I am currently a Ph.D. candidate at Michigan State University (MSU) in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. I received my B.S. & M.S. from Western Michigan University (WMU) from the Department of Computer Science in '03 & '05, respectively. My research is focused on digital evolution and evolving emergent systems.

Research

In my research I harness the power of evolution to solve complex problems. In addition, I also use computation to gain insight into the evolution of complex behaviors observed in natural organisms. If you're interested, my publications are linked to my curriculum vitae. They are also linked to my reseach page. I think you will find this page most interesting as it contains many movies that demonstrate the evolved behaviors I have researched using various evolutionary computation methods.

Academic Experience

Currently, I am a self-supported research assistant at MSU under Dr. Philip McKinley. I also work fulltime in the Identity Management Group with in MSU's Academic Technology Services. In the past I have taught introductory C++ courses at Lansing Comunity College (LCC) and WMU. Also, while at LCC I taught introductory data structures. I have also been a teaching assistant for many classes including introductory computing, software engineering, and computer networking at both MSU and WMU. I find teaching to be both enjoyable and challanging. I have learned much from these experiences and hope to continue along an academic path.

Life

I am happily married with twin boys. I spend most of my time at school, work, or at home playing with my sons.