Bio
DOB: 10/25/1977
Meyers Briggs Typology - INTJ
I was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan and grew up in the small community of Richland, Michigan. I attended Gull Lake High School and the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center. I went to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where I received a degree in Computer Engineering in April 2001. I received my masters in Electrical Engineering in May 2004 and my PhD in May 2007 both at the University of California, Berkeley. I am currently a Post Doc at UC Berkeley in Electrical Engineering as well. I am a recipient of the UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship and would like to obtain academic employment when my post doc concludes. I am in Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli’s group in CAD for VLSI. I am a member of the Gigascale Systems Research Center (GSRC) and the Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software Systems. My interests are in embedded system level design, computer architecture, digital logic design, design-for-test, and synthetic biology.
I have two brothers and two sisters (Matt, Luke, Diana, and Kate). My mother, father and step mother all live in Michigan. I lived in Michigan essentially until I started grad school in Sept. 2001. However, I had done 4 internships at Intel during undergrad. Three of these were in Folsom, California and one in Hillsboro, Oregon. At this point in my life I consider myself living in California with Michigan close to my heart. My father has since retired from his job as an assistant prosecuting attorney for Kalamazoo County. My mother works currently at AM Todd after working at Pfizer (formally Pharmacia and Upjohn). My sister Diana graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with degrees in Film and Video Studies and Creative Writing. She is currently a grad student at UCLA in the screenwriting program. My half-sister Kate is currently an undergraduate at the University of Western Michigan. My step-brother Matt lives in Arizona with his wife Alyson and my two nephews Zach and Josh. Finally, my half-brother Luke lives in Kalamazoo and is working on his associates degree from KVCC. He is interested in music and film and plays the guitar in his spare time.
I married Erika Parra (also a graduate student at UC Berkeley in Mechanical Engineering) on June 20th 2008. She and I met in December 2004. She was born in Bogota, Colombia and, as a result, she has re-sparked my interest in Latin American culture and the Spanish language. In order to complete learning Spanish (or at least become fairly fluent), I spent the summer of 2006 living in Cusco, Peru. Peru and the Peruvian people are beautiful. I was impressed particularly by the Quechua speaking campesinos. The American people can learn much from their kind spirit and communal energies. It was one of the best experience of my life. Erika and I will be visiting South America for the rest of our lives.
When I am not doing research I enjoying camping/hiking, reading, playing basketball, traveling, watching movies, and listening to hip hop music. You can find more about these at the page on this site detailing my interests.