Staff
Charles Xie, Ph.D.
Charles is the founder of IFI. He was elected by the Board of Directors on August 26, 2020 as the inaugural President and CEO of IFI, responsible for raising funds, developing technology, and building partnerships. He also serves as the Chief Scientist. An award-winning scientist, he has over 25 years of experience in STEM research and education in America and Europe, including several years of training on materials and drug discovery based on computational physics and chemistry. On the research avenue, he has authored or co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed journal papers. He is currently working on artificially intelligent algorithms that can be used to create design tutors and assistants embedded in CAD+CAE software in the fields of renewable energy, materials design, and drug discovery. On the development avenue, he is the creator of AIMS (Artificial Intelligence for Molecular Sciences), Energy2D, iFlow, Infrared Explorer, and Quantum Explorer, and a co-developer of Aladdin, Infrared Street View, and Telelab. These innovative products have benefited countless users from around the world. His work has also generated broad impacts beyond education. For instance, Energy2D, an interactive multiphysics tool that simulates heat and mass transfer in complex systems based on numerically solving coupled Navier-Stokes Equation, Heat Equation, Radiation Equation, and Newton's Equation of Motion, has been used in more than 90 research papers by other scientists and engineers as a simulation tool. Similarly, Aladdin is also becoming a tool for designing renewable energy solutions, as evidenced by several papers published in Solar Energy (the official journal of the International Solar Energy Society). Throughout his career, Charles has directed more than 15 research grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. More information about him can be found on his Github page.
Dylan Bulseco, Ph.D.
Dylan is Senior Vice President and a principal scientist at IFI. He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University and has over 20 years of experience with fluorescence-based instruments, reagents, and applications working on commercialization of both research-use-only and diagnostic instruments as well as medical devices and therapeutics. He has served as PI, co-PI, or senior personnel on numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Homeland Security. His current work at IFI focuses on integrating computational science, data science, and artificial intelligence into life sciences and biotechnology in a culturally relevant and responsive way to transform biological and biomedical research and education. As a Native Hawaiian, he has also been involved in projects aiming to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in science education and workforce development in both his residency state Massachusetts and his home state Hawaii.
Kenny Yang
Kenny is the CFO at IFI. He is responsible for accounting, human resources, supplies procurement, and grant management. His prior professional experience includes finance, accounting, tax preparation, and IT support. He received a B.S. in economics-finance from Bentley University.
Xiaotong Ding
Xiaotong is a senior full-stack software engineer at IFI. He graduated with a Master of Science degree in computer science and a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering, both from New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is currently working on Aladdin and Telelab. Since joining IFI in 2021, he has been a co-author for seven peer-reviewed journal papers.
Andriy Kashyrskyy
Andriy is a software engineer and data scientist at IFI, working on applying generative AI techniques such as ChatGPT to generative design and generative analytics for IFI's projects. He recently graduated from Minerva University with a Bachelor's Degree in computer science, arts, and humanities. Andriy is originally from Ukraine.
Elena Sereiviene
Elena Sereiviene is the Director of Outreach and Dissemination, responsible for school implementations and project dissemination. She is also a highly effective Project Manager and Curriculum Developer. She is passionate about organizing educational events and inspiring multicultural teams to create personal and social changes. She is fluent in English, Lithuanian, Spanish, and Russian, with international experiences of working and studying in Lithuania, the UK, the Czech Republic, France, Spain, and the United States. Before joining the IFI team she worked at various educational software startups in Cambridge, MA, where she focused on building and maintaining strong client relationships. She likes tackling hard problems and finding innovative solutions.
Shannon H. Sung, Ph.D.
Shannon is a Learning Scientist and the Director of Assessment and Evaluation at IFI. She holds a Master Degree on middle school math and science education from Wesleyan College and a Ph.D. degree in science education from the University of Georgia. Before joining IFI, she was a middle school science teacher in Taiwan and an assistant professor at Spelman College. She has served as the PI or co-PI of three NSF-funded projects and worked on an HMMI project for promoting interdisciplinary learning of science in historically black colleges. She has published more than 20 peer-reviewed journal papers.
Alumni
Rundong Jiang
Rundong graduated with a Master of Arts degree from the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science degree in materials science and engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Ashley Bulseco, Ph.D.
Ashley is an environmental scientist specializing in biogeochemistry, microbial ecology, and oceanography. She has over ten years of experience as a researcher and science instructor and is currently teaching high school environmental science, where she applies innovative curricula to make STEM more accessible both in and out of the classroom. Ashley holds a Ph.D. from Northeastern University, a M.S. from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and a B.S. from the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Throughout her career, she has served as a PI or co-PI on four funded grants from the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute and has authored or co-authored 14 peer-reviewed papers.
Alex Barco, Ph.D.
Alex Barco received his Ph.D. in telecommunication engineering from Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain in 2010. His research interests are robotics, social robotics, educational robotics, therapeutical robotics, and service robotics. He helps children with special needs such as autistic children and children with brain trauma.
Joy Massicotte
Joy holds a Master's Degree in Resource Adminstration and Managment from the University of New Hampshire and a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Studies from San Francisco State University. She has served as a co-PI of an NSF-funded ITEST project that focuses on using science education to promote building energy efficiency.
Xudong Huang, Ph.D.
Xudong holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Memphis. Her research focuses on exploring students' use of explanatory help during STEM problem solving in interactive learning environments.