Name: Sean Soleyman
E-mail: seansoleyman @ berkeley . edu
Where did you grow up? What is your academic path?
I was born in Encino, a small district in Los Angeles. When I was
about 9 years old, I moved to Calabasas. I don't really like
driving, and therefore don't really belong in Los Angeles. I feel
right at home here in Berkeley, and I will definitely be coming
back to visit every chance I get after I graduate and move back to
Southern California.
I am going to graduate early, so I only have one semester left as
an undergrad. However, I will also be completing my MS here at
Berkeley. My research project will most likely focus on power
supply design.
How much programming have you done (& what
languages)?
Until I was eight years old, I was computer-deprived. If I so much
as looked at my dad's brand new business computer, he would shoo me
out of his office and warn me not to mess with his mac. Eventually,
he got a new one and gave me a 100MHz birthday present. It happened
to come with an interesting program called Widget's Workshop, which
I consider to be my first programming language. This program allows
kids to wire up a bunch of blocks that represent functions, inputs,
and outputs. It even allows users to export "stand-alone-widgets"
that function as executable files.
My second encounter with programming was as low-level as it gets.
On a later birthday, I kindly requested (begged) for a computer kit
from an instructional electronics supplier. It consisted of four
un-assembled circuit boards and a large pile of components. After I
finished putting it together, I got to write programs in assembly
language and convert them to machine code by hand. At this point, I
realized that I would be needing some more up-to-date programming
methods.
When I got internet access some years later, I managed to find a C
compiler called lcc-win32. I used it to create a few simple
programs, but I didn't actually receive any formal instruction in
programming until high school, when I took AP computer science and
learned Java. I also did a lot of work with robotics around that
time, and most of my projects included an Atmel AVR chip, a
microcontroller that uses a RISC instruction set (very similar to
MIPS). After coming to Berkeley, I took 61abc and also learned
a few obscure programming languages along the way.
What are your hobbies?
sailing
windsurfing
rock climbing
swimming
metalworking
What are some of your talents & skills?
I am very good at soldering. I've even done some surface-mount
work.
I used to be able to run a 5-minute mile, but now I'm too old and
frail.
Have you done anything remarkable? Has anything really
memorable happened to you?
I have had a lot of dangerous encounters with boats. The most
memorable one happened in Brazil. They have town drunks there. I
was only about 5 years old, and this incident actually led to me
taking swimming lessons.
What commitments will be consuming your cycles this
term?
GSI-ing CS61c
Teaching IEEE HOPE DeCal, other IEEE related stuff
EE242M, EE244
PE classes - tennis, basketball
Salsa, Tango
Sailing club