Q+A Profile - Data and AI

Question 1.
What are you passionate about?

Making people’s lives easier through technology advancements. My career started in telecommunications, where I worked on both hardware and software innovations in telephony, broadband internet and Voice over IP (what now powers voice on Zoom calls). Now, in the same vein, I lead solutions with data and AI/ML at their heart, to automate and provide insights that never existed before.

Question 2.
What drew you to MANTECH?

For me, it was more about Elder Research attracting MANTECH as an acquirer. Through that process, it became clear that we share common technical goals, mission and culture. I am very excited to be part of the larger team and look forward to seeing how we grow from here!

Question 3.
What is or has been the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?

I was an “extra” in a Wheaties commercial.

Question 4.
What advice do you have for those looking to start a career in Data and AI?

There’s enough advice out there about foundations to get you off the ground, so I’ll focus on how to keep yourself motivated early on. For me, finding problems and datasets that were interesting kept me coding to improve my March Madness bracket and learn about factors that come together to make a truly great movie or TV series. Early on you want to work on projects you’re interested in to make sure you’re completing projects and learning tooling from end-to-end.

Question 5.
What’s the coolest thing you’re working on now?

One of the cool projects I am fortunate to be working on is a product called Aegir (Norwegian for “god of the river”), which is a predictive maintenance system for the hydropower industry. It takes in sensor data (temperature, pressure, vibration, etc.) and maintenance records to create models tailored to the device level. These are presented to plant personnel in a case-like format with robust visuals, allowing them to assess actual maintenance needs based on the models’ predictions. We currently have clients in the US and in Europe.

Question 6.
How do you balance career and home life?

I run long distances for medicinal purposes and play golf from time to time.

Question 7.
What’s your favorite place in the world?

A beach, anywhere.