Rebecca Nesson Lead Software Developer Public Radio Exchange (prx.org) 66 Church Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Email rebeccanesson at gmail.com rebecca at prx.org

Education

• Ph.D., Harvard University, Computer Science, June, 2009.
     Dissertation: Synchronous and Multicomponent Tree-Adjoining Grammars: Complexity, Algorithms, and Applications (abstract)
• J.D. cum laude, Harvard Law School, 2001
• A.B. magna cum laude, Harvard College, 1998

Work Experience

• Public Radio Exchange (2009 - present)
  I am a software developer for the Public Radio Exchange (prx.org), a non-profit online marketplace for distribution, review, and licensing of public radio programming and development shop for mobile and web applications that help public media go beyond broadcast. Although my primary work consists of computer programming, it also includes interfacing with clients, developing wireframes and working with designers, and architecting the applications.

Technical Skills

• iOS/Objective-C. Three years of development for iOS, including work from conception to release of over 15 apps including This American Life, Radiolab, KCRW Music Mine, WBUR, WGBH, WNYC, WQXR, KQED, VPR, KPBS, Alphabetter.
• Ruby on Rails. Three years of development experience using Ruby on Rails for user-facing web applications and back end servers for mobile applications.
• Android/Java. One year of development for Android, including work from conception to release on the Radiolab android app, as well as Android apps for WNYC, WQXR, KPBS (forthcoming) and KQED (forthcoming).
• Proficiency in other programming languages, markups, tech communities, etc, including MySQL, Postgres, HTML, Javascript, CSS, C, Lisp, Scheme, Prolog, Python, git, svn, GitHub, Stackoverflow, Heroku, Wordpress and so on...

Peer-Reviewed Academic Publications

• Rebecca Nesson, Giorgio Satta and Stuart Shieber. Complexity, Parsing, and Factorization of Tree-Local Multi-Component Tree-Adjoining Grammars. Computational Linguistics, 36(3), 443-480, 2010. Also available as Technical Report TR-05-08, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2008. [.pdf]
• Rebecca Nesson, Giorgio Satta and Stuart Shieber. Optimal k-arization of Synchronous Tree-Adjoining Grammar. In Proceedings of the 46th Conference of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL08:HLT), Columbus, Ohio, 604-612, 2008. [(preprint) .pdf]
• Rebecca Nesson and Stuart Shieber. Synchronous Vector-TAG for Natural Language Syntax and Semantics. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Workshop on Tree Adjoining Grammars and Related Formalisms (TAG+ 9), Tübingen, Germany, 7-8 June 2008. [(preprint) .pdf]
• Rebecca Nesson and Stuart Shieber. Extraction Phenomena in Synchronous TAG Syntax and Semantics. In Dekai Wu and David Chiang, editors, Proceedings of the Workshop on Syntax and Structure in Statistical Translation, Rochester, New York, 26 April 2007. [.pdf|bib]
• Rebecca Nesson, Stuart M. Shieber, and Alexander Rush. Induction of probabilistic synchronous tree-insertion grammars for machine translation. In Proceedings of the 7th Conference of the Association for Machine Translation in the Americas (AMTA 2006), Boston, Massachusetts, 8-12 August 2006. [.pdf|bib]
• Rebecca Nesson and Stuart M. Shieber. Simpler TAG semantics through synchronization. In Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Formal Grammar, Malaga, Spain, 29-30 July 2006. [.pdf|bib]
• Rebecca Nesson, Alexander Rush, and Stuart M. Shieber. Induction of probabilistic synchronous tree-insertion grammars. Technical Report TR-20-05, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2005. [.pdf|bib]
• Rebecca Nesson and Charles Nesson. In the Virtual Classroom: An Ethnographic Argument for Education in Virtual Worlds. Space and Culture. Sage Publications. 2008. [(preprint) .pdf]

Teaching Experience

• Head Teaching Fellow, CS287r: Natural Language Processing, Harvard University, Spring 2008, Spring 2006.
• Head Teaching Fellow, CSCI S-111: Intensive Introduction to Computer Science Using Java, Harvard Summer School, Summer 2008, Summer 2007.
• Teaching Fellow, CS121: Theory of Computation, Harvard University, Fall 2007, Fall 2002.
• Head Teaching Fellow, CSCI S-1: Introduction to Computer Science Using Java, Harvard Summer School, Summer 2006, Summer 2005, Summer 2004.
• Teaching Fellow, CS187: Natural Language Processing, Harvard University, Fall 2003, Spring 2005.
• Head Teaching Fellow, Computer Science 51: Introduction to Computer Science II, Harvard University, Spring 2002
• Teaching Fellow, Computer Science 50: Introduction to Computer Science I, Harvard University, Fall
  2001
• Instructor, Virtual Worlds, Harvard Extension School, Fall 2007.
• Instructor, CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion, Harvard Extension School, Fall 2006.
• Internet & Society: the Technologies and Politics of Control, Harvard Extension School, Spring 2003, Spring 2002.

Other Projects and Software

• Sheep Beats: a Flash animated sequencer for teaching kids (and fun)
• Marketlist: a web-based ordering system that reduces the overhead for getting locally grown produce in to food markets.
• Alphabetter: a kids alphabet learning app for iPhone and iPad.

Organic Community Farming

I am the president of the Board of Directors of Waltham Fields Community Farm, a non-profit farm offering fresh, local produce grown using organic sustainable methods. We offer extensive, high-quality educational and volunteer opportunities and provide large quantities of fresh produce to a variety of food access and hunger relief outlets.

Personal

I live in Cambridge with my husband Wayne and my daughters Nico and Charlie. Wayne and I are both born and raised in Cambridge and plan to stay here. We do a lot of wild food foraging, gardening and food preservation by canning, brewing, lactic fermentation, freezing and drying.