Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

Mitch Beard spent two years with Dr. Singh developing Invenio, a social networking visualization program. (Courtesy Mitch Beard)

By Theodora Danylevich

“Computer science can be misconstrued as a somewhat exact science. I enjoy it for exactly the opposite reason: because it presents numerous challenges, each of which has many paths to a solution, each of which have distinct advantages and drawbacks,” says Georgetown senior Mitch Beard, who is double majoring in Computer Science and Government.

Beard is especially interested in the field of data mining and has been working with Dr. Lisa Singh since he was a sophomore, garnering a summer GUROP fellowship that same year, during which he began his primary focus on Invenio, the data visualization tool that he developed.

“Computer science, especially data mining, can be approached almost as an art in the way that solutions are devised, compared, optimized, and implemented,” says Beard. “My interest and dedication to Invenio is an almost foregone conclusion, as it presents over and over again exactly the type of problems that I love to tackle.”

As the lead and original developer, Beard was responsible for writing all of the program’s code. While Dr. Singh developed the original plan, decided on the functionality, and provided overall guidance, Beard created most of the program framework decisions, provided technical solutions for how to go about implementing a given objective, and developed a number of the core program features.

The project has demanded a huge commitment of Beard: “My largest in-class assignments may barely require 10 code files, while Invenio alone easily breaks 60 of my own files along with over 200 external files written by others that I use and modify,” he explains. Beard and Dr. Singh presented on Invenio this summer in Switzerland, and Beard independently presented on his work as a summer technology intern with Goldman Sachs in New York, gaining a reputation as the visualization—or “viz”—guy.

“I hope to continue expanding both Invenio’s core functionality as well as using it as a base from which to develop other research initiatives, such as potentially interesting graph algorithms,” says Beard.

Dr. Singh has provided more than an academic mentorship to Beard.

“At our weekly meetings, we will sometimes spend up to half the time talking about life unrelated to the project,” he says. “I definitely appreciate the mentoring role and personal connections she has developed with me during the past year and a half. She is down-to-earth, helpful, and very understanding, especially when I become overwhelmed by other priorities.”

In addition to his high level of commitment to computer science and data mining, Beard is highly active in the Georgetown International Relations Club and has a particular passion for organizing Model United Nations events.

“There aren’t a lot of things more fun than waking up a bunch of high schoolers in the middle of the night to tell them that Copenhagen got destroyed by Islamic terrorists with a suitcase nuke,” says Beard.

Originally from New Jersey, Beard hopes to be faced with the difficult choice upon graduation between accepting a job offer from Goldman Sachs and pursuing graduate school. Beard also harbors distant dreams of serving in elected public office later in life once he earns enough money to help fund a decent campaign.

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