Q:  Where did you grow up? What was your path to Cal?
A:  For the most part I've grown up in California. Specifically, I spent most
    of my pre-high school years living in various areas in and around San
    Diego (including Chula Vista, for those of you who know where that is).
    Right before I started high school, my family moved up to Davis
    (home of UC Davis) where I lived up until coming to Berkeley (Summer 2008).
    
    I enrolled at UC Berkeley as a freshman EECS admit and just graduated this
    spring (May 2012) with my B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer
    Science. After teaching this course (mid-August), I will be moving to
    Ithaca, NY and starting as a first year CS PhD student at Cornell
    University.
    
Q:  How much programming have you done (and what languages)?
A:  I've been programming for about ~5 years, though I don't think I can say I
    really understood what I was doing until I started taking courses at Cal
    (I started with CS3L, which is now replaced with CS10, in Summer 2008).

    I've worked on a variety of projects since I've learned to program, mostly
    for either hobby applications, teaching tools, or research work. The
    languages I've used for a "decent amount of code" up to this point include:

    * C
    * C++
    * Java
    * Python 2
    * Python 3
    * Ruby
    * Lisp (specifically Scheme), 
    * HTML + Javascript + CSS
    * Bash
    * x86 assembly
    * MIPS assembly

    This is certainly not a complete list of languages I've ever had to LOOK
    at or write a SINGLE line of code in, I'm pretty sure that would be a long
    and not very informative list.

    The ones out of the above list that I can say I'm still moderately
    comfortable with right now (meaning that I wouldn't need to go back and
    relearn basics) are C/C++, Java, Python, Lisp, and Bash.
    You could say this is the set of languages I generally feel the most
    "at home" with.

    I strongly prefer doing all of my software development on some flavor
    of Linux (as opposed to Windows or Mac OS).  I am currently dual booting
    Windows (to play games and give presentations) and Arch Linux, which is
    a very "bare bones" but highly customizable flavor of Linux.
    
Q:  What are your hobbies?
A:  So I watch and read a lot of science fiction whenever I have the free
    time, my personal favorite TV series (in science fiction) are
    Doctor Who, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica,
    Firefly, etc.

    If I can find the time, I love to play computer games (though I'm usually
    terrible, especially when it comes to real time strategy games). I'm a big
    fan of puzzle games and role playing games. Recently, when I can find the
    time, I've been playing Diablo 3 and Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

    I like to go and read interesting news articles and blogs, so I'm often
    browsing Reddit or the NY Times website.

    When I have the time to get ingredients and actually prepare a meal, I
    really like to cook. A favorite dish of mine is making my family's recipe
    (passed down at least 3 generations, probably more) for meatballs.

    I've recently gotten into rock climbing, I've been trying to go climbing at
    least once a week this summer.  Usually my friends and I go to Berkeley
    Ironworks to climb.

    Another hobby I have recently started is reading comic books. I recently
    read through a couple of great graphic novels written by Alan Moore
    (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).
    I have a few other graphic novels that I plan to read before the summer
    is over based on recommendations from friends.

Q:  What are some of your talents and skills?
A:  Well, I suppose someone must think I'm good at teaching, otherwise I'm
    not sure why they offered me a co-lecturer position this summer.
    You might disagree with them?  Hopefully not!
    
    I taught myself how to play electric bass during high school (just
    randomly decided to buy a cheap electric bass and amp and try it out).
    I don't think I could say I'm all that good though. I hear that Eric is
    a pretty fantastic bassist (and overall musician).
    
    I cook a bit, as mentioned above.  I like to think I'm pretty good (not a
    master chef, but I can make food taste good).
    
    I always draw a blank when someone asks me this sort of question, I might
    add more if I think of some later.
    
Q:  Have you done anything remarkable? Has anything memorable happened to you?
A:  I've met two Turing award winners (Ron Rivest and Richard Karp) and I had
    the chance to meet and chat with Steve Wozniak (I still have his business
    card, it's cut out of sheet metal!).

    I've worked on a variety of interesting research projects. One that I'm
    particularly proud of was developing an algorithm for computing the margin
    of victory for Instant Runoff Voting elections, for which there was no
    previously known algorithm (which is important because a lot of
    recommended election auditing procedures require you to know exactly
    how close the election was).

    In the past year I got interviewed for 3 different online videos: 1 for
    the Daily Cal, 1 for the website "The Phenom List", and 1 for the website
    "PandoDaily." Each of these was certainly a lot of fun. 

    I think for now those are the "highlights" of things I find particularly
    remarkable about myself or memorable in my past.

Q:  What commitments will be consuming your cycles this summer?
A:  I'm going to be gone from class for one or two days to go apartment
    hunting over in New York. Otherwise, I'm just focusing on trying to make
    this class as awesome as possible!