khoury College's curriculum is its approach to teaching programming languages, specifically its focus on functional languages. This is due in no small part to Mitchell Wand, who has been a proponent since the 1970s.

  • Bill Lakeland

    Bill Lakeland

      Affiliation:
    • Industry Partner

    Location: Vancouver

    When the Vancouver Northeastern campus started looking for business partners to support the research work of its CS master’s students, Bill Lakeland didn’t hesitate. His company, Spexi Geospatial, was the first industry partner to provide work opportunities for Khoury students there.

  • Fiona McCrae

    Fiona McCrae

      Affiliation:
    • Alumni

    Location: Boston

    Fiona MacCrae’s list of undergraduate accomplishments is long: Graduated Summa Cum Laude. Excelled on the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) team. Held competitive co-ops at MITRE. And so much more. As one professor noted, “When there’s a problem lurking, or a solution that needs to be implemented, Fiona steps up.”

  • Richard Rasala

      Affiliation:
    • Emeritus Faculty

    Location: Boston

    Today, Khoury College boasts 60 combined majors — the most of any undergraduate CS program in the country. And its due in large part to the early efforts of Richard Rasala, who first developed the programs in the 1990s with then Dean Larry Finkelstein.