WHERE DID YOU GROW UP? WHAT WAS YOUR PATH TO CAL?

I grew up in Vacaville, CA -- not very far from Berkeley. I graduated
from Vacaville High School, and went on to MIT where I majored in CS
(or Course 6-3 as it's known there) with a minor in Film and Media
Studies. Then I came back to the Bay Area to work for a company called
Macromedia on a product called Flash. (The product is still around
today, but the company was bought up by Adobe in 2005.) Then I worked
at a startup, got bored, became a math teacher in Richmond, CA and
then got a job teaching computer science at Galileo High School in San
Francisco. Through the Computer Science Teachers Association I met Dan
Garcia and for summer 2012 he asked me to teach CS10.

HOW MUCH PROGRAMMING HAVE YOU DONE (& WHAT LANGUAGES)?

I started messing around with HTML in high school because I wanted to
make web pages. At MIT I learned Scheme (in 6.001, the class
Berkeley's CS61A was modeled after), Java, and . Professionally I've
written C++, PHP, and JavaScript.

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?

Playing and collecting electronic music (I still have a large vinyl
collection), indoor and outdoor climbing, and metalworking. I recently
got a remote-control quadcopter and am learning to fly it.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR TALENTS & SKILLS?

I am really good at finding the right search term to get information
from Google. Everyone does it all the time, but I appreciate the art
of the search.

HAVE YOU DONE ANYTHING REMARKABLE? HAS ANYTHING MEMORABLE HAPPENED TO YOU?

I was the captain of MIT's swim team my senior year of college (2000)
and was on a relay team that set a NEWMAC conference record. In the
summer of 2010 I worked in Jerusalem with a program that brings
Israeli and Palestinian high school students together to learn
computer science and business skills. I recieved the 2011 MIT
Inspirational Teacher award based on that experience.

WHAT COMMITMENTS WILL BE CONSUMING YOUR CYCLES THIS SEMESTER?

In addition to teaching this class I'm also working for a summer camp
that serves elementary age kids. My goal is to bring electronics,
programming, and building experiences to younger students in a more
freeform environement where they can learn by exploring. I'm also a
member of the Computer Science Teachers Association Leadership Cohort
that is working to bring computer science into the state curriculum
for high schools.