UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) honored graduates Nathan McNeese and Christy Grim at the first annual IST Alumni Symposium, held Oct. 20 at the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub Building. 

McNeese received the IST Outstanding Alumni Award, the highest honor bestowed by the college upon its graduates. The award recognizes IST alumni who have demonstrated a record of outstanding accomplishments and made significant contributions leveraging the expertise and knowledge gained through their degrees.

McNeese earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in security and risk analysis in 2009 and a doctoral degree in information sciences and technology in 2014, both from Penn State. His area of expertise is in the field of human-artificial intelligence (AI) teaming and human-centered AI.

He currently serves as the McQueen Quattlebaum Endowed Associate Professor of Human-Centered Computing at Clemson University School of Computing, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on human-computer interaction, human-AI interaction paradigms, and teamwork and technology and supervises 10 doctoral students. He is the director of Clemson University’s Team Research Analytics in Computational Environments (TRACE) Research Group and the founder of TRACE Camp, a web development programming bootcamp aimed at providing educational accessibility to diverse populations at the undergraduate level. He was the Clemson University Junior Researcher of the Year in 2022.

Since earning his doctorate at Penn State, McNeese has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator for more than 30 research grants and awards, generating more than $38 million in funding. His work is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Office of Naval Research, Army Research Office and the U.S. Department of Education, among others. His research has received multiple best paper awards and has been published in peer-reviewed human-computer interaction and human factor venues more than 150 times.

In 2023, he received the NSF CAREER award, the NSF’s most prestigious award in support of early career-development activities, according to the organization’s website. McNeese will use the $580,227 grant to develop AI systems that act as good teammates with humans to make AI more effective, accepted and utilized.

Grim received the first IST Emerging Professional Award, which recognizes recent alumni who are earning notable achievements by leveraging their IST knowledge to make a positive impact on the world.

Grim graduated from Penn State World Campus in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in IST and a minor in security and risk analysis. She earned her master’s degree in project management in 2023 and was recently accepted into the University’s engineering doctoral program.

As an adult learner who was managing a family and working full-time as an optician, Grim chose to pursue her education through Penn State World Campus, taking online classes from her home in Winchester, Virginia. Grim was an active member of the World Campus community. She joined the Blue & White Society and served as vice president of the World Campus Tech Cub. She was named the College of IST commencement student marshal for her outstanding academic record and unique journey to transform her career.

Prior to graduating, she left her 18-year optician career — where she had earned state licensure and national certifications — for an unpaid internship with Lockheed Martin. Grim’s internship led to a full-time position, where she quickly rose through the ranks. She has received multiple promotions since graduating from Penn State.

Now, as a solution train engineer for Leidos’s defense sector — Leidos acquired Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions business segment in 2016 — she specializes in Agile methodologies and has organized and led software development teams on multiple continents. While managing a portfolio of with a $35 million budget, she makes time to mentor other emerging professionals.

IST Alumni Symposium

The first annual Alumni Symposium was presented by the College of IST Alumni Society and featured keynote speakers, breakout sessions and presentations by college leadership about current trends in technology and the future of IST. McNeese, Grim and Tapia spoke at the event.

Other speakers included Corey Lee, class of 2012, security chief technology officer for education at Microsoft; Scott Lyons, class of 2005, CEO of Red Lion LLC; Kathleen Moore, graduate class of 2014, professor of data science at the U.S. Army War College; Colin Murphy, class of 2003, global vice president of customer success and customer support at BMC Software; Steve Pipino, class of 2003, principal security specialist at Salesforce; Justin Plock, class of 2003, principal solutions architect at Amazon Web Services; Purvi Shah, class of 2003, vice president of product development at American Express; and Rick Kaplan, class of 2003, senior digital investigative analysts with the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection. Carleen Maitland, interim associate dean for research, and doctoral students Weijieying Ren and Jeff Schulman also spoke.