About
I am currently an Associate Teaching Professor at Northeastern University in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences. My primary teaching interests are in computer systems and computer graphics. My research interests are related to performance engineering (dynamic analysis) and software visualization.
Along with teaching and research work, I have juggled occasional consulting work as a 3D Senior Graphics Engineer.
- To current Northeastern Students, read before you e-mail me on the following items):
- Research: Check this link for research opportunities and projects.
- Teaching: My previous course syllabi are usually online if you want to take a look--offerings are usually about 75% similar, though continuously evolving.
- Summer 2023: 4300/5310 will be in Summer 1, online, asynchronous. I am likely to teach the course in DLang. Histroically I have taught in C++, while others teach in Java, TypeScript, or C++ as well. Programming language does not matter since we use OpenGL API and glsl (OpenGL shading langauge).
- Summer 2023: 5350 will be Summer Full, online, asynchronous. This is effectively an applied computational geometry course. We'll focus on a few problems like computing convex hulls, 3D mesh representation, mesh simplification, triangulation, collision systems (various forms of concave and convex shape collisions, line-insteresction algorithms, triangle intersection), and a few algorithms on planning and motion (applications in games, robotics, and animation). We'll incorporate a refresher of math(trig, linear algebra, Big-O analysis) as needed. There will be some amount of research paper reading in this course.
- Summer 2023: (Will be listed as either CS 4973 or 360/5360) Is a second graphics course and will be in Summer 2, online, asynchronous. 4300/5310 is not a prerequisite, this course focuses on ray tracing, and you can prior iterations of the course on my website as CS 4910/7380.
- Enrollment/Waitlist: Please email your advisor if you think you have a special circumstance -- I have no power or ability to create, move, or add you to a filled course or create/change a waitlist
- Teaching Assistant Positions: Please apply through the Khoury TA portal, and I will review your application if there is a vacancy.
Contact
- mike[no space here]shah(@t)northeastern(d 0 t)edu
- Tweet to @MichaelShah
- [Google Scholar][CV]
- [Teaching Statement]
Research
My research interest is in analyzing the performance of real time systems. Typically applications where performance matters are in the domains of game engines, computer graphics, and intensive system applications. I perform my research by building static analysis, dynamic analysis, and software visualization tools. [Google Scholar Link]
Current Northeastern students wanting to get involved with my research can browse various Sidequests to get some ideas of projects that may be mutually interesting projects.
Computer Systems
Currently I am working with several students on building program analysis tools for working with data structures. Another undergraduate student is working on building tools to monitor the performance of programs.
Program Analysis
Currently a graduate student and I are investigating a program analysis technique for monitoring threads in C and C++ programs.- Static/Dynamic Analysis
- ICSE 2022, DrAsync: Identifying and Visualizing Anti-Patterns in Asynchronous JavaScript Preprint Talk
- SOAP 2018, Iceberg: A Dynamic Analysis of Java Synchronized Methods Investigating Runtime Performance Variability [Preprint][ACM Link][Slides]
- SOAP 2016, Iceberg: A Tool for Static Analysis of Java Critical Sections [Preprint][ACM Link][Slides]]
Graphics
Some students will be joining my research group to understand cache-oblivious data structures and there performance in a graphics domain.- Software Visualization
- Gaming/Machine Learning
Teaching
The following table lists all of the courses I have developed and previously taught.
