LitRagger

LitRagger is a project I co-founded with Adam Lefton, the then Managing Editor of Purdue's literary journal, after we realized the struggle most small-press literary magazines had at the time getting their content mobile in a eye pleasing format. The Guardian picked LitRagger as one of the best new apps the week of our launch. As HTML5 adoption grew and these challenges became less of a barrier, we've transitioned to new projects including an app to help writers manager their current submissions and a website that aggregates great literary content from across the web.

Purdue Studio

My job as a Student Web and Mobile App Developer for Purdue Studio allowed me to work with an amazing and particularly detail oriented team of talented developers and designers. The Studio suite of apps are built to help facilitate collegiate learning, in and out of the classroom. Here, I learned some of my first lessons in software and database design patterns, version control principles, and agile project management. I have been allowed to lead develop two .NET projects this year; a total rewrite of the Purdue Directory to a .NET C# that included a custom search algorithm, and a new app to showcase how the Studio apps help instructors achieve the different learning objectives of Bloom's Taxonomy. Studio’s apps are beautiful and well designed for user experience, and I learned in this role to code with the design team in mind.

Amazon AIV

Summer 2013 I had the amazing opportunity to intern with Amazon in Seattle, WA, which I am convinced is the best city in the world. I worked on the Amazon Instant Video team interning as a Software Development Engineer in Test. My specific project was to incorporate various third party testing into the encoding pipeline and develop a way to verify and compare results. The experience of being in a top-tier industry enviroment was one that has raised the bar on my expectations for the code I produce. I recommend applying for Amazon's internship program if you are a student looking for high-level high-stakes industry experience.

Purdue University

Bachelor of Science Computer Science

Machine Intelligence Track
Minor in Linguistics
Expected May 2014
3.25 GPA
Association for Computing Machinery, Purdue Linguistic Association
Semester Honor's Fall 2012xf

Marian University

Master of Arts Teaching

May 2010
3.93 GPA
Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education

Stephen F. Austin State University

Bachelor of Arts Communications

May 2007
3.02 GPA
Dean’s List Fall 2006
Completed 4-year program in 3 years

Writing

LitRagger taught me a lot about mobile app design, start up funding, bug-reporting and handling, and sprint planning. However, LitRagger exists because of Adam's and my shared love for writing and the world of writing. Through my friends in the Purdue MFA program and some great people I've met through LitRagger, I've gained a deeper connection to the literary world, and, out of the goodness of their hearts, a reader or two for my occasional stories and essays. I am also do some web development work for a great literary magazine here in Austin, American Short Fiction.

Rural STEM Education

Growing up in rural East Texas I was lucky. I was able to take many honors courses and had some amazing teachers. That said, as a nontraditional student returning to Purdue for a computer science degree, I was critically unprepared for the advanced match and science courses required. Preparedness for higher education and top careers is important, but the ability to think analytically and scientifically is what students without exposure to advanced STEM courses miss out on the most. I’ve linked some organizations and some resources I utilized on entering Purdue. In the future, I’d like to work to address this issue more directly, possibly putting my teaching degree to use in the classroom or finding or founding volunteer organizations.

Lingustics

I love linguistics, and chose it for my minor at Purdue, because it finds its way into so many of my other interest. Computational linguistics and natural language programming are major areas of research in my degree concentration, machine intelligence. I’ve also always been interested in language acquisition and learning from my experience teaching English language learners in the classroom and as a private tutor. The systems analysis and logic of semioticians like Charles Sanders Peirce is incredibly interesting and always gets me wondering about the ‘big’ questions of math, science, and philosophy in a way that sometimes day to day programming lets me forget.