The Team

Dr. Damian Dechev is a Professor at the CS Department at the University of Central Florida and the founder of AREA 67. Damian completed his Ph.D. in 2009 from Texas A&M University under the supervision of Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup. Prior to joining UCF, Dr. Dechev worked for Sandia National Laboratories and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. AREA 67’s research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Department of Energy. Dr. Dechev served the nation from February 2021 until March 2025 as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.

Ryan Dozier attended the University of Central Florida for his undergraduate degree. He is pursuing a PhD in Computer Science at UCF with a research focus on distributed data structures for high-performance computers. The current focus is on a family of data structures with relaxed semantics to fit the application.

Wikender Alcius earned his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Central Florida in 2018. He showcased exceptional academic performance while balancing full-time employment. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Computer Engineering at UCF.

Zahra Mahdavi, a graduate student at the University of Central Florida, is working on her PhD in Computer Science. Her academic pursuits are focused on exploring high-performance computing (HPC), memory systems, and machine-learning technologies.

Violetta Masyuk is an undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida, pursuing a degree in Computer Science. She is currently focused on parallel and concurrent programming, with interests in shared memory systems and load balancing.