Professor, Department Chair
(425) 739-8341
Technology Center, T414I
Alexandra Vaschillo has taught computer science courses at LWTech since 2006. She developed curriculum for the Information Technology Applications Development program, has taught every ITAD course offered, and created a number of new courses to keep the program up to speed with the rapidly changing world of software development.
Alexandra holds Masters of Sciences Degree in Computer Science from Florida International University and Masters of Sciences Degree in Mathematics from St. Petersburg State University. Prior to joining LWTech she worked for the High Performance Database Research Center, doing research in the area of semantic databases, and developing system software for NASA Regional Applications Center.
Professor, Faculty Director
(425) 739-5839
Technology Center, T414K
Tom Abbott is a tenure-track faculty member and director of the Computing and Software Development Applied Bachelor’s program.
Tom began his career as a software engineer by earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1981. He spent the next 35 years as a software engineer in a variety of sectors, including computer graphics, aerospace, gaming, e-commerce, and bio-tech.
In early 1992, Tom started teaching programming classes part-time at local area community colleges. Almost immediately he discovered that teaching was an excellent way to keep up with current industry trends, as well as sharpen his programming skills. He also realized that he liked working with people. So, while continuing to work as a full-time software engineer, he returned to school and earned a master’s degree in computer science in 2012 from the University of Washington, allowing him to teach full-time.
Tom is listed as a co-inventor on the following patents:
Assistant Professor
Technology Center, W114F
Adjunct Professor
Chip Anderson has over 30 years of experience programming professionally—first for IBM, then Microsoft and then for his own company, StockCharts.com.
At Microsoft, Anderson worked as a Windows developer from 1987 to 1991 where he helped write Windows 1, 2, and 3. In 1992. He switched to the consulting division and taught Fortune 500 companies how to add Microsoft technologies to their systems. In 1996, he became a Program Manager for Visual J++, Microsoft's Java IDE that ran on top of Visual Studio. Anderson retired from Microsoft in 1997 after 10 years.
In 1999, Anderson founded his own start-up company—a financial visualization website called StockCharts.com. As president and chief architect, he helped design and implement all of the systems that drive the website using technologies like Java, SQL Server, C#, Ubuntu Linux, Cisco and F5 Networking, HTML5, Javascript, PHP, and many others. Anderson is currently overseeing their move into the AWS cloud from their on-prem datacenter.
Anderson have been teaching programming throughout my career—from auditoriums full of experienced professionals to small groups of college interns (some of whom we have later hired). He has also served as an advisor to the Computer Software Development Curriculum Committee at LWTech for the past 4 years.
Adjunct Professor
Payson Blackwell teaches CSD 230: Programming With Mobile Devices as a part-time adjunct professor at LWTech. He is a graduate of LWTech with a Bachelors degree from the CSD program. During most of his time learning at LWTech he was also a tutor for fellow computer science students and grew to love teaching from there.
Payson is currently a software engineer (with a focus on Android development) for a Seattle-based startup company focused on creating more accessible and enjoyable venue experiences for people with limited mobility.
He likes really big books, gaming and long walks with Gertie- who he considers to be the cutest dog in the world.
Adjunct Professor
Dave Dion was previously a chef running his own catering company. In the late 90’s when the internet started to bloom Dion taught himself to design websites, so he could create one for his catering company. When a friend heard that he knew HTML, Dion asked to join him in his internet company which was growing rapidly at that time. He decided to take a chance and change careers. He enrolled in Lake Washington Institute of Technology (then Lake Washington Technical College) to extend his knowledge of the internet and design software. During his time as a student, he was asked to teach an Illustrator course and continues to do so 18 years later.
In addition to his teaching, Dion does freelance design and consulting and works for a small private school as IT/web manager. When not on a computer, he prefers to be in the woods, on the water, gardening and/or spending time with his family.
