Q+A Profile - Data and AI

Question 1.
What are you passionate about?

I get the most fun from problems that involve both theory (foundational understanding) and computation (practical calculation). It’s a big part of what I liked in my graduate work, and data science/machine learning offers a similar recipe.

Question 2.
What’s the coolest thing you’re working on now?

I’m enjoying some old-school object detection work right now: training models and building the scaffolding to make new models easy to deploy now and update later.

Question 3.
What do you like most about MANTECH?

Everyone I’ve met so far has been super kind.

Question 4.
What is or has been the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?

I made most of my income in college playing music.

Question 5.
What advice do you have for those looking to start a career in Data and AI?

Don’t worry too much about specializing in whatever skill is in vogue right now; these are changing all the time. Learn and develop the fundamentals for where you want to start, then bring along curiosity, humility and a desire to learn. What you wind up doing in ten years will probably look a lot different from where you started.

Question 6.
What’s your favorite place in the world?

My wife and I had a chance to visit the Oregon coast a few summers ago, and it was lovely.

Question 7.
What do you wish people understood about Data and AI?

I wish more folks had a sense of what problems can or can’t yet be solved with data and computing, AI or not. Lots of problems aren’t yet solvable with the best AI—but there are many other areas that could be made better using some of our simplest tools.

Question 8.
How do you balance career and home life?

I get to work with and for some great people, which helps a lot. It’s less of a balance than it is an optimization problem, though: I’m accountable for my career, but I’m also accountable to family and friends; it all goes together. I get to work in an interesting field, too, so some of what I read and do for fun looks a lot like what I do for work!