My family calls me Namtarn, although my official name is Kornchawal Chaipah. Namtarn means sugar in Thai and Kornchawal means prosperity or shine with moonlight. (Guess what time I was born ;))

I was raised in Khon Kaen, Thailand since I was 2-3 years old. I lived in a house on Khon Kaen University campus, where my mom planted lots of trees around the house. We moved out years ago and are now living in a house in Khon Kaen surburb. (Mom still plants lots of trees ^^) My dad and mom had already been retired. They are happily (I hope) developing and planting stuff at our farm house. My only sister is a dentist and lives with her family next door. I, myself, have one sweet energetic boy. It is nice seeing him grow <3

I was lucky enough to get the Royal Thai Scholarship to pursue my higher education in the US. I did my undergrad and MS at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. I did my PhD work with Prof. Hyong S. Kim, also at Carnegie Mellon. My work was on the study of user's email behaviors and email prioritization.

I am working in my hometown, Khon Kaen. I want to exercise my passion in teaching as a lecturer in the Computer Engineering Department, Khon Kaen University. I am also very interested in applying my system design knowledge to help improve education systems in Thailand, especially in rural areas.