Meet the Team
Director
Dr. Dennis Mares is the inaugural Director of the Center for Crime Science and Violence Prevention. He is a professor of criminal justice and has worked with criminal justice agencies for well over a decade. Mares’ work is particularly focused on technology in law enforcement. He has led multiple federal grant-funded projects examining the impact of cameras, license plate readers, gunshot detection and body-worn cameras, and regularly publishes on criminal justice-related topics, especially gun violence.
Researcher/Analyst
Andrew Buettner assists CCSVP with geospatial analysis. Buettner is a former dispatcher for Collinsville and Glen Carbon PDs and recently completed his BA in Geography at SIUE. He assists law enforcement agencies and community organizations with mapping needs, crime analysis and dashboards.
Faculty Fellows
Dr. Manas Das an instructor at Computer Science currently works at CCSVP on the development of Virtual Reality training.
Office Support
Dixie Butts provides office support for CCSVP and C-PAN. She is a native of Kentucky and has extensive administrative experience.
Current Student Fellows
Riwaz Poudel is an undergraduate student in computer science, and currently works with the Director on grant acquisition and developing dashboards and crime analysis capacity.
Angel Flores is an undergraduate student in computer science and currently works with the Dr. Das and Director Mares on 3D visualization and Virtual Reality development.
Shreejan Pandey is a graduate student in computer science and works with Dr. Das and Director Mares on 3D modeling of Police Traffic encounters.
Logan Holland is an undergraduate student in computer science and works with Dr. Das and Director Mares on multiplayer interactions in VR scenarios
Kyle Sneed is an undergraduate student in Geography and currently works with the Director on the 911RTA emergency alert notification project.
