Experience
Mathematics · Software systems · Teaching
Three threads. More than thirty years. Choose an era to explore.
I started university as a computer science major before switching to mathematics. I am the first in my family to attend college. I earned a Ph.D. in mathematics, and I learned computer systems by building, breaking, and repairing my own machines. That started with an autoexec.bat mistake on our MS-DOS computer. I built my first computer in 1995 and have preferred to understand and configure my own systems since.
The timeline traces three threads across more than thirty years: the experiential discipline of early labor, the analytical rigor of pure mathematics, and the technical work that now includes model evaluation, agent systems, applications, and infrastructure.
The timeline defaults to the most recent era (Synthesis). Choose any point on the braid to explore the foundation beneath it.
Synthesis
The threads converge. A tenured mathematics professor developing online pedagogy while building evaluation, governance, and systems-engineering tools. The logic of the Ph.D., the grit of early labor, and the architecture of code are now inseparable.
The engineering transition became concrete in ScopeCam. I designed and built a multi-module Android application for USB microscope cameras, taking responsibility for the interface, Kotlin orchestration, C++/JNI camera engine, USB lifecycle, concurrency, persistence, diagnostics, and physical-device verification. As I used coding agents in that work, I also built the specifications, permission boundaries, reproducible environments, automated checks, and evidence handbacks needed to keep their contributions reviewable.
Roles
Associate Professor of Mathematics Tenured
Kenai Peninsula College · University of Alaska
Calculus I, Applied Calculus, Applied Statistics. Online course development and pedagogical technology.
Independent project work
Self-directed research · Happy Patterns LLC
Model evaluation, agent systems, infrastructure, and mobile/native application work, with maturity stated per project.
Current Evidence
Agentic-Coding Evaluation Lab
Fail-closed evaluation contracts with separate-verifier recomputation and a synthetic NOT_EVALUABLE refusal when evidence is incomplete.
Governance and agent-control architecture
Bounded authority, evidence-preserving delegation, policy-as-code, safe refusal, and tested admission prototypes in an anonymized private case study.
Budget Triage
Financial evidence workbench with provenance, exact monetary semantics, tenant isolation, and fail-closed human review. A sanitized public source snapshot is available; active development remains private. Its synthetic known-answer result remains incomplete and uncertified.
Tools used across projects
Primary: Python, TypeScript, SQL, Bash, PostgreSQL, Git, and CI.
Working: Kotlin, C/C++, React, Android/JNI, Docker, Cloudflare Workers, OpenTofu, OPA/Rego, and OpenTelemetry.
Project-specific: Rust/WebAssembly, Go, USB/UVC, Redis, and native build toolchains.
Current work
Current work brings mathematical reasoning into model evaluation and agent systems: evaluation contracts, separate-verifier recomputation, evidence-first audit, typed authority boundaries, and policy-as-code. Applied-statistics publication work and native Android/USB systems engineering remain supporting evidence for that practice.
The throughline is sustained work across teaching, mathematics, software, and infrastructure, with increasing responsibility for the systems and evidence behind each result.
International
Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the American University in Cairo. Taught calculus and upper-division mathematics to an international student body. Continued research in functional analysis, attending a multi-day conference on Lineability in the Czech Republic.
Three years of navigating cross-cultural academic environments, adapting pedagogy for students from dozens of countries, and maintaining research productivity while teaching a full course load.
Deep Theory
Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Montana, specializing in commutative Banach algebras. Published research in Communications in Mathematics and Applications. Presented at conferences. Six years of deep immersion in abstract mathematics.
Teaching assistant for Applied Statistics, Applied Calculus, and Calculus III throughout the program. Postdoctoral lecturer in 2013-2014, coordinating large lecture sections and managing teaching assistants.
Summer programs included the AARMS mathematics institute in Fredericton, New Brunswick, with courses in algebraic topology and topological combinatorics.
Service
Peace Corps education volunteer and teacher trainer. Project management workshops, community improvement initiatives, and daily classroom teaching. Secured a Dell Computers Success Grant for a partner school, one of the early programs bringing technology to rural South African education.
This is where teaching became more than a job. Two years of learning how to communicate complex ideas to people with entirely different frames of reference. The human experience taking precedence over abstraction.
Identity
Moved 2,000 miles from family at 21. BA in Mathematics from Humboldt State University, 2004. Entered the graduate program in Mathematical Modeling of Environmental Systems, studying stochastic processes, dynamic systems, and abstract algebra. Left before thesis work; pure mathematics was the real draw.
- Teaching assistant, remedial courses and MathLab tutor
- First formal exposure to mathematical proof and rigor
- Continued Linux administration and self-hosting
First Proofs
University of Minnesota Duluth. First exposure to higher mathematics was the moment when abstraction clicked. Full-time student, part-time worker: midnight stock shifts at Kohl's, summer landscaping, evenings at Pizza Hut.
- First higher mathematics coursework
- Linux servers and self-hosting began in earnest
- Working nights to pay for school
Work Ethic
Six years of continuous employment before graduating high school. Farm work, restaurant kitchen (mower to dishwasher to prep cook to line cook), landscaping with heavy equipment operation. First in family to attend college. Built first computer in 1995. Co-system operator for the high school BBS, 1996-1997.
- Blue-collar foundation
- Heavy equipment certified before driving age
- First computer build, age 16
- Technology interest began and continued
Selected service and community
A sample of a longer service record that runs alongside the eras above, from graduate school through the present: committee work, community roles, and sustained mentorship.
- Economic Development Council, Homer, Alaska: member, 2020-2022.
- MathCounts coach, 2017-present: weekly sessions with middle-school students and the annual chapter competition in Anchorage.
- Multi-year one-on-one mentorship of a gifted high-school student, 2023-present: abstract algebra, type theory, and applied cryptography.
- University committees: Program Review Committee, UAA (2019); Accessibility Committee, KPC (2017-2020); Calculus Restructuring, Mathematics Major Recruitment, External Review Implementation, and Safety and Security committees, American University in Cairo (2014-2017); Student Evaluation Committee chair, University of Montana (2012).
- Upward Bound/TRIO summer mathematics for Native American high-school students (2013) and Math Circle director for gifted high-school students (2012), University of Montana.