Tl;Dr of my experience

I’ve been developing software, professionally, since around 2005. A lot of my focus has been with web development, but I have side interests in many aspects of programming. I have both my BS in Computer Science, and my MS (Masters of Science) in Computer Science from the University of Iowa. My academic focus has been in data mining, and my research experience is in Bioinformatics. I have been programming since I was in 6th grade, and I have around 15-20 languages I have experience with.

This document is split up into a few chunks:

  1. Modern/Recent Experience - this includes my stronger technologies, even if not my day-to-day.
  2. Work Experience and Education
  3. User Groups, Speaking, and Professional Membership and Awards
  4. Past Experience - this basically lists out technologies I’ve used for a decent time in the past

attach_file Download PDF

assignment Modern/Recent Experience

Programming Languages Used (More or less active langauges)

Language Actively Used Description When Started Learning
Python yes, professionally Python is my go-to language at this point. In my current employment, I’m in this daily. Everything from full-stack applications (e.g. Flask), data analysis (e.g. Pandas, Dask, Torch, ScikitLearn), database work (e.g. SQLAlchemy), and so on - I use it for most everything now-a-days. Around 2008
Common Lisp Yes Common Lisp holds a special place in my heart and I still use it regularly, but mostly to keep up my skills now. I used to write production applications in it, but it’s more configuration, tinkering, ans scripts today Jan 2010
Javascript/JQuery Yes, professionally Full-stack application development isn’t in my main focus at this time, but I do commonly develop web interfaces to interact with tools I’m building, and these are for front-end development July 2013
Golang Yes Golang is relatively uncommon in my daily use, but when I’m working on projects that need more performance than Python can give me, or areas of parallelization, Golang is my language to go to. May 2021

Machine Learning/AI

I have my Master’s degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Machine Learning. I’m deeply comfortable with Python and have a wide range of experience in the following technologies/libraries/methodologies:

Technology/Library/Application Description
Pandas/Dask While likely obvious, a lot of my data modifications happen in this layer to downstream processes
Axolotl This is a Python library/project/program that can be used for fine-tuning. I have experience in both SFT as well as pretraining including training models for work
Unsloth This is another project that can be used for fine-tuning. I’ve largely switched to Aolotl over Unsloth, but do appreciate the
Scikit-Learn For tranditional machine learning use
Tensorflow Generally testing models, usually before I quantize it and throw it into my production environment. I primarily use Axolotl or Unslot instead
LocalAI This is my “production” environment for hosting LLMs
Qdrant Vector database use, torn on the use of this vs Weaviate, still deciding. That said, I have a good deal of experience working with different vector databases
Langchain Generally, most of my interactions with LLMs from a programmatic level use LangChain. This is due to the fact I chain so much together, and the tools help out at times.
Huggingface As a consumer, essentially. Many of my models come from here - it’s rare I push anything, my preference is using MLFlow for a registry

The information above are my more common and proficient skills. Much of the work I do is on local architecture. I spent nearly $30,000 in hardware drive for AI/ML use locally here. While I can use many platforms such as Google CoLab and many other services, a lot of work I do on AI is for personal consumption. That said, in many jobs I’ve done work related to AI and ML including:

  1. Genomic variation and familial disease identification.
  2. Fine tuning multiple models for generation of rules/checks on incoming textual data.
  3. Outlier detection, trends, and general statistical models in many projects.

Other Technologies Used (More or less active use, administration)

Technology Description of Use
MS SQL Server For any relational database work, my first pass is with MSSQL. I’ve been using it since around 2004 in multiple projects. I count Azure SQL as part of this as well. Depending on the project, I may opt for other database servers such as SQLLite
MongoDB For non-relational and object stores, I use MongoDB. This is primarily around pipelines I have for my machine learning work (see below)
Linux Various distributions of linux, including Ubuntu, CentOS, Arch, and QubesOS. I use OSX usually, but am incredibly comfortable with Linux systems of all types.
Docker/K8s I use Docker incredibly often - this includes deployment of my own services and for work. I include Docker Compose in all this. K8s is still relatively new to me, and have been tinkering, but for straight up Docker use - it’s very common. I use it for deployment of services I build - both professionally and personal.
Virtualization Mostly with VMWare, but experience setting up virtual machines. Experience also with QEMU.
Azure I’ve been using Azure for since around 2016, if not earlier, in multiple positions. This includes Azure SQL, CosmosDB, Logic Apps, Azure Runbooks, Web Apps, Entra, GraphAPI, and so on. Out of the cloud services out there, Azure I’m mostly comfortable with.

home_work Work Experience and Education

Work Experience (Professional Experience)

