Thanks to Chris Wanstrath for the format inspiration.
#What I’m good at
I love to build software. You name it and I’ve probably built it or been a core part of a team that did. I’ve done everything from graphics for sports television to full-stack web applications to meteorological systems to machine learning to interactive data visualizations.
Information visualization (data visualization, if you prefer) is a powerful way to combine the natural strengths of the human visual system with interactive computer interfaces to help us find insight in data. I understand why our brains want to see the patterns they do and how to leverage that to design and build effective and interesting visualizations.
#Why I’m good at it
I never want to stop learning. Yeah, that’s me. I want to know how things work. The combination of a good background in the fundamentals and an insatiable curiosity can take you far. That’s why I’ve been proficient at quickly picking up new languages and technologies through my career. It’s also why I decided to go back to get my Masters (the on-campus kind) at Georgia Tech after nearly 10 years in the workplace.
While not exhaustive, these examples of visualizations, publications/presentations, and writing give a taste of what I’ve done over the years; there are many more behind the scenes. I’ve used a variety of languages over the years, including C, Java, Perl, PHP, and the HTML/CSS/JavaScript trinity, but I’m primarily into Ruby and the D3.js visualization library right now.
In my spare time, I also built Crashing the Dance, which uses machine learning to predict how the NCAA basketball selection committee will select and seed teams for the tournament. You know, for fun.
#What I’m interested in
I want to build things that people love to use and have fun doing it. I would also like to contribute more to the open source community. I’ve enjoyed the opportunities I’ve had to write for weather.com and blog at Crashing the Dance and would like to do more of that. I try to stay active on Twitter, both at my account and on the TWC space weather account I created.