Me pre-college, working on motor controllers.
I have always been interested in tinkering, creating, and engineering. When there is a dull moment, I will be sure to think up something that I can get my hands dirty with and apply my mind to. Before college, this was often with robots and drones. Now, it is more so with the software. In either case, however, I have always loved being able to think through problems, and arrive at solutions.
A nearby hill in the mountains of the bay.
I have been fortunate to be surrounded by inspiring people, regardless of circumstance, and even if from backgrounds that may seem unexpected.
Growing up, for example, was a split experience for me. My parents, for example, come from distinct backgrounds: my dad was raised in the U.S., born in Boston, while my mom is from the Ural Mountains in Russia. While my dad's dad was a graduate student at MIT and later a professor at what is now Case Western Reserve University, my mom's dad was working in the tank factories of World War II, building the infamous T-34's. But these differences continued on after their marriage, for before I was old enough to remember, they divorced and proceeded to live in separate spheres. With my dad, we lived on the semi-rural coast (the photo above, for example, was taken overlooking a nearby hillside, and our community only has about a thousand residents or so), whereas my mom lived "over-the-hill" in the mainstay of the suburbs of Silicon Valley. And while my dad had transitioned into tech from administration, my mom worked (and still does) as a self-employed music teacher.
The result was a varied upbrining. Where I attended school, for example, would often fluctuate. Sometimes I would be attending a school with a surf team within walking distance of the beach, while others, at least an hour or more away. This experience of the city, and the country, if you will, helped provide a broadened view of what opportunities lay before me.
As one example, I effectively transferred during high school to a community college (by transferring to a separate high school so I could take concurrent enrollment courses full-time). This would expose me to the realms of the likes of multi-variable calculus, physics, and computer coding, in which I became fascinated. It all came at once: again I was fortunate to have amazing professors and be surrounded by highly-motivated students with similar interests.
All-the-meanwhile, I could always count on returning home to a living workshop. Having grown up with my dad has similarly exposed me to the passion and joy that comes with exercising creativity. At home, his dining room is often filled with audio equipment; his garage is a woodshop with electronics bench; two sheds outside the house have been allocated for photography and more electronics; the basement is devoted to photography, with printers taking up rooms, and an enlarging camera going through a wall; and my room had turned into a robotics bench of its own. Around us, too, were always works in progress, be it a truck reworked to run on alcohol (with dials covering the dash), and whatever else.
From my time being raised through college, then, I have been privileged to have taken away a number of values that guide me day-to-day. These have been as follows, in the order they build upon each other.
I also am of the belief that the above values go a long way toward improving my own software development. Indeed, I believe that coding should be treated as an engineering discipline. In that way, for example, users should be able to trust it, just as they would for physical public infrastructure, for example. It is thus my view that there is still much work to be done in the realm of software development to achieve this, but that if the above three principles can could be emphasized for the code that we write (particularly that of the second above), that the technical landscape would be improved.
Of my amazing family members, I feel the particular need to honor Shepi, our golden retriever at home. I have always been raised with dogs in the household, but sheis something else: her energy and puppy-nature, even at 8 years of age, never ceases to surprise.
In addition, I owe my family a tremendous amount. They have largely shaped who I am today, and continue to provide their support at every turn.
Heading outdoors: at this point I am sure it has become spiritual. There is nothing like standing at the foot of a redwood tree that towers hundreds of feet above you, and has been there for decade upon decade, to be reminded of what vastness lays beyond oneself.
Photography and Videography: this stems partly from being engulfed in nature, but also comes from fascinations I have about other elements, such as light and scale. I am always amazed with how something small can become a world in and of itself as well, and play with our understanding of size or otherwise with our comprehension of the physical world. (Head over to my previous projects page, for example, to see some photos I have taken.)
One of my favorite quick recreational activities remains as chess. The game has always been an integral part of my life. In elementary and middle school, I received choaching weekly and compete in tournaments; and it remains something I can often go to when down-time is of the essence. (Check out a page I link to from my previous projects page, at chessforall.space, which is a site I created for a previous course to express my love for the game.)
Music: this often goes very well with chess, by the way.
As mentioned also on the home page, but here in more detail, I am thrilled to accept my full-time offer at Amazon as a full-time software developer engineer. After the completion of my 12-week internship (more about that on my experiences page), I am happy to say that I will be able to return to the same team with which I had the pleasure to work with. This job being on the horizon, though being out-of-state for me currently, is exciting to think of. It will involve not only a change of scenery, but also hopefully a development of me as a more skilled and capable engineer.