Favorite quote “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” ~Douglas Adams
Adjunct Professor
Graduated the University of Washington with a B.S. in Zoology. Worked 13 years at Microsoft Corporation supporting Windows 3.0, developing solutions in Office, Hardware and Windows. Co-founded Click Engineering Inc. in order to bring solution design and development skills to the business community. Sold the Click brand and book of business in early 2010. Founded Concipia Software focused on development of software solutions for business. The first solution explored grew into its own entity, Gibberin Inc., focused on the Gibberin SpokenLoop messaging service combining the convenience of texting with the richness of voice. In 2017 co-founded FloatMetrics developing hardware and software solutions around tracking location, environments and instrument data from boats, providing online analytics and services and allowing playback in a browser context. In 2019 worked with Philips Medical Devices on the NFC features of their SonicCare toothbrush. Developed the hardware and software of a fixture to read, program and physically position NFC tags for testing toothbrush handle interactions. Currently working with Starbucks to update and modernize their drive thru display architecture and implementation.
Also teaching part time in programming and technology at Lake Washington Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan since 2018.
Adjunct Professor
Jeff Finan teaches CSD 321 - System Analysis and Design and CSD 332 – Software Project Management at Lake Washington Institute of Technology (LWTech). In addition to teaching at LWTech, Jeff is also currently a Vice President at an early stage company that is based in Kirkland, WA. Jeff also had a long career at Microsoft where Jeff and his teams led the development of 50+ new products/services spanning cloud SaaS solutions, Unified Communications offerings, and consumer electronics products.
Prior to Microsoft Jeff had senior leadership roles at Teledesic and Motorola, where he worked on global wireless telecommunications systems. Jeff also served as an officer in the United States Air Force where he led a large Air Force/Contractor team in support of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
Jeff has two Master of Science Degrees in Engineering and Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. In his spare time, he likes to sail, play an occasional round of golf, and enjoy various recreational activities with his family.
Adjunct Professor
Manager Product Development, Tableau Software
Marcelo Guerra Hahn has more than 14 years of experience in software development, testing and project management. Marcelo has worked in multiple projects including the C# and C++ compilers, Windows Phone, and Azure Active Directory. Currently he leads a team of engineers working on development tools for Tableau developers. He holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from the Universidad de la Republica in Uruguay and an MBA and a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from the University of Washington.
Adjunct Professor
Adjunct Professor
Dr. Mai has over 20 years of experience in software development, particularly in database design and compiler and web technologies. He started a company, Datascience9, in 2017 and is currently developing a toolset to automatically transform data access and transaction layers in legacy applications into microservices that fully support n-tier architecture and can be deployed in the cloud. Prior to Datascience9, Dr. Mai worked for TSRI as a senior computer scientist, and before that he worked for Boeing for more than 18 years designing and developing various applications. He has also held teaching positions at the Edmonds Community College and Lake Washington Institute of Technology. He has taught various courses, including, Python, Java Programming, and Linux.
Adjunct Professor
Bruce McLean grew up on the Eastside of Lake Washington, has a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Washington State University and a M.S. degree in Computer Information and Control Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Bruce started his professional career in Computer Science at Bell Labs in New Jersey, programming in C and Unix. At Bell Labs, he worked on an early “Home Information System” that was a joint project with CBS.
Bruce eventually moved back to the Eastside and joined a small company in Bellevue working on real-time control systems for electric transmission and distribution companies plus other similar systems for nuclear power plants, water and irrigation systems, and pipeline companies. His early specialty was in system performance, which led to travel around the world to locations in Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. After co-founding a company, growing it, and selling to the French Technology company Alstom, Bruce retired from the business world and turned teaching at LWTech. In his spare time, he stays fit by playing soccer.
Adjunct Professor
Dr. Paul Z. Wu has nearly 20 years of experience in developing information systems. He currently works at AT&T as a development lead and principal application developer in Wireless Network Traffic Analytics with Big Data technologies such as Spark and Hadoop. He has taught computer science (information technology) and mathematics for nearly 15 years. The subjects he taught include but not limit to general computer programming, Java, C/C++, Python, PHP, Web Development, Database Management Systems, Networking and Operating Systems. View his showcase for his class PHP Scripting at LWTech.
He holds Ph. D in math and M.Sc. in computer science from Dalhousie University, Canada. He was a receiver of Killam Scholarship from Killam Trust. Here is the Google Scholar of some research papers he published.
He enjoys the challenge of solving complicated problems using hardware, software, and applied mathematics. He has a great passion to work with various learners. In his spare time he likes reading, swimming and walking.
Business Hours
Mon-Fri, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Campus Hours
Mon-Thurs, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Friday, Closed to the public
Sat-Sun, Closed