| Course Number | Title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| (NEU) CS 4300/5310 | Computer Graphics (Ugrad/Grad) | Sp18, F18, Su19, Su20, Su21,F21, Sp22, Su22,F22 |
| (NEU) CS 4910/7680 | Special Topics in CS - Computer Graphics - Introduction to Non-Interactive Rendering Techniques | Su21, Su22 |
| (NEU) CS 4910/7680 | Special Topics in CS - Performance Engineering | Su20 |
| (NEU) CS 3520 | Programming C++ | Su21,F22 |
| (NEU) CS 5008/5009 | Data Structures, Algorithms, and Their Applications within Computer Systems | Sp21,Sp22 |
| (NEU) CS 3650 | Computer Systems | F17, F18, F19 |
| (NEU) CS 5600 | Computer Systems (Grad) | Su18 |
| (NEU) CS 4850/5850 | Building Game Engines (Ugrad/Grad) | Sp18, Sp19, Sp21, Sp23 |
| (NEU) CS 4955 | Teaching Computer Science | Sp20 |
| (NEU) CS 5500 | Foundations of Software Engineering | Sp20,F20, F21, Sp23 |
| (NEU) CS 5006 | Algorithms (Align-Grad) | Sp19, Su19 |
| (NEU) CS 5007 | Computer Systems (Align-Grad) | Su18, Sp19, Su19 |
| (NEU) CS 5340 | Human Computer Interaction (Grad) | F17 |
| (NEU) CS 1802 | Discrete Mathematics | F17 |
| (Tufts) Comp 11 | Introduction to Computer Science | Su17 |
Talks
This section contains peer reviewed conference talks, guest lectures, invited lectures, and some research competitions I have participated in.
| Year | Event | Title | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | MIT IAP - D Programming Workshop | Introduction to Phobos Standard Library | [Slides] | 2022 | DConf Online 2022 | Engineering a Ray Tracer (The Next Weekend) | [Slides] | 2022 | Handmade Seattle 2022 - Systems Programming Conference | Introduction to Memory Allocation Design and Implementation | [Slides] | 2022 | 2022 - Northeastern University Mathematics Club | Introduction to Computational Geometry.pdf | [Slides] | 2022 | CppCon 2022 | Software Design Track - The Observer Pattern | [Slides] | 2022 | CppCon 2022 | Back to Basics - Debugging | [Slides] | 2022 | Core CPP | Introduction to Smart Pointers and Why | [Slides] | 2022 | Career Seminar | Northeastern Vancouver Campus Visit | [Slides] | 2022 | D Conference | Ray Tracing in (Less than) One Weekend with Dlang | DConf 2022 | [Slides] | 2022 | C++ on Sea | Beginners Guide to C++'s Best Kept Secret - std::algorithm | [Slides] | 2022 | ACCU | How I Teach Modern C++ One Pixel at a Time | [Slides] |
| 2021 | CPPCON | Back to Basics: Pointers | [Slides tbd] |
| 2021 | CPPCON | Back to Basics: Concurrency | [Slides tbd] |
| 2021 | CPPCON | Software Design: The Factory Pattern | [Slides tbd] | 2021 | First Byte Student Organization Invited Guest Speaker | Teaching in One Minute | [Slides] | 2021 | Inaugural Illinois Computer Science Summer Teaching Workshop | Evolving the Course Website and Lecture for Online Teaching | [Slides] |
| 2021 | (Invited Talk) Boston Fusion | Game Engines - What Problem Are you trying to Solve? | [Slides] |
| 2021 | Northeastern Workshop | Building a Game Portfolio | [Slides] |
| 2020 | CPPCON | Back to Basics: Design Patterns | [Slides] |
| 2020 | Northeastern U. - Khoury College Tech Talks | Performance Engineering and Program Analysis | [Slides] |
| 2019 | ACCU Autumn | Introduction to Cache Oblivious Algorithms | Slides to be posted |
| 2019 | Northeastern+MIT LLVM Seminar | Introduction to Program Analysis | [Slides] |
| 2019 | Northeastern+MIT LLVM Seminar | Introduction to Clang | [Slides] |
| 2019 | Northeastern+MIT LLVM Seminar | Introduction to LLVM | [Slides] [files] |
| 2019 | Northeastern U. ACM Student Chapter | Introduction to Program Analysis | [Slides] |
