Guest Lecturers

2025

Hana Kessler (Senior Software Engineer)

Hana Kessler is a senior software engineer with a wide-ranging background from brain mapping software, entrepreneurship, big data platforms, AI and fintech. That mix of experiences and technologies gives her a unique perspective on how engineers learn, how tools like LLMs are changing the field, and how to stay curious and be intentional about what’s next. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanakslr

Thank you Angelika Koukoulas for making this possible

Topics

- State of the industry
- How LLMs can be an asset vs a vulnerability in becoming a great SWE
- How did people learn before ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor? What skills did they develop that are easier to bypass now?
  - This is important because they (we!) are the ones that will be interviewing and hiring.
  - Why design patterns are extra important when we can direct AI to fix a lot of problems and write a lot of code
How to get setup for success to love software engineering, find a role that aligns with what you are looking for, and knock it out of the park when you get there
- The role of a well thought through portfolio and public project. How to pick good areas to focus on.
  - Sneak preview: Think about an existing product you’d be super amped to work on, and then work backwards. What tools and technologies were needed to build it? Is there a smaller scale project that uses those technologies to gain experience in it rapidly?
- A quick aside on preparing for interviews
- A common sentiment around coding tools is “they are like having a bunch of interns/junior engineers”. Once you land a role, how to be better than that by thinking critically and using AI to your advantage.
  - Cursor. How to use it to level up, and not bypass learning.
- Choosing your path intentionally.

Bashir Abdallah (Product Executive)

Bashir Abdallah is a seasoned product executive with more than 17 years of experience building and scaling SaaS companies. Most recently serving as Chief Product Officer at XOi Technologies, he helped lead the company through significant growth and a strategic acquisition, shaping the vision for AI-driven “technician enablement” and proprietary data products in the field-service-management space.
Bashir is known for transforming product organizations into centers of excellence that blend strategy, innovation, and execution. He has deep expertise in building agentic AI frameworks, modular data APIs, and asset-centric data products that create durable competitive moats. Earlier in his career, he led product teams that scaled revenue from $14M to over $150M, proving his ability to deliver both vision and measurable outcomes.
Beyond product strategy, Bashir is passionate about empowering teams, developing data-driven cultures, and mentoring the next generation of AI and product leaders. He is now bringing this expertise to the private equity ecosystem, where he partners with founders and investors to accelerate growth across a portfolio of high-potential SaaS companies.

Topics

Product Management Careers & Growth
Product management Principles
Market Research
Strategy (Innovation & Roadmapping)
Product GTM Launches
Pricing & Packaging

Bryn Loftness

At a recent event, we had the privilege of hosting Bryn Loftness, a PhD Candidate in Complex Systems and Data Science at the University of Vermont and an NSF Research Fellow. Bryn is actively engaged in groundbreaking research through affiliations with:

UVM Neurobotics Lab
M-Sense Research Group
Harvard Sabeti Lab (Broad Institute)
MAPPS Center at Brown University

Additionally, as the Co-Founder and CEO of Biobe, Bryn is at the forefront of developing innovative solutions that harness digital phenotyping for real-world applications. Their work exemplifies how data-driven insights can lead to transformative advances in precision medicine and personalized healthcare.

Bryn > Co-Founder & CEO, Biobe / LinkedIn / Thank you Angelika Koukoulas for making this possible

2021

Jim Bennett

CSI-410-01: Programming for the IoT

Jim does things with IoT and Azure in the Developer Relations team at Microsoft, mainly creating content for students and faculty to help them be successful with Microsoft technologies. He moved to Redmond in time to be locked down at home and not see the office he came to work in, or the places he wanted to visit. In the past, he’s lived in 4 continents working as a developer in the mobile, desktop, and scientific space. He's spoken at conferences and events all around the globe, organised meetup groups, and communities, and written a book on mobile development.

https://github.com/jimbobbennett https://twitter.com/jimbobbennett

2020

Brie Hoblin, QA Consultant

Thanks to Brie Hoblin for accepting my invitation to be a guest lecturer at my Software Testing (CSI-351) class and delivering a very informative talk and wonderful Q/A session.

Brie Hoblin is a Software Engineer turned to QA Consultant, and founder of Sage Logik. Graduate of @champlainedu in Burlington, VT and volunteer for @CodeforBTV

2017

Bradley Holt, IBM Watson Data Platform

Thank to Bradley Holt for accepting my invitation to talk my CSI 340 - Software Specialities class and delivering a very informative lecture on new approaches in software engineering.

Bradley Holt works as Developer Advocate and Senior Software Engineer at IBM Watson Data Platform more about Bradley at LinkedIn

Jill Gagne, VP Development, Allscripts

It was a pleasure to host Jill Gagne as a guest lecturer at CSI 430 - Software Testing, QA and Security class at Champlain College. Jill shared valuable industry experiences in her professional life and what current software industry is expecting from new graduates from a point of view software quality.

Thank you Jill and hope to see you again at Champlain College.

Currently Jill Gagne holds VP Development position at Allscripts more about Jill at LinkedIn

Spring 2017

2016

Bradley Holt, IBM Watson Data Platform

It was a great coincidence that Bradley Holt lives in Burlington and have a great knowledge about Domain Driven Design (DDD), thank you for accepting my invitation to be a guest lecturer at CSI 340 - Software Specialities class at Champlain College.

Thank you Bradley about the great presentation on DDD and hope to see you again.

Bradley Holt works as Developer Advocate and Senior Software Engineer at IBM Watson Data Platform more about Bradley at LinkedIn

Fall 2016

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