Dr. John R. Bourne was previously Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University, where he had been on the faculty since 1969. He also held the position of Professor of Management of Technology between 1991 and 1998.

Dr. Bourne received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1969 from the University of Florida. In 1982 he served as a Visiting Professor at Chalmers University in Goteborg, Sweden, and in 1990 he was a Visiting Researcher at Northern Telecom. He has had varied research interests over the last three decades that include: Quantitative Electroencephalography, Visual Evoked Response Studies, Syntactic Pattern Recognition, Applied Artificial Intelligence, Quantitative Quality Methodologies, Intelligent Tutoring Systems, and paradigms for online learning.

Dr. Bourne has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Begell House Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering since 1979. He founded the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks and remains as editor. He established the Sloan Foundation supported Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN) Web in 1996 and more recently established activities for the Sloan Consortium, a consortium of over 1000 higher education institutions that have joined together to deliver and promote online learning. He was the Learning Technology Thrust Leader for the VaNTH (Vanderbilt - Northwestern - Texas - Harvard / MIT) Engineering Research Center from 1999-2000. He is a member of the Forum for the Future of Higher Education and was a member of the Overseer's Committee to Visit Information Technology at Harvard College. At Vanderbilt, he directed the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and the ALN Center. He is the author of numerous journal publications and book chapters, as well as three books. Dr. Bourne is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (AIMBE).

Dr. Bourne also serves as Professor of Technology Entrepreneurship at Babson College and directs the Sloan Center on Online Education at Olin and Babson Colleges.

Diana Dabby has taught at MIT, Tufts University, and Juilliard (graduate division, 2002). She received her doctorate and master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering (summa cum laude) from City College of New York. In addition, she holds a Master of Fine Arts in Music from Mills College as well as a bachelor's degree in music from Vassar College.

Using her background in electrical engineering, music performance and composition, she has developed research that utilizes chaos theory to generate musical variations of an original work. Her presentation of this work was unanimously chosen for Best Poster Prize at the 1995 International SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems, and was also the topic of a series of concert/lectures she presented in Hong Kong and Chicago. More recently, she has given a number of invited concert/lectures on her work sponsored by MIT, Princeton University, Cornell University, and Dartmouth College, among others. She is currently writing a book entitled Variations and Shadows -- Music from Chaos, supported in part by grants from MIT and Tufts.

As a concert pianist, Diana Dabby has performed solo concerts in New York's Weill (Carnegie) Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and in Budapest, Hungary and Hong Kong, among other venues. As a chamber musician, and as a composer, she has performed at Boston's Jordan Hall, Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood.

She has received excellent teaching reviews for courses she has taught at MIT and Tufts University in electrical engineering, music, and the intersection of art and science.

Before coming to Olin, Dr. Allen Downey taught at Colby College and Wellesley College, and held research positions at the San Diego Supercomputer Center and Boston University. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California/Berkeley in 1997, with a dissertation on operating system support for large-scale parallel computation. His undergraduate and master's degrees are from MIT, in civil engineering.

Dr. Downey is the author of several textbooks, including three versions of "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist," an introduction to computer science using Java, C++, or Python. These books are available under the GNU Free Documentation License, which means that teachers are free to copy and modify the text as well as contribute material. In 2001, Dr. Downey founded Green Tea Press to print and distribute free textbooks.

Dr. Downey has enjoyed teaching since his first year of graduate school, and is active with the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE). He has developed novel classes in operating systems and scientific computation. Dr. Downey believes that engineering and computer science are a valuable part of a broad, liberal education, and that the thinking skills students develop at Olin are ideal preparation for the 21st century.

Dr. David V. Kerns, Jr. is Provost and the Franklin and Mary Olin Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. He was formerly the Orrin Henry Ingram Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Vanderbilt University, where he served in the positions of Electrical Engineering Department Chair, Associate Dean, and Acting Dean of Engineering. He has also served on the faculties of Bucknell, Auburn, and Florida State Universities, and was instrumental in establishing a microelectronics research program and educational laboratory at each of these institutions. He directed the Management of Technology program at Vanderbilt University and developed and taught courses in entrepreneurship for engineering students.

Dr. Kerns also was a member of the technical staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he designed and developed bipolar analog and CMOS digital integrated circuits. In 1978, he co-founded and served as President of Insouth Microsystems, Inc., a microelectronics company that produced solid-state sensors, hybrid microcircuits, and silicon VLSI devices.

He has a variety of patents and inventions. He is co-inventor of one of the first silicon MEMS technologies, a micromachined accelerometer patented in 1985; his company produced the first commercial single-chip silicon accelerometers. Dr. Kerns is most recently co-inventor of a new diamond-based gas-sensing technology, and is inventor of a revolutionary sunglass lens that highlights a tennis ball against any background.

He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Florida State University in 1967, 1968, and 1971, respectively. He was named a Fellow of the IEEE in 1991 for "contributions to engineering education and research in microelectronics"; he continues consulting and research in MEMS devices, analog circuit design, silicon-based optoelectronics, radiation effects on microelectronics, and engineering education.

Dr. Kerns has published extensively and presented his work at numerous conferences worldwide. He is a member of the IEEE, Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, and ASEE; he serves on a committee of The National Academy of Engineering Committee on Engineering Education; he is Vice President of the IEEE Education Society and serves on its AdCom. Recognized for outstanding undergraduate teaching, he is the co-author of a successful textbook, Introduction to Electrical Engineering (Prentice-Hall).

Dr. Sherra E. Kerns became Olin's Vice President for Innovation and Research on September 1, 1999. She is also F.W. Olin Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Olin. Dr. Kerns came to Olin from Vanderbilt University, where she was a senior faculty member and held various posts, including Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Director of the multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional University Consortium for Research on Electronics in Space.

A Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), recipient of IEEE's prestigious Millennium Medal and prolific researcher, Dr. Kerns has received many awards for outstanding undergraduate teaching. She has been very active nationally in engineering education, serving as President of the National Electrical Engineering Department Heads Association (now ECEDHA). She is the Past President of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Her work with ASEE includes service on the ASEE Board as Chair of ASEE Professional Interest Council, as ASEE Vice President of Professional Interest Councils, and as ASEE First Vice President. She also serves on the ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission Executive Committee. Dr. Kerns is a member of the advisory committee of the National Academy of Engineering's Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education.

At Olin College, she is pioneering a unique administrative position with responsibility for enhancing faculty intellectual vitality and competence, providing opportunities for students to learn through discovery, and building a culture that rewards innovation and the taking of appropriate risks. Dr. Kerns received her A.B. from Mount Holyoke College, M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, all in physics.