Early Days
I grew up in suburban southern California. There I attended Pasadena Community College for two years completing mostly natural science and mathematics classes. After that, I took two years off my education to find my motivation and build a home. During that time I moved to the big island of Hawaii and bought three acres of land with my partner. From my experiences performing freelance computer work, I overwhelmingly regained my motivation for higher education.
A Return to Higher Education
While building a cabin on the land, I enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. From my past accomplishments in high school I earned the ALOHA scholarship for high achievers. For my first year, I graded papers to an introductory computer science course. During my second and third years at UH-Hilo I participated in the ACM programming contest.
In
2004
our team was the Hawaii site champion after solving a whopping two
problems. In my
junior year I earned the Daniel G. Fox Award
for
Excellence in Computer Science. Additionally, during those two years I
tutored mathematics at UH-Hilo's mathlab. Building a Home
My father had a phrase for people that only knew what was in books--"straight A stupid." While I do not echo the malice in the statement, I do endeavor to be the type of person that is capable of handling more than toy academic problems. Perhaps my greatest achievement is building a home on my three acres of land on the big island. Understand that I did this concurrently to earning a 3.97 gpa.
Weekdays I'd be the professional student,
earning top grades. On
weekends I'd be mixing concrete by hand, setting blocks in mortar,
screwing two-by-fours together. I
designed the main structure using a
CAD program. It is a modest dwelling, sixteen feet square, two levels
plus a half size loft. However, I did not need a large house or the
umbilical cords that tie it to civilization. We installed a solar power
system and used a bluetooth phone interface to a laptop for internet
access.Capstone Project
The goal of the capstone project for my group was to provide the Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes (CSAV) with a web interface and database to allow both their legacy data and future collections to become accessible online. For my contribution to this effort, I provided a web interface complete with JAVA selection tool for selecting the earthquake monitoring stations as well as the depth of recorded events. Additionally I fulfilled the role of lead technical writer, ensuring our final report, which became over 30 pages long, provided coherent and complete documentation of our product.
At the final presentation, I demonstrated our web interface to a packed room of students, faculty, and interested shareholders from CSAV. While the full room and of course Murphy's law of presentations did rattle my cage a bit, I believe that my success in this presentation has given me greater confidence in presenting to large crowds. Of the three projects that semester, our group's project was the only one deemed a success. Additionally, I coauthored two papers with the professor from that class, Dr. Keith Edwards.
Supporting IEEE SMC 2005
In
2005, I coordinated the installation and maintenance of about 30
computers from the University of Hawaii at Hilo to support the IEEE SMC
2005 conference at the Hilton Waikoloa. I was the lead contact for
receiving presentations from the presenters and ensured the files made
it to the correct computer in dozen or so conference rooms. Other
duties at this event include networking and audio/visual setup.Why did I do a double major?
Computer science is my first passion. However, in mathematics I had struggled with through the entire calculus sequence. Two years prior to graduation I realized that I only needed four math classes to earn a mathematics degree. I could have enjoyed a more relaxed junior and senior years, but I did not choose this. Frankly, I did not want to admit defeat to the challenging subject of mathematics. Risking my gpa, I charged headlong into the subject and found that I need not have feared math at all. I earned no grades lower than a singular A-. I had conquered the ubiquitous fear of math and with it earned another degree.
Alls Well that Never Ends
In
Spring 2006 I
graduated
with a 3.97 gpa earning highest honors and receiving both a BS in
Computer Science and a BA in
Mathematics. In
the past two years I have been enrolled at UH Manoa's ICS department
working to fulfill the masters portion of the phd track program. I've
maintained the highest grades and have not shied away from math
intensive courses such as Pattern Recognition or Numerical Methods. In my first semester I accidentally passed the phd qualifying exam with only one deficiency. Apparently I was not supposed to take the qualifying exam until after I'd fulfilled the masters portion of the phd program. However, my success stands and it set the tone for a great start in grad school.