About Me
Early Influences
Growing up in rural Arkansas during the '90s, I was a naturally curious child with limited access to the internet. My passion for learning emerged early on, fueled by my fascination with the era's video games, particularly those on the Nintendo 64 platform. One of my fondest childhood memories is learning to read through "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time," as I eagerly asked my parents to help me decipher the game's text boxes. This experience not only ignited my passion for gaming but also led me down a path of discovery and technological curiosity.
When I asked about the creation of video games, an older cousin introduced me to the world of computer programming, which would ultimately change my life. At 12 years old, my grandfather generously gifted me a compiler and IDE called BlitzBasic, along with a book titled "Game Programming for Teens." Delving into this new world, I created numerous quirky and amusing games, all the while developing a lifelong passion for programming that persists to this day.
Education
During high school, I developed software to detect keyloggers by utilizing statistical analysis, which I collected by hooking into Windows system calls. This innovative project earned me wins at local, regional, state, and national science fair competitions. My achievements culminated in the opportunity to compete at the prestigious 2011 Intel ISEF Science and Engineering Fair, where I was awarded a $60,000 scholarship to attend Florida Institute of Technology (FIT).
After completing high school—ranked third in my class with a 3.9 GPA and an ACT score of 32 or 31 in every category—I embarked on my college journey to study Computer Science at FIT. Notably, I was the only student from my graduating class to attend college out of state.
At FIT, I discovered my passion for theoretical computer science under the guidance of my mentor, Professor William Shoaff. His ability to balance a surfer lifestyle alongside his role at an elite institution greatly inspired me. I was particularly intrigued by the intricacies and significance of formal proofs, which reshaped my understanding of what it means to be a computer scientist.
Career Path
After my second year at FIT, I began my web development career at Codecraft Labs, a startup focused on teaching web development to young people. I immersed myself in learning, reading resources such as Douglas Crockford's "JavaScript: The Good Parts" multiple times.
I then joined Complete Inspection Systems, where I first worked with LabView and machine learning algorithms. I developed their entire intranet and gained experience in Node.js, Express, and AWS.
Following my tenure at Complete Inspection Systems, I moved to Gainesville, FL, and joined SharpSpring, a marketing automation platform startup. At SharpSpring, I encountered React and took the initiative to convert their legacy front-end into React components.
My career continued with several contracting roles, providing me with opportunities to collaborate with major businesses, including Bank of America, Florida Blue, Sherwin Williams, and Red Hat. In my free time, I continued to hone my web development skills, surpassing the expertise of many industry peers.
After contracting for a while, I joined United States Preventive Medicine (USPM) as a full-time Senior Front-End Engineer, and I was quickly promoted to Web and Mobile Development Lead, managing all web and mobile initiatives across the company.
Two years later, I transitioned to Dataminr as a Senior Front-End Engineer. There, I led the implementation of Module Federation, enabling independent development and deployment of product lines. This enhancement significantly increased the company's productivity across multiple time zones as it allowed the team to deploy the individual "micro-front-ends" independently.
My ambition and determination culminated in securing a Front End Engineer (L5) role at AWS, a FAANG company. In my position on the Parameter Store team, I made considerable contributions, increasing customer metrics gathered by more than 55% in just my first six months.
Now I'm living my dream: working on my own startup! Find us over on https://specfrog.com
Passions and hobbies
Outside of work, I love pursuing my passion for programming and continuous learning. One example is my ongoing passion project: an action RPG that demonstrates my creativity and technical skills in game development.
An avid reader, I am constantly expanding my knowledge of technical topics, such as functional programming, category theory, and software engineering, working through a growing stack of books.
In addition to my game development, I enjoy taking up web development projects, which can be found on my Github. These projects include an ECS framework that showcases my expertise in component-driven architectures, an implementation of the Observable pattern that reflects my understanding of design patterns, and a user-friendly wrapper for keyboard and mouse inputs that highlights my focus on seamless user experiences.