Dan Maynes-Aminzade ( ; born in 1979),

mononymously A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. A mononym may be the person's only name, given to them at birth. This was routine in most ancient societies, and remains ...

known as Monzy, is a

nerdcore Nerdcore is a genre of hip hop music characterized by subject matter considered of interest to nerds and geeks. Self-described nerdcore musician MC Frontalot has the earliest known recorded use of the term (to describe this genre) in the 2000 ...

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

artist and software engineer at Facebook.

Professional history

Dan received his PhD from Stanford University in September 2008. His Ph.D. is titled Interactive Visual Prototyping of Computer Vision Applications. Dan received his master's degree from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

, where he was a member of the Tangible Media Group at the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...

under the direction of Professor Hiroshi Ishii from 2001 to 2003. There he worked on the Actuated Workbench, a device that uses magnetic forces to move objects on a table around in two dimensions. Dan received his bachelor's degree from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

, where his research advisor was

Randy Pausch Randolph Frederick Pausch () (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American educator, a professor of computer science, human–computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch l ...

; his Undergraduate Honors Thesis is titled "Techniques for Interactive Audience Participation". From 1997 to 2001 he was a member of Stage 3 Research Group, based at

Carnegie Mellon Carnegie may refer to: People *Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name **Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist * Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie * ...

's Human-Computer Interaction Institute. There he worked on new techniques for interactive audience participation.

Nerdcore hip-hop

Monzy made his hip-hop debut with ''Drama in the PhD'' which called out his musical rival MC Plus+. It gained large popularity after being described as "the best fucking thing I've ever heard" by

LiveJournal LiveJournal (), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, as a way of keeping his high school ...

creator

Brad Fitzpatrick Bradley Joseph Fitzpatrick (born February 5, 1980) is an American programmer. He is best known as the creator of LiveJournal and is the author of a variety of free software projects such as memcached, PubSubHubbub, OpenID, and Perkeep. Personal l ...

. It eventually made it into a ''Wired'' magazine article, and Monzy was interviewed for a segment on the German television program ''Taff''. He was also mentioned in the February 2006 issue of ''

EE Times ''EE Times'' (''Electronic Engineering Times'') is an electronics industry magazine published in the United States since 1972. EE Times is currently owned by AspenCore, a division of Arrow Electronics since August 2016. Ownership and status '' ...

'', an academic and industry-oriented publication dedicated to issues in the field of

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. On January 10, 2006, Monzy performed at the DivX, Inc. booth of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, along with other nerdcore artists. With Karl Olson acting as a mediator, Monzy and MC Plus+ finally ended their rivalry and performed together on the same stage. * "Kill Dash Nine" (appears on Rhyme Torrents Vol.1)

Strava running route analytics

Daniel "Monzy" Aminzade also created a number of popular leaderboards/analytics websites for tracking running/cycling routes based on

Strava Strava is an American internet service for tracking physical exercise which incorporates social network features. It started out tracking mostly outdoor cycling and running activities using Global Positioning System (GPS) data, but now incorpor ...

data. hhpcounter.com is the official counter for mayorship on the HHP (Heron's Head Park) running route in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, while bayloops.com tracks the runners doing the "Bay Loop" in

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. During the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

lockdowns he created longtinyloop.com to track runners achieving interesting running circuits, rewarding certain characteristics, in their own neighbourhoods.

Media coverage

*Zipern, Andrew
"At MIT, Making Fun of the Alma Mater"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' December 3, 2001. *Newitz, Annalee
"Sex Studies at MIT"
''

San Francisco Bay Guardian The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'' was a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. The paper was shut down on October 14, 2014. Parts of the paper were relaunched online in February 2016. History The ''Bay Guar ...

'' December 13, 2001. *Orlowski, Andrew
"WCs meet PCs: converged tech toilets show promise"
''

The Register ''The Register'' (often also called El Reg) is a British Technology journalism, technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee (journalist), Mike Magee and John Lettice. The online newspaper's Nameplate_(publishing), masthead Logo, s ...

'' May 27, 2003. *Maxim Magazin
"Streaming Video"
''

Maxim Magazine ''Maxim'' (stylized in all caps) is an international men's magazine, devised and launched in the United Kingdom in 1995, but based in New York City since 1997. It is known for its photography of actors, singers and female models whose careers ar ...

'' August, 2003. * TechTV Hot Click ''

TechTV TechTV was an American cable television channel with a focus on technology. It was launched as ZDTV on May 11, 1998, by computer magazine publisher Ziff Davis, Ziff-Davis following two short-lived technology-based programs by the company. Init ...

'' October, 2003. * Andrews, Robert
"Rap Marketing Comes to Nerdcore."
''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'' June 23, 2005. *Reed, Bryan
"Nerdcore Hip-Hop"
''The Daily Tarheel'' December 8, 2005. *Clendenin, Mike
"Geeksta Rappers Rhyme Tech Talk"
''

'' February 13, 2006. * Nguyen, Thuy-Dzuong
"Nerdcore rap helps dorky losers spit mad game"
''Gonzaga Bulletin'' March 24, 2006. * Darling, Cary

''

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram The ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' is an American daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. It is owned by The McClatchy Company. History In May 1905, Amon G. Carter ...

'' February 18, 2007. * Silverberg, David
"Beats, Geeks, and Freaks"
''

NOW Magazine ''Now'' (styled as ''NOW''), also known as ''NOW Magazine'' is an online publication based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Through most of its existence, ''Now'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper. Physical publication of ''Now'' was suspended ...

'' April 26, 2007. * Neill, Huw. ''Canvas Magazine'' April, 2007. * Miranda, Jeff
"Refrain of the Nerds"
''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' November 4, 2007. * Ding, Mik
"Only for the 'Nerdcore'"
''The Stanford Daily'' November 14, 2007

References

External links

Personal websiteArchived

Professional websiteArchived

Nerdcorehiphop.org website

hhpcounter website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maynes-Aminzade, Dan American rappers Living people Nerdcore artists American computer programmers 1979 births Google employees 21st-century American rappers