About

My passion for the field of Data Science is centered on the possibility of acquiring a dataset and being able to ask it questions with which we can learn unexpected things. I combine this capability of knowledge extraction from data with two of my other passions, international affairs and problems affecting our planet, to analyze datasets where the answers found could have a positive impact on others.

Masters Thesis

The thesis for my masters degree in Computer Science (December 2014, 3.86 GPA) was on the use of computer vision algorithms to make independent home living safer for senior citizens. We created four new algorithms to detect various kinds of falls using data from a Microsoft Kinect sensor. Particle Swarm Optimization was used to find thresholds in each algorithm that maximized sensitivity and specificity. We used human joint metrics and physical therapy models to screen incoming data for quality issues associated with occlusion.

Current Work

I currently have the privilