Whether explicitly or implicitly, travel has been a major inspiration for my research and design work. I just spent 10 months as a Fulbright scholar in Brisbane, Australia and then 3 months as a research intern at Microsoft Research Cambridge. I sorely miss the kangaroos from the former and the casks from the later. I just made the move to Pittsburgh to start my PhD at CMU in the HCI institute.
Before all that, in May ’08 I completed a Masters degree in Human-Computer Interaction / Design at Indiana University Bloomington. In April '08 I won the CHI student research competition for some of my work across these areas. Soon after finishing my Masters in July '08, my colleague David Roedl and I won the interface design competition of the 2008 Microsoft Imagine Cup in Paris, France.
In the coming years, I am interested in continuing to collaborate with industry, and anyone else interested in big ideas!
The intro to one of several orchestral scores I penned in theory class.
While it’s not as often these days, I do enjoy a range of other activities when I’m not working on projects. In particular, I have devoted a significant amount of time to creative musical endeavors. Beginning with classical guitar in middle school and now through electronic music production. I’ve performed and composed music ranging from European Art to Blues to Hip-Hop to East African Shona seculars. I've also been known to consume copious amounts of espresso from time to time.