Members
Group PI
Prof. Sam Thomas
Assistant Professor of Computer Science (Pomona College)Prof. Sam Thomas joined Pomona and created the PCAL group in September 2025.
Current Students
Arsene Laurent
(Pomona College, Class of 2027)Arsene (PO‘27) is a Computer Science and Geology Double Major and a Data Science Minor, and plays for the Claremont Colleges Mens’ Volleyball Club. His main career interest lies in Cybersecurity, and he is aiming to complete his CompTIA Security+ certification by the end of Summer 2026.
Connor Wang
(Pomona College, Class of 2027)Connor (PO’27) is a Computer Science major and Data Science minor, as well as a member of the Pomona-Pitzer football team. I am interested in programming and data analysis, and particularly how the two can be used to improve real world issues.
Henry Cannon
(Pomona College, Class of 2028)Henry (PO’28) is a double major in Mathematics and Computer Science at Pomona College. Beyond the classroom, I’m a member of the varsity swim team, which has really shaped my discipline and drive. I’m naturally drawn to this research because it challenges me to apply my technical background to new areas of CS that are still being explored. Outside of Pomona, I love to play games, take photos (both film and digital), and kiteboard.
Philippe Essama
(Pomona College, Class of 2027)Philippe (PO’27) is a computer science major at Pomona College. He is originally from Cameroon. He is fluent in French and English and a soccer fan. He plays pick up soccer and watches anime for fun.
Sophie Park
(Pomona College, Class of 2028)Sophie (PO ‘28) is a CS major. Her two cats, Curu and Nolo, are named after Tolkien Elves.
Vadym Musiienko
(Pomona College, Class of 2027)Vadym (PO’27) is originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, and currently a Computer Science student at Pomona College. I first came to the U.S. as a high school exchange student in rural Maine, and I really enjoyed the experience. I like traveling and hope to visit every country by the age of 30. While studying abroad in Melbourne last fall, I’ve also gotten into climbing, and I’m usually running on some form of caffeine (flat white is my favorite).
Alumni
Steven Kim
(Pomona College, Class of 2026)Stevie (PO’26) joined the PCAL group in Spring 2026. He loves to spend his free time playing video games, watching anime/reading manga, and eating great food. He also loves to tinker with tech and built himself and his friends custom PCs and keyboards. This led him to develop an interest in understanding how computers work, which is exactly what led him to take an interest in computer architecture and subsequently joining PCAL in his last semester at Pomona. After graduating from Pomona College in 2026, he currently works as a UPenn Teaching Fellow at Princeton Day School, where he teaches computer science to middle and high school students.