Experience

Where I have worked and studied.

now

Current work

Knight Lab since 2012, socialcontext.ai since 2020, and course design for Coursera.

Roles

Knight Lab

Senior engineer of software, circuits, and systems · 2012–present

socialcontext.ai

Founder and Chief Technology Officer · 2020–present

Coursera

Course and assessment design

Projects

News Compass
Overstory
Socialcontext Open
SensorGrid

More projects →

Previous roles

Oldest first. Degrees and coursework appear in the years they were taken.

1990–2000

Electrical engineering

Purdue, then controls and building-systems design, then three years at Nortel commissioning network management systems for carriers.

Roles

AVTEC Industries

Design engineer · 1994–1995

Perkins & Will

Electrical engineering · 1995–1996

Nortel Networks

Network Systems Engineer / Field Services Engineer · 1997–2000

Study

Purdue University

Program · 1990–1994

45 courses
General chemistryPurdueFundamentals of speechPurdueIntro comp in elec engPurdueFresh engr lecturesPurduePl anly geo calc IPurdue1st crs SpanishPurdue2nd crs SpanishPurdueGeneral chemistryPurdueAdvanced PascalPurdueAdvanced freshman compPurduePl anly geo calc IIPurdueMechanicsPurdueElectrical engr seminarPurdueLinear circuit anly IPurdueElect measur techniquePurdueMultivariate calculusPurdueElectricity opticsPurdueThtr audio tech IPurdueLinear circuit anly IIPurdueElectron dev & des labPurdueIntr electron anly desPurdueLin alg diff equatsPurdueSpanish level IIIPurdueIndians North AmerPurdueDigital logic designPurdueDig logic design labPurdueSignals and systemsPurdueElec & magnetic fieldsPurdueIntro to philosophyPurdueIntro anthropologyPurdueProbabilistic methodsPurdueSemiconductor devicesPurdueCircuits & systems labPurdueMicropro sys & interfacPurdueElectromech energyPurdueVLSI chip design labPurdueDisc math for comp engPurdueElec engr undergrd semPurdueAdv microprocess labPurdueDiff equa inc sys serPurdueWorld ethnographyPurdue1st crs Amer Sign LangPurdueOperational amplifiersPurdueDig systems sr projectPurdueNoise controlPurdue

2002–2010

Computer science

Graduate study in computer science while technology lead at Cedarstone, then developer roles at DePaul, the Field Museum, and Northwestern's InfoLab.

Roles

Cedarstone Partners

Technology lead · 2004–2007

Center for Applied Requirements Engineering

Developer · 2007–2008

Biodiversity Synthesis Center

Contract web development and technical support · 2008–2009

Intelligent Information Laboratory

Developer · 2008–2010

Study

Capella University

Program · 2002–2004

DePaul University

Program · 2004–2008

UIC

Program · 2006–2007

26 courses
Technical communicationsCapellaFund web application developmentCapellaEnterprise sys and app devCapellaProj mgmt for information techCapellaSys development theory & practiceCapellaSys usability analysis and designCapellaDatabase analysis and designCapellaClient server architecture & designCapellaJava for programmersDePaulObject oriented modelingDePaulObj-oriented software devDePaulComputer systems IDePaulComputer systems IIDePaulProgram language conceptsDePaulDesign/analysis-algorithmDePaulIntroduction to proteomicsDePaulObject-oriented entrprs computgDePaulResearch pract in comp biologyDePaulCognitive scienceDePaulNeural networks/machine learningDePaulNetwork programmingDePaulIntro to comp scientific discoveryDePaulMaster's researchDePaulIntro to BioinformaticsUICBiostatistics IIUICComputational GenomicsUIC

2010–2018

Natural language

Natural language generation on Narrative Science's founding team, then metaphor identification at IIT's Linguistic Cognition Lab. The Knight Lab began in 2012 and is under current work.

Roles

Narrative Science

Lead developer, founding engineering team · 2010–2012

Linguistic Cognition Laboratory

Contract programmer, NLP · 2012–2014

2018–present

Teaching & Mentoring

Teaching assistant on CU Boulder's Digital Advertising Analytics course, mentoring newsroom teams through JournalismAI, and advising student projects at the Knight Lab.

Roles

Knight Lab

Project advising · 2012–present

University of Colorado Boulder

Teaching assistant, Digital Advertising Analytics · 2018–2024

JournalismAI

Project mentor · 2023–2025