Since this is an academic site at heart, let me start with a (not so) brief overview of my interests.

I joined the University of Washington knowing two things. I liked computers, and I was going to do physical sciences. Needless to say, a year later being admitted to the Computer Science and Engineering program was a slight deviation from the original plan. There I got to explore the beginnings of many areas of study ranging across computer architecture to algorithmic design and database system internals.

I worked on several projects in and out of classes that helped me find an interest in a few less general areas. I was interested in Databases, Data, Machine Learning, and how those could overlap to advance our understanding of the world around us and how we interact with it. Needless to say such a broad statement in letters of desire to several universities led to several mentions of dissatisfaction with my lack of a compelling focus.

A great deal of what brought me to Duke was the spirit of inter-disciplinarity that drive a great deal of the research here. Needless to say when I was approached initially by Jun Yang with his current project ideas I was amazed by the range of what they covered. In my first semester I took (or am currently taking depending upon when you read this) a data privacy course taught by Ashwin Machanavajjhala, and was taken aback by once again how diverse the area of study was. Seeing projects that involved large data sets, personal privacy, algorithmic analysis, and machine learning methods has really helped me find what could be my focus of research for my time at Duke.

So yeah, after a period of trying to specify my interests to a more direct area I have found myself back at databases, data, machine learning, and (as a possible new addition) data privacy.

On a more personal note I am a native of the Pacific NorthWest, which I believe could take any other region of the US in a fair fight (although I may be biased in that account). I love animals, the outdoors, backpacking, snow sports, scuba, and really just pushing my limits in one way or another so that I can at least attempt to keep growing personally. On that note if anyone reading this want to try bungee jumping, feel free to invite me... I haven't done it but am currently very interested.

I guess to finish this section off I'll leave you with a pair quotes demonstrating my favorite paradox of the field I'm now immersed in. We can so deeply underestimate the scale of our problems, while still striding so far into areas we could previously only imagined.

"The problem of viruses is temporary and will be solved in two years." John McAfee, 1988

"Before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia." Arthur Summerfield, 1959