Download Curriculum Vitae: Gideon Mazambani Education: 2011-Present Texas A&M University-Commerce

Curriculum Vitae: Gideon Mazambani
Education:
2011-Present Texas A&M University-Commerce
Ph.D. Educational Psychology
Dissertation: The Psychology of Online Social Networks: The Creation, Spread, and
Extinction of Memes in Virtual Environments
2007-2009 Texas A&M University-Commerce
M.S. Computer Science
Thesis: Distributed Data Mining in a Computing Grid
2004-2007 Texas A&M University-Commerce
B.S. Computer Information Systems
Graduated magna cum laude
Research Interests:
My main area of research is the investigation of human interactions in virtual
environments. I investigate the role of intragroup status on the interaction of group
members. I also investigate linguistic markers of certain individual and group behaviors.
In addition, I investigate the dialectical relationship between the individual and the group
by analyzing individual language use and by employing social network analysis to
analyze the change in communication patterns. I employ computational methods to
identify patterns in big data to test theoretically based hypotheses.
Current Research Projects:
Memes: Utilizing the data from the human interactions in virtual environments project, I
am investigating the effect of group status and consistency on how memes spread in
virtual communities.
Intragroup Interactions: I am also investigating how differences in group status and
identification influence how group members interact. I am employing linguistics analysis
using the LIWC software to analyze language usage by members in their
communications.
Linguistic Markers: I am interested in examining the linguistic characteristics of
individuals exhibiting certain behaviors. For example, I am analyzing the linguistic
markers of individuals who engage in trolling.
Research Experience:
Social Research Laboratory
2012 - Present
 Designed and implemented a web data extraction system to collect research data for the Human
Interactions in Virtual Communities project.
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Responsible for maintaining the web data extraction system by implementing changes as
needed.
Designed and implemented a big data research hub using StackIQ and Cloudera Hadoop
capable of storing and processing multi-terabytes of structured and unstructured data.
Responsible for maintaining the big data research hub and creating distributed utilities to clean,
preprocess, integrate, and analyze massive the data sets.
Analysis and interpretation of social network analysis data to explore theoretical propositions.
Tools used: StackIQ, CDH (HDFS, Hive, MapReduce, Impala, Sqoop), MySQL, PHP,
LIWC, SPSS, and R
Corvus Project
2008 - 2009
Texas A&M University-Commerce
 Implemented and managed an 18-node Apache Hadoop cluster using commodity hardware,
which involved manually configuring nodes and optimizing for performance.
 Implemented MapReduce versions of data mining algorithms.
Tools used: Apache Hadoop, MySQL, JAVA, PHP, C, and C++
Webpage: http://www.derekharter.com/research/globus-hadoop/
Work Experience:
Intern Programmer/Analyst
2013
Northeast Texas Data
 Worked as part of a team that designed, maintained, and supported a fully integrated judicial
management system.
 Duties involved transforming user requests into business logic, implementing required code
changes, testing of the business logic, integration of the changes into the software product, and
creating user documentation.
Graduate Assistant
2011 - 2012
Texas A&M University-Commerce Alumni Relations
 Assisted in the maintenance of the university's alumni database with more than 50,000 records,
which included ensuring data integrity, designing of queries and updating of records.
 Performed data mining on the alumni database to extract information for use by the office and
other departments on campus.
Data Analyst
2010
Oncor Electric Delivery, Market Data Operations
 Responsible for integrating and managing data from various systems including CIS, Siebel, SAP
and external sources and effectively analyze massive amounts of data for decision making.
 Implemented a web based business intelligence tool that combined and mined data sets from
different sources to automate implementation of business rules.
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Reduced report delivery time by 50% through redesigning of existing processes.
Improved process monitoring by developing a web based tracking system for use by the data
management team.
Implemented web based tools to track work assignments and progress, which helped to quickly
resolve report and data availability problems.
Graduate Assistant
2007 - 2009
Texas A&M University-Commerce Alumni Relations
 Assisted in the maintenance of the university's alumni database with more than 50,000 records,
which involved ensuring data integrity, designing of queries and updating of records.
 Performed data mining on the alumni database to extract information for use by the office and
other departments on campus.
Systems Support Technician
2004 - 2007
Texas A&M University-Commerce Technology Services
 Provided hardware, software, and networking support for students and faculty at the university.
 Provided over-the-phone computer troubleshooting and software usage assistance.
 Assisted with setting up of computer workstations according to University policies and helped
users to learn how to use programs.
Systems Integrator
2002 - 2004
Bufaloe Hardware, Zimbabwe
 Created an inventory management system as part of the Advanced Level Computing project and
sold the product to the company.
 Implemented and integrated the inventory system with an accounting system.
 Combined data from several sources to provide business intelligence.
Conference Presentations:
Mazambani, G., Carlson, M., & Reysen, S. (2014, February). An exploration of language
use by high and low status group members. Poster presented at 15th annual
meeting of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, Austin, TX.
Mazambani, G., Reysen, S., & Puryear, C. (2013, November). Psychological reactance
as a response to copycatting. Paper presented at the 11th annual Pathways Student
Research Symposium, Kingsville, TX.
Mazambani, G., & Reysen, S. (2012, November). Linguistic markers of likable
messengers. Paper presented at the 10th annual Pathways Student Research
Symposium, Galveston, TX.
Teaching Experience:
Teaching Assistant
2012 Fall, TAMUC, Introduction to Human Computer Interaction Design
Achievements and Awards:
2009
Awarded the Summer Thesis Fellowship
2008, Spring Awarded the JC Penney Retail Scholarship
2007-2008
Elected and served on the A&M-Commerce Graduate Council as the
Master's student representative
2007, April Awarded a travel scholarship to attend the Tapia Celebration of Diversity
in Computing conference in Orlando, Florida
2007, April Awarded the Computer Science Senior Excellence Award
2007, Spring Dean's List (TAMUC)
2006, Nov.
Inducted into Alpha Chi National Honors Scholarship Society
2006, Fall
President's List (TAMUC)
2006, Spring President's List (TAMUC)
2005, Fall
President's List (TAMUC)
2005, Spring Dean's List (TAMUC)
2004, Fall
Dean's List (TAMUC)