Start Date Stop Date Group/Company Description
2022 CUR University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine Senior Software Architect. Focusing on primarily integrations and custom solutions to meet the gaps present from vendor software. This includes project management, development of data pipelines, reports, and collection projects.
2022 2022 Duck Creek Technologies Software Architect, Data Architecture. Part of the core architecture team looking at architecture across the organization.
2021 2022 United Fire Group Enterprise Data Architect, I help define how data moves within a company and how to increase collaboration between groups. Also the primary contact for their GuideWire products.
2021 2023 University of Iowa, College of Business Adjunct Instructor teaching Python.
2019 2020 Kingfisher Technologies Currently doing C# and SQL Server Administration as a Solutions Architect. Most focus on DBA-like work with SQL Server.
2013 2021 University of Iowa - College of Pharmacy Currently doing .NET development, and act as the primary DBA and lead developer for the department. Also perform some support for the Linux systems in some labs, and provide consulting for reporting, security, and system administration.
2019 2020 University of Iowa - Biochemistry Worked in 3 labs providing programmatic and systems assistance on their products/processes.
2010 2013 University of Iowa - Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Did computational genomics research work. Essentially helped develop software to help analyze and process information related to the sequencing we did on people’s DNA.
2006 2010 University of Iowa - Research Information Systems PHP/Javascript development, primarily, on their UIRIS 2 platform. Also did work with MSSQL as a DBA. Some experience with Ruby/Rails and Python/Django as well.
2005 2006 Townnews (Lee Enterprises) Did PHP/Javascript web development for their Newsys platform. The Newsys platform was maintained/developed by 2 people, and served over 400 newspaper websites as their primary CMS.

Education and Training

Date Education and Focus (If any) Institution
2005 Bachelor of Science - Computer Science University of Iowa
2012 Masters of Computer Science, focus in data mining University of Iowa

record_voice_over User Groups, Speaking, and Professional Membership and Awards

User Groups

Group Description
R User Group I started this group at the University of Iowa in 2017. The focus of this group is for Administrators, Students, and Faculty support and education using R to process data sets
I380 A SQL Server Users Group in the area. Been a member of that group since 2014. Yearly we have SQL Saturday in Iowa City, which I’ve attended and presented at many of them
CRIneta Cedar Rapids .NET Users Group. I’ve been a part of this group since 2015, although I only make a few sessions a year
TechCorridor A collection of user groups in the area. A co-organizer on this group
UI App Dev Community The developer community at the University of Iowa

Speaking

This list, in detail, is hard to give exact dates on. I’ve presented multiple times on a variety of subjects. In future speakings, I’ll start a table, but for the past I have:

  • Iowa Code Camp (5-Times): Python, Common Lisp, Git, R, and Azure
  • I380 and SQL Saturdays: R-Services in SQL Server, Shiny, Entity Framework
  • QCPass: R-Services in SQL Server, Shiny
  • R Users Group: R-Services in SQL Server
  • UI App Dev Community: Python, C#/MVC

Professional Membership and Awards

Membership/Award Description
Dean’s List Awarded multiple years for high GPA in college
John Phillips Sousa Award An award I was given by the USMC when I was in 10th grade. Received because I played Taps, at military funerals, for fallen marines.

Past Experience

Technology Description
R Primarily used in research labs, scripting, and some analysis. I largely went to using Python over R, despite a good number of years in R.
C# Multiple years of professional experience in this, including both .NET 4.X as well as .NET Core. One of my more recent languages, but not in my day-to-day toolkit any more.
C++/Visual C++ Spent considerable amounts of time with these languages from mid High School into College
Delphi One of my favorite languages I’ve used, elegant and simple
F# An absolutely fantastic language, with great features, developed a fair amount in this language
Visual Basic Studied 4 semesters in community college, used it for some simple projects outside that.
PHP Probably one of my better known languages, and used it for a good 6-7 years. My first and second jobs where using PHP
Perl This was used a lot in my 3rd job. I know enough to get by, develop scripts to process data sets, but I don’t use it much
Bash I also used this a lot in my 3rd job. Quite proficient in writing scripts
PostgreSQL My 2nd favorite database of use, although I don’t use it as much as MSSQL
MySQL While I know how to use and setup this database, I haven’t used it for years
Ruby I used this a fair amount in my 2nd job, but only for a shorter time period. Primarily used with Rails. A wonderful language, although I much prefer C# and Common Lisp
ELisp Used when customizing Emacs and writing scripts that are used with Emacs. Many years of experience of this, but I don’t use it much lately
Oracle Our data warehouse at the university is in Oracle. I commonly have to query from that source.
PowerShell I have some experience in PowerShell - both 5.X and Core. I sometimes develop with it to interact with Azure, but I try and use Python instead whenever possible.