Growing Up
I grew up in Arizona in the 80's, though to be honest I don't remember much of it. Eventually the family and I moved to the Pacific NorthWest, settling in the bustling city of Cosmopolis, WA. Here, in the "City of the World" (population < 1600), I went through most of elementary school and spent a lot of time in the woods next to our house. To be honest there wasn't much else to do there
Eventually we moved to Bellingham, WA, where my parents still live. After completing my final year of elementary school at Happy Valley Elementary I moved on to Fairhaven Middle School, where my notable accomplishment was joining the band and learning to play the trombone.
High School
Moving on to High School, I attended Sehome High School (go Mariners!) and continued on in the Band for all four years, marching in several parades and going to a lot of basketball and football games. During this time I also started volunteering with a group called Computer Wizards, a 4-H group that taught classes about computer hardware and software to interested people from the community. After a few years I became the official coordinator for the group: my first part-time job!
College
After my graduation from Sehome I was accepted to the University of Washington, in the pre-engineering program. While there I started this website, since the university provided web space and hosting to all students. I spent the first two years slogging through the general education and Engineering admission requirements, and then eventually was accepted into the Electrical Engineering Department. It was at this point that I also moved into my first apartment with my friend Mike, and also got a "real" job (though still part-time) working at Suzzallo, the main campus library.
In addition to my classwork and my job, I spent a large portion of my time in my junior year working on a robot for the FIRST robotics program. This program pairs teams of high school students with mentors from colleges or companies to develop a robot that will (hopefully) compete in the international competition. Every year there is a different "game" that the robots must play, which includes both autonomous and remote controlled portions. Though we didn't win, our team did go to the national competition in Atlanta.
I also joined a research lab in the EE department, the Sensors, Energy, and Automation Laboratory (SEAL). The first project that I worked on was "Measurement of Moisture Distribution in Organic Materials," for which I essentially got cookies wet and then monitored how they dried using a Fringing Electric Field sensor. Eventually I moved from this project to one that better aligned with my focus in Controls & Robotics: "Condition-based Maintenance of Electric Power Systems." In this project I was working on a robot that was intended to travel along underground power distribution cables, using a variety of sensors to determine the condition of the cable. This would allow power companies to pro-actively replace old or damaged cables before any serious problems happened. As a part of this project my team and I went to the IEEE Transmission and Distribution conference in San Francisco, and won First Place in the student poster contest there.
The "Real World"
Following my graduation from UW I got a job in the "Real World," working as a Field Test Engineer for Motorola. In short, my job is the last stage of testing before new mobile phones get released to the carriers for sale to customers. I have to, basically, try anything that a customer might do with the phone, and make sure that it works correctly.
To facilitate an easier commute to work, I moved from Seattle to Redmond, WA, better known as the international headquarters for Microsoft. Though it's a much slower town than Seattle was I like it a lot, and my apartment is very near the Sammamish River Trail, which provides for a very nice walk when the weather is decent.
After a few months of work I made my first "splurge" purchase, a Sony AIBO ERS-7M3 whom I named Jake. Although he started out as a curiosity, Jake and I have gotten to know each other a lot better. You can find out more about his daily exploits using the "Jake Online" link on the menu.
I've also started an online distance-learning program through Walden University to earn my Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree. I'm only taking one course every semester since I'm still working full time, so it's going to take just short of four years for me to earn the degree.