Biography
Joel Kemp graduated from Cardinal Hayes Memorial High School in 2003 with academic honors and induction in the National Honor Society. He spent his junior year at Saint John's College located in Belize City, Belize, where he studied Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. In the Spring of 2008, he graduated, Cum Laude, from the City College of New York, with a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science, and a minor in English. As an undergraduate, he was the President of the City College Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery and had a very active role in the school's community through numerous club affiliations and community service activities. Joel began his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the CUNY Graduate Center in the Fall of 2008; under the supervision of Professor Jie Wei, CCNY.
Joel's research interests include: Image Processing, Digital Libraries, Algorithms, Data Structures, Web Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, and Design Patterns. Outside of computer science and writing, his interests include: Medicine, Music, Photography, Paintball, Soccer, Tennis, among many others.
Citations
“City is full of people who want to learn and grow, and they make great friends.”
“When I find a course with real world applications,” says Joel Kemp, “I live that course.”
Joel came to the Grove School looking for a discipline that would challenge him, and
he found it in computer science. He has applied his expertise as he has acquired it,
working as a PC technician and then as a software developer during the summers
in Belize. “The Grove School has given me the technical know-how which I need for
the workplace,” he says. As president of the Association of Computing Machinery
chapter on campus, Joel has found an outlet for his gregarious nature and has
developed his leadership skills while strengthening the organization through
speakers, lectures from students, and workshops. “City,” he says, “is full of
people who want to learn and grow, and they make great friends. If you are surrounded
by people who are determined, you become determined yourself.”
-CCNY Grove School of Engineering Annual Report, 2007
"The CUNY system is fantastic. I would love to be a professor here.”
Joel Kemp was a stellar student in the Grove School’s undergraduate computer science program,
when his advisor, Dr. Jie Wei, inspired him to remain at CUNY for his doctorate.
Joel’s area of interest is image indexing, and he is working on ways to search for images
and videos through visual cues rather than key words. Of his first year in graduate school,
he says, “The doctoral course work is incredibly challenging, especially the theoretical part.
But, the program presents great opportunities. I will be taking a course at NYU,
so being at CUNY allows me to take advantage of New York City’s educational resources.”
And, Joel has found his vocation in teaching. As a lecturer in the lab sessions of
Dr. Wei’s software engineering course, he reorganized the structure of the lab,
resulting in the best attendance in the last four years and a significant increase in
student productivity.
-CCNY Grove School of Engineering Annual Report, 2009