It is by far one of the greatest privileges and honors of my life to serve as a faculty member in Purdue's Department of Computer Science. Joining such a world-class group of researchers and academics, as well as an amazing staff, is without a doubt one of the best parts of my life. I am thrilled to be back in the classroom teaching. Being able to engage with the students, faculty, staff, and larger community in such a role is exceptionally exciting. After serving in this role for 5.5 years, I went up for and ultimately achieved promotion to the rank of Associate. It's worth pointing out that this process is involved. One must prepare a dossier and provide names of potential letter writers. The department solicits internal and external letters of recommendation. The case is voted on by the primary committee in the department, then by the area committee at the college level, then by the campus promotions committee ("Panel B") at the university level. Finally, the board of trustees and president approve the promotion. It takes about a year for the whole thing. I am very grateful to have made it through the entire process. I offer sincere gratitude and thanks to all of my amazing students, my supportive and awesome colleagues, and the many other people at Purdue and elsewhere that have provided help and support along the way. I wouldn't be here without you! RCAC can probably best be described as the research arm of ITaP (Information Technology at Purdue). In this capacity I worked with the Hub Technology Group on HUBzero, a "platform for building powerful web sites that support scientific discovery, learning, and collaboration. Originally created by researchers at Purdue University in conjunction with the National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN) to support nanoHUB.org, it now supports a wide variety of other hubs." HUBzero's mission is essentially to "revolutionize the development of cyberinfrastructure for scientific collaboration."

My role with HUBzero consisted of two main activities. A not insignificant portion of my time was spent on system management and administration. Primarily, however, my role was software architecture and development. I lead and completed a number of software projects including the creation of a FUSE file system driver to mediate access to git repositories via SFTP, the integration of a Verilog-A model checker into the front-end CMS, and, of course, my primary project: the development of a new distributed virtual operating system. I lovingly refer to it as "Skynet," though its official name is "Metachory"
As the initial sole employee of this startup company, I was engaged in just about every aspect of the product design and construction. Various tasks ranged from part selection to printed circuit board (PCB) design as well as schematic capture. I also did a fair amount of soldering.

I gained a working familiarity with the open source gEDA software suite, PIC microcontroller assembly, BeagleBoard internals, the I2C bus specification, and hardware considerations related to devices with considerable inductive discharge.

In short, I designed an entire digital control system and interface from the ground up. My research project and thesis topic involves research into distributed, virtual operating systems. As time progresses more information regarding my thesis will become available.

In the mean time, feel free to check out NCN's website. In particular, my research relates fairly closely to nanoHUB. Greeted guests and assisted with lift-related concerns/information while operating lift machinery (control system, braking system, etc). Performed snow maintenance and removal on ramps and around lift area. Dealt with conflict and difficult situations in a busy environment. Assisted in the development and testing of storage area network (SAN)-related devices, software, and firmware. Sadly, a good portion of this project is covered by a NDA. Managed various aspects of a grid computing project involving Sun Microsystems and Purdue University. This involved developing and implementing scripts allowing interoperability between ASIC design software and Sun's GridEngine as well as collecting and analyzing hardware usage data to evaluate the effectiveness of GridEngine and Sun Ray Server software.

Here is a presentation that Dr. Johnson gave on the project. Assisted in the development of low power SRAM cache, utilizing Cadence Virtuoso to perform transistor-level design of clock subsystem (implemented as a ring oscillator) as well as hSpice to simulate and test for errors. After a six week training period, we were granted access to core academic systems for the university including the registrar (grades), financial aid, and the bursar (billing). This access was utilized to provide telephone and face-to-face counseling of students and parents regarding financial aid questions and problems.

This position also entailed assisting in the training of newly hired peer counselors as well as extensive knowledge regarding the policies and requirements governing federal aid programs (eg, the Stafford Loan program, Pell Grants, Perkins Loans, etc) and university-specific aid including academic and need-based scholarships, grants, and loans. I was the computer geek for a small company for three years. This entailed just about every conceivable task from configuration and maintenance of the local area network to repair of computer systems to setup and installation of new software.

Other tasks included the creation and management of the company website, the design and implementation of a bill of materials database using mysql and PHP, and even assisting the accountant in running payroll and managing accounts receivable and payable.

- Periodically review operations of the Purdue Exponent—Purdue’s independent student newspaper—and any other publications or services sponsored by PSPF
- Provide financial, long-range planning, and personnel policy guidance
- Approve the annual budget and major revisions (amounts exceeding $1,000)
- Screen candidates, monitor appointments, and make appointments for various positions including publisher, general manager, advertising director, production director, and editor in chief - Videographer for 2006-2007 marching season onward
- Section leader for the 2005-2006 marching season
- Assistant section leader 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 marching seasons
- Travel includes Rose Bowl (Pasadena, CA), Sun Bowl (El Paso, TX), and Capital One Bowl (Orlando, FL) as well as numerous other Big 10 Universities. - Partially responsible for resolving logistical concerns with respect to the "All-American" Marching Band. Also operated recording equipment for Purdue Bands.

Attained top rank (Colonel) in student officer corps - Travel included Dayton, OH (Sweet 16); Knoxville, TN (First & Second Rounds); and Dallas, TX (Sweet 16). - Encouraged incoming students to join Purdue Bands while also helping to maintain the department's student records. - John W. Ryan scholarship recipient - Performed under Dr. David A. Leppla. - Performed under Mr. Jay S. Gephart. - Supervise, promote, and coordinate attendance at unit, district, and council camps and events
- Supervise youth leadership to arrange leadership/chaperons, transportation, tour permits, facility/camp reservations and first-aid for all outings
- Report to the unit committee

- Promote astronomy among the local community through outreach efforts
- Volunteer at the West Lafayette Observatory and assist ASTR 263 teaching staff during evening observation events - Fly perfectly good airplanes, repeatedly. Check out our website - here. - Travel included Steamboat, CO; Keystone, Vail, Arapahoe Basin, and Copper Mountain (Summit County, CO); Big Sky, MT and Moonlight Basin; and Jackson Hole, WY. Website available here. - Jumped out of perfectly good airplanes, repeatedly..