| 2019 | Northeastern U. Workshop | Building a Game Portfolio | [Slides] |
| 2018 | Northeastern U. Teaching Faculty Seminar | Introduction to Github Classroom | [Slides] [Video] |
| 2018 | CPPCON | Let's Build an OpenGL Logger | [Slides and Video] |
| 2018 | Northeastern U. Workshop | CS1200 Careers Talk | [Slides] |
| 2018 | Northeastern U. Workshop | Building a Game Portfolio | [Slides] |
| 2018 | Northeastern U. Workshop | (Guest Lecture Nathaniel Tuck) Operating Systems | [Slides] |
| 2018 | FOSDEM | Introduction to LLVM | [Slides and Video] |
| 2017 | Northeastern U. Workshop | Getting a job in the game industry | [Slides] |
| 2017 | (Guest Lecture) MIT Performance Engineering | Hands on Introduction to LLVM Lecture | [Slides] |
| 2016 | MIT LLVM Seminar | Profile-Guided Optimization LLVM Lecture at MIT | [Slides] |
| 2016 | Tufts University - 4th Tufts Ignite Talk | (CSI) Critical Section Investigator (3rd Place Talk) | Slides |
| 2016 | MIT LLVM Seminar | Introduction to LLVM | [Slides] |
| 2016 | Tufts University - Teaching Fellow talk | Introduction to Parallelism | [Video] |
| 2016 | (Invited Talk) Cambridge Pint of Science | How do Computers Compute so Fast | [Slides] |
| 2016 | 19th Annual Tufts Graduate Student Research Symposium | TBD | N/A |
| 2015 | Tufts University - 3rd Annual Tufts Ignite Talk | Microarray Visualization (3rd Place Talk) | [Slides] |
| 2015 | PLMW | Programming Language Mentoring Workshop One-Minute Madness Talk | [Slide] |
| 2014 | Tufts University | 18th Annual Tufts Graduate Student Research Symposium | TBD |
| 2014 | (Guest Lecture for Remco Chang) | Tufts University - Computer Graphics Shaders | TBD |
| 2014 | 1st Annual Tufts Ignite Talk | Code Advisor | TBD |
| 2013 | PLDI | Fun and Interesting Ideas | [Slides] [Paper] |
Service
(Please see CV for a fully up to date list) I have participated in helping create many university organizations, and served in several roles to improve the academic experience of undergraduate and graduate students.
- Northeastern University
- '20,PLDI Artifact Evaluator Committee
- '20, EuroLLVM Program Committee
- '19, cppcon Program Committee
- '19, ECOOP Poster Committee Member
- '18,'19, Director of Khoury Scholars
- '18,'19, Undergraduate Committee
- '18,'19, Program Committee for SIGCSE 2019 Paper Reviewer
- '18, Program Committee for VISSOFT 2018 Paper Reviewer
- Tufts University
- 2016-2017 Tufts Graduate Student Council President
- 2014-2016 Tufts founder of Computer Science League of Learning Graduate Student Group
- 2013-2016 Tufts University Graduate Student IT Committee Seat
- 2016, National Association of Graduate and Professional Students National Conference. Open Panel Discussion
- 2016, National Association of Graduate and Professional Students Northeast Regional Conference. GSO. Slides to be posted
- 2014-2015 Tufts University Graduate Student Council Academic and Career Planning Chair
- 2013-2014 Tufts University Graduate Student Council Secretary
- 2014, National Association of Graduate and Professional Students Northeast Regional Conference. Data-Driven Advocacy. [Slides]
- 2013, National Association of Graduate and Professional Students National Conference. Talk on Technologies Role in Student Organizations. [Slides]
Media/Press
Check out Glimpse Podcast for more interviews with great scientists.
- 2018
- GLIMPSE Podcast Interview - Teaching Humans Computer Science
- This podcast describes my journey into computer science, a little bit about my research, and a few teaching tips!
