Curriculum Vitae

Education
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
Ph.D. Candidate
–
Loyola University Maryland
Columbia, MD
M.Ed., Montessori Education
–

AMI diploma/teaching certification in Montessori Elementary, May 2006

Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA
B.S. Computer Science
–

Specialization in Artificial Intelligence & Educational Technology;
Certificate in Social Psychology/ Personality Theory

Professional Experience
Government Consulting
Arlington, VA
Associate of Technology
–

Work as part of the Sapient team to analyze and resolve client’s business issues via application development. Coordinate with the project team and take responsibility for a specific component of the project architecture including coding, planning, estimation, issue resolution and quality assurance.

  • Meet with business users to conduct requirements analysis, perform systems analysis
  • Develop Object Oriented code and provide maintenance and enhancements to existing code, primarily using Java
  • Develop conceptual and technical design including use of OOA and OOD techniques
  • Conduct testing including all phases; systems, integration and performance and ensuring traceability
  • Prepare training materials and courses to educate users on strategies and technologies
    • Government Contracting
    Arlington, VA
    Software Developer
    –
      Part of a four-person development team responsible for the design, development and support of the USPS Customer Inquiry and Claims Response System (CICRS), and Online Insured Claims Projects. Personal responsibilities include the development and maintenance of code, database, and technical documentation satisfying the customer requirements. Performed product and system assessments, and produced analytical reports for customer feedback, as well as utilities to simplify coding and database. Key accomplishments include:

    • Designed & developed key enterprise components using Struts, JAVA and J2EE to accommodate worldwide European Postal Group and Universal Postal Union claim filings
    • Used PL/SQL to compare and migrate data among four database instances
    • Created a development tool to write Java classes using Visual Basic from an Excel spreadsheet
    • Developed an enhanced data model to accommodate online Postal Customer claim filing
    • Developed a standardized Ant build file for application deployments across multiple environments
    • Independently researched and composed internal presentations on additional technologies including Hibernate, Flash, and Flex
    • Developed a comprehensive software design using UML to manage all claims back office processing and communication with external systems
    Home Health Software Agency
    Atlanta, GA
    Technical Resource Developer
    –
      Enhanced electronic medical records software utilized by home health, hospice, and private duty agencies. Responsibilities included working with key customers and incorporating their needs into new revisions of the software by creating new functionality and custom external utilities. Wrote bug fixes and created documentation for existing code as well as resolving real-time system failures and errors via detailed code analysis.
    Publications
    Waiting for Learning: Designing Interactive Education Materials for Patient Waiting Areas

    Leong, Z.A. & Horn, M.S. (2014). Waiting for Learning: Designing Interactive Education Materials for Patient Waiting Areas.Proceedings Interaction Design and Children . (IDC’14)

    Waiting for Learning: Basis for Educational Interaction Design in Waiting Areas

    Leong, Zeina A., Horn, Michael S., & Meier, Emily. (2013) Waiting for Learning: Basis for Educational Interaction Design in Waiting Areas. Sickle Cell Disease Association of America Annual Conference. Presentation. (SCDAA ’13).

    Waiting for learning: designing interactive educational materials for patient waiting areas

    Leong, Z. A. (2012, June). Waiting for learning: designing interactive educational materials for patient waiting areas. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, Doctoral Consortium (pp. 359-362). ACM.

    Of bats and apes: an interactive tabletop game for natural history museums

    Horn, M., Atrash Leong, Z., Block, F., Diamond, J., Evans, E. M., Phillips, B., & Shen, C. (2012, May). Of bats and apes: an interactive tabletop game for natural history museums. In Proceedings of the 2012 ACM annual conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2059-2068). ACM.

    Representing Equality: A Tangible Balance Beam for Early Algebra Education

    Leong, Z.A. & Horn, M.S. (2011). Representing Equality: A Tangible Balance Beam for Early Algebra Education. In Proc. 10th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (short paper), Ann Arbor, MI. June, 2011.

    Learning Sustainability: Children, Learning, and the Next Generation Eco-Feedback Technology

    Horn, M. S., Davis, P., Hubbard, A., Keifert, D., Leong, Z.A., & Olson, I.C. (2011). Learning Sustainability: Children, Learning, and the Next Generation Eco-Feedback Technology. In Proc. 10th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (short paper), Ann Arbor, MI. June, 2011.

    It’s just a toolbar!: using tangibles to help children manage conflict around a multi-touch tabletop

    Izabel C. Olson, Zeina Atrash Leong, Uri Wilensky, and Mike S. Horn. 2010. It’s just a toolbar!: using tangibles to help children manage conflict around a multi-touch tabletop. In Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction (TEI ’11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 29-36

    Toque: designing a cooking-based programming language for and with children

    Sureyya Tarkan, Vibha Sazawal, Allison Druin, Evan Golub, Elizabeth M. Bonsignore, Greg Walsh, Zeina Atrash. Toque: designing a cooking-based programming language for and with children. CHI’2010. pp.2417~242

    The BEAM: a digitally enhanced balance beam for mathematics education

    Zeina Atrash Leong and Michael S. Horn. 2010. The BEAM: a digitally enhanced balance beam for mathematics education. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 290-292

    Adopting Montessori Traditions in the Design of Tangible Learning Objects

    Atrash, Z. & Horn, M.S. (2010). Adopting Montessori Traditions in the Design of Tangible Learning Objects. In Proc. CHI’10 Next Generation of HCI and Education Workshop.

    Will you be my friend? An exploration of adolescent friendship online in teen second life

    Foucault, B., Zhu, M., Huang, Y., Atrash, Z., & Contractor, N. (2009). Will you be my friend? An exploration of adolescent friendship online in teen second life. Paper presented at the 59th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA2009)