Summary
Jim Teresco is a seasoned computer science educator and department leader with over a decade of experience shaping undergraduate curricula and mentoring students in systems, algorithms, and parallel computing. As Computer Science Department Chair and long-time professor at Siena College, he combines classroom teaching of courses like Operating Systems and Parallel High Performance Computing with hands-on research in parallel and distributed computing and algorithm visualization. He leads the METAL (Map-Based Educational Tools for Algorithm Learning) project, engaging undergraduates as contributors and co-authors, and also maintains practical projects such as Travel Mapping on his GitHub. Jim’s work bridges rigorous research—dynamic load balancing for scientific computation—with a passion for making complex algorithms accessible through visualization. Based in Amsterdam, NY, he is active in the SIGCSE and CCSCNE communities, bringing regional academic leadership to liberal-arts computing education. Outside academia he balances his technical career with seasonal work as a PSIA-certified ski instructor, reflecting a knack for teaching in diverse settings.
11 years of coding experience
22 years of employment as a software developer
MS, Computer Science, MS, Computer Science at Union College
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Computer Science, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute