Faculty and Advisory Board

Proven professionals from the cutting edge.

Our Software Engineering faculty understand the challenges of today's software and information technology industry. Outside of the classroom, they deliver IT solutions and manage complex enterprise and digital systems for leading organizations. The faculty carefully structure our software engineering courses based on the topics and technology trends they experience in practice. As you proceed through the curriculum, you will gain both the theoretical foundation and practical experience of applying technology to real-world problems, to help you advance your career goals.

Meet Our Featured Faculty

Aline Yurik
Program Chair of Software Engineering
Director of Information Technology at BCBS MA

Dr. Aline Yurik is the program chair for Brandeis GPS Master of Software Engineering program. She has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in computer science, software engineering and information technology for over two decades. In parallel with teaching, Dr. Yurik works in the software and information technology industry as a director of software engineering. She has been involved in a number of information technology projects in healthcare, financial and telecommunication industries. Dr. Yurik's area of expertise is business transformation for a digital enterprise, with the focus on core business processes, transactions and portals. 

Dr. Yurik teaches courses in programming, design, architecture, information technology strategy and health information technology topics. Dr. Yurik was also a judge at the TechTogether Boston 2019 hackathon.

Dr. Yurik has a PhD in Computer Science, MA in computer science, MS in information technology, and BA in computer science, all from Brandeis University. 

Erik Hemdal
Program: Software Engineering
Principal Quality Development Engineer, InterSystems Corporation

Erik is the Principal Quality Development Engineer for InterSystems Corp. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1978, InterSystems is the leading provider of data technology for extremely critical data in the health care, finance and logistics sectors. Its cloud-first data platforms solve interoperability, speed and scalability problems for large organizations around the globe.

Prior to InterSystems, Erik worked in power-systems development for Comprehensive Power, Inc. in Massachusetts and in QA, testing and release management at EMC, Bell & Howell, IBM, Micrognosis and Eastman Kodak Co.

Erik's teaching in the Master of Software Engineering program includes software development, software process, testing and release management.

Kirk Lipscomb
Program: Software Engineering
Sr. Project Lead, Karthik Consulting

Robert "Kirk" Lipscomb is a technology manager with 40 years' experience in software development. He is currently senior project lead for Karthik Consulting, leading a DevSecOps transformation on a cybersecurity project for the United States Space Force. Kirk has owned a software consulting firm and has managed development teams in a variety of industries. He has a strong track record of successful agile transformations, even in industries like defense contracting where he managed a team supporting military operations on-site in Baghdad, Iraq. Kirk has a BS in computer science from Texas A&M and an MBA in technology management from the University of Colorado.

Meet Our Advisory Board

Ryan Casillo
Program: Software Engineering
Director of Software Engineering, Natera
Joe Fitzgerald
Program: Software Engineering
Senior Applications Engineer, Oracle Energy and Water
Richard Gianattasio
Program: Software Engineering
Director of Engineering, Tanzu Observability, VMware
Suneetha Gonuguntla
Program: Software Engineering
Senior Director, Technical Support, Salesforce
Deb MacCallum
Program: Software Engineering
Vice President of Engineering, CloudHealth by VMware
Jesse Mazur
Program: Software Engineering
Engineering Leader, Messenger Privacy and Security, Meta
Aarthi Muralidaren
Program: Software Engineering
Senior Software Quality Engineering Manager, Pearson