- 2022
- Hacker News Front Page - Introduction to Dlang
- Introduction to DLang Video from guest speaker Ali Cehreli made it to front page of Hacker News. Ali was hosted here at Northeastern for the day to meet with students and discuss the D programming language
- 2022
- Khoury College - Best Teacher Award Story
- A brief story with a few ancedotes on my teaching philosophy and journey into computer science.
- 2022
- ISOCPP - Mention of my C++ Video Series 100th episode
- A link to my YouTube series on Modern C++.
- 2022
- Graphics Programming Weekly - Issue 264 mentions my OpenGL Series
- A link to my YouTube series on learning Modern OpenGL (3.3+) with C++
- 2022
- Undo - GDB Watchpoint tutorial and video
- Link to the article on time travel debugging.
- 2023
- DConf Online 22 - Interview/Conversation
- Interview/Conversation during DConf Online 2022.
Personal Projects and Fun
Academic Lineage
- I completed my Ph.D. at Tufts University in the Redline Research Group in 2017. My Ph.D. thesis advisor was Samuel Z. Guyer.
- I completed my Masters degree in Computer Science in 2013 at Tufts University
- I completed my Bachelors in Computers Science Engineering at The Ohio State University in 2011.
- I enjoy tutoring programming, and am working on several Python lessons for first time programmers.
- This is my undergraduate capstone project which I am quite proud of. It was a collaboration with a team of 5 total members in the spirit of a 'pixar' short. Click to watch: Shelved Souls
- I drove across the country twice (Boston to Portland Oregon) in 2014.
- My travel outside of the U.S. includes:
- (Barcelona) Spain [photos soon]
- (Brussels) Belgium [photos soon]
- (Amsterdam) Netherlands [photos soon]
- (Vancouver, Toronto) Canada [photos soon]
- (Arusha) Tanzania [photos soon]
- (Reykjavik) Iceland [photos soon]
- (Dublin) Ireland [photos soon]
- (Belfast) Northern Ireland [photos soon]
- (Bristol, London, Folkestone) England [photos soon]
- (Paris) France [photos soon]
- I am always interested in learning about new cultures and places to travel near and far. The best part of working at a university is meeting people from all over the world.
- I consider myself an amateur pizza maker, although this web link needs to be updated with more content. The art of pizza
- I am a long distance runner. I have run the Columbus marathon twice(2009,2010), several half marathons(2009 - Columbus, 2011 - Indiana,2013 - Columbus,2018 BAA Half, 2019 Malden, MA, 2019 Baltimore, 2021 Cambridge), and full Tough Mudder(2018)
- I am slowly getting slower as the years go on. Results
- I follow the NBA (very closely), track&field, and other competitive runners (i.e. marathon)
- I enjoy playing the guitar, typically acoustic songs or alternative rock. Some favorite bands are:
- Third Eye Blind
- The Airborne Toxic Event
- Dispatch
- Adam Ezra Group - See their yearly summertime charity event
- Recently I've also enjoyed Big Thief, Joshua Radin, Will Evans, and Fisherman Friends
- I believe in funding small creators, artists, and independent developers.
- Non-Academic Publications 2014, February 4. On Increasing Enrollment of Computer Science Courses. Tufts Daily. Link | PDF
- In my graduate student days I was runner-up in a Graduate Student Photo Contest at Tufts showcasing student life. You can be the judge if this photo speaks to your life as a (Computer Science) graduate student.
- I was acknowledged in a music masters project by my friend Jane West. Goethe's "Faust" and Nineteenth-Century Music: Essays and an Exhibition
- Here *is the start of* the class photos from every in person class I've ever taught -- what a great looking group of students!
- Fall 4300 - Computer Graphics
- Fall 5310 - Computer Graphics
- Fall 3520 - C++ Programming
Please do not redistribute or host any materials without e-mailing me first. I generally am happy to share the latest .pdf or slide presentation with those who ask. Thank you for your time!