I touched some Python when I was 11, but I never got past making broken text adventures. But when I picked up C++ in college, I realized I just had to keep programming. It’s frustrating, rewarding, and magical. I haven’t really specialized: I enjoy doing “the whole banana”, as Steve Jobs once put it, because I think that’s the only way to really understand the end product. I also like working with others, though :).
I love to teach. I’ve TA’d 4 different CS classes for 6 semesters. I’ve helped with an introductory class in C++; a survey-of-languages class teaching Python, SQL, F#, and Go; and a data structures course, also in C++. I held long review sessions and office hours, and I always tried to get everyone to figure things out for themselves. In Fall 2024, I TA’d a class on embedded programming and hardware. The last class I TA’d was on concurrent programming. The depth of that topic really allowed me to challenge students to get as far as they could on their own while giving them just enough of a push where they were stuck.
In my free time, I like long bike rides, alternative rock, and Nintendo games. Sometimes I combine them.
