About
I am a Ph.D. student at MIT CSAIL in the Haystack Group, with Professor David Karger. I am interested in web architectures, machine learning, languages (human and computer), and the mobile space in general.
Prior to coming to MIT, I did research and development for three years at BBN Technologies in the areas of geospatial semantic web, computational social science, and agent-based logistics systems. I got my B.S. in Computer Science at the University of Virginia, just about the most beautiful place I know.
Ruby on Rails Book
Check out my book, The Art of Rails, described by an Amazon commenter as a "phenomenal follow-on book for anyone who has completed a beginner Ruby on Rails book and is looking for moving on to the next step.". Rails has undergone a lot of changes lately, but the underlying design patterns that this book addresses remain the same.
Research Projects
Here are some projects I have played a role in:
- Backstage seeks to optimize web application hosting by giving clients the ability to participate in data processing tasks.
- DataPress is a tool for incorporating structured data into the blogging workflow. It helps bloggers link to, visualize, and share their data sets with the world.
- Snoggle (no longer maintained) is a graphical ontology mapper that exports mappings as Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) rules.
- Embedded JavaScript (now maintained by Jupiter IT) is an open source JavaScript template library, currently in use in the JavaScript MVC open source library and the Aptana Cloud service.
iPhone Development
I taught the Intro to iPhone Development course over IAP 2009 and hope to teach it in 2010 as well. Check out the site for some slides and links to other iPhone development resources on the web.
I occasionally help out in various capacities with iPhone and Ruby on Rails development projects. Contact me if you have a project you would like to discuss. Likewise if you are a student developer interested in having development opportunities passed along to you, send me an email with a bit of background information and I'll follow up with you.
Publications
- Visualizing Temporal Data for Diagnostic Feedback in Adaptive Logistics Systems.
E. Benson. Interacting with Temporal Data Workshop. 2009 ACM CHI. Boston, MA.
Workshop Paper - Bridging the Semantic Web and Web 2.0 with Representational State Transfer (REST)
R. Battle and E. Benson. Journal of Web Semantics. Special Issue: Socio-Semantic Web. 2008.
Journal Article - Application of Ontology Translation
J. Ressler, M. Dean, E. Benson, E. Dorner, and C. Morris. 2007 International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC). Busan, Korea.
Conference Paper - A Framework for Multiresolutional Knowledge Dissemination and Collection in Large Dynamic Multi-Agent Societies
E. Benson, J. Berliner, and M. Brinn. 2007 IEEE International Conference on Integration of Knowledge Intensive Multi-Agents Systems. Boston, MA.
Conference Paper - Agent Coordinated, Service Oriented Architectures
E. Benson. 2007 Geospatial Intelligence and Automation Conference. Melbourne, Fl.
Invited Talk - Evaluation of UDDI as a Provider of Resource Discovery Services for OGSA-based Grids
E. Benson, G. Wasson, and M. Humphrey. 2006 IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS). Rhodes Island, Greece.
Conference Paper - Evaluation of UDDI as a Provider of Resource Discovery Services for OGSA-based Grids
E. Benson. Undergraduate Thesis (nominated for Best Thesis award). UVA School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. 2005
Undergraduate Thesis - Ending the Privacy Arms Race
E. Benson and D. Johnson. Harrison Undergraduate Research Award. University of Virginia, 2003.
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