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

I grew up in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. Graduating high school in 2001, I headed down to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where I majored in electrical engineering and minored in computer science. In 2005, I graduated and headed off to Cal! I've been here ever since.

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

A fair amount -- I started in earnest with C++ in high school. Most of my work involves building prototypes and proofs of concept for statistical model optimization, so I spent a lot of time learning MATLAB and R -- though my last few years have found me focusing on Python a great deal. (I love Python!)

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?

I don't get to go near as often as I like, but surfing Linda Mar is a thing I really like to do. I am downright religious about my Netflix disc queue -- a solid two-a-week rotation to catch up on all the great movies made over the last 60 years. And board games! I have a different favorite each week, but Puerto Rico, Power Grid and Dominion are always fun.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR TALENTS & SKILLS?

I'm pretty good with cartooning. Again, something I love to do that I don't have the same amount of time for as I used to.

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

A publisher randomly picked up one of my old illustrations of a man suffering stage fright that they found off the web -- I hear from them asking permission to use it again with each new edition. And I once was commissioned to do the front-flap cartoon of a Virginia state delegate's fundraising Christmas card, so now I'm in this big database of people who have ever received political action committee funds. 

WHAT COMMITMENTS WILL BE CONSUMING YOUR CYCLES THIS SEMESTER?

I plan to sign my first freelance software-development contract in the next week or so (early Sept.), as well as re-implementing our research group's LASSO software in the HaDoop framework.