Some Tidbits About Me
Well, I guess I am your average carbon based bipod with a knack for technology. I have always had a habit of taking things apart and reassembling them, or using the parts to (attempt) to make other gadgets. It started to turn serious when I was about 12 and started making my own basic HTML web pages. I taught myself from trial and error and reading all I could about web design. After years of working with that, HTML and the like started to get old. That’s when I picked up PHP and MySQL to create dynamic, database driven websites. This started to turn profitable after doing several freelance jobs I found on Craigslist.org and this also helped me to realize what I wanted to do for a living. I proceeded to take some entry level computer science class in my high school followed by AP computer science and an independent study that continued until the end of my first year in college.
This leads me to let you know that I am a student in the College of Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University…more commonly known as Virginia Tech; home of the Hokies. I am majoring in computer science (shocker!) and minoring in mathematics all while focusing on artificial intelligence. Trust me, my interest don’t end here. I am an avid fan of ice hockey, I live and die by how my beloved Philadelphia Flyers are doing as well as the Eagles and Phillies. In addition I also enjoy playing the guitar and going surfing in the summer. Another great passion of mine is community service and other charitable work. I am currently active with the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation which helps underprivileged kids in Philadelphia learn ice hockey while maintaining discipline and health, Appalachian Service Project which is an organization dedicated to help make homes safer, warmer and drier for impoverished people living in Appalachian communities, Relay for Life which is the American Cancer Societies largest fundraising event and various other projects such as Virginia Tech’s Big Event which is our way of giving back to the local community through a day of service.
Virginia Tech
I got accepted to a lot of great colleges, but why did I end up choosing Virginia Tech? Virginia Tech is located in the heart of the Appalachian mountains. I walk to class everyday and have an awesome view. The buildings are all adorned with Hokie stone which makes the facades of all the buildings have a contemporary rustic feel. This campus is known for its looks and we pride ourselves on them. But looks aren’t everything. The community that exists here is unlike anything I have ever seen. Just through talking with friends at other schools, they can’t express the same qualities in the people they share a campus with. The campus is laid out to facilitate a strong community with the division of the academic and living sides of campus by a giant field in the middle which is conducive to actives like pickup games and Relay for Life. Rivals.com has claimed Virginia Tech to be the toughest place for away teams to play and we don’t even have a very large stadium. We have also been titled as one of the loudest stadiums too and have earned the right to have “the greatest ritual in college sports” referring to the playing of Enter Sandman as the team takes the field. I think this quote by a Boston College photographer sums up the atmosphere in Lane Stadium during a football game, “I don’t care what you saw on TV or YouTube; words cannot describe what was taking place. The stadium was literally shaking. My ears hurt. And even as a lowly photographer, I was absolutely terrified, and the game hadn’t even started. It was the most unbelievable display of fanhood I had ever witnessed, in professional or amateur sports.” I could go on about our community and the passion of our fans, but there are still more reasons I chose Virginia Tech. The academics here are first class with several programs ranking number 1 or in the top 10. As a computer science major, I needed to go to a larger school so I would have the tools and technology available to me that smaller schools lack.
Computer Science, Math & A.I.
I chose to study the aforementioned disciplines for several reasons. Besides the fact that they are of interest to me, they are one of the few remaining growing job markets. Ever since the “dot-com bust” earlier this decade there has been a void (no pun intended for my CS people) in the market for CS majors. Companies want and need people with CS but can’t find them because so few people are majoring in it anymore. In addition to the job security and the marketability of CS, it is a new (in certain disciplines) and growing field. I am particularly interested in artificial intelligence because of all the possibilities that it holds. Most of the problems nowadays are caused by human error. For example, I dream of working on a project that would give cars the ability to successfully drive themselves. If this technology took cars over, the amount of traffic accidents would come close to zero. Another great application of artificial intelligence is its application to replace jobs that are highly dangerous for humans such as firefighters, field medics, vulcanologist, etc. People are often critical of people interested in CS/AI because they feel that my ultimate goal is to make a machine that can do their job. That isn’t the case, some jobs could never been done by machines, like teaching and secondly my ultimate goal is to make life easier with CS/AI. I feel as though the below video provides a good explanation for the reason to have technical jobs for the future.
Purpose
This blog will serve as a running documentation of my work both private and academically as well as provide reviews and information about products I have or have worked with. I hope that people that come across this page may be able to use it as a resource to help guide their own endeavours. I know how dependent I was on the internet as a resource for some of my work and projects, I now hope to be a resource. There will also be some posts about random occurrences in my life, but will not act as a journal, mainly as a way for distant friends and family to keep up to date with me. Also, I have a huge fan of open source and creative common projects and media. As I create projects, documents and programs that I think are worthy of distribution, I will post them here for the world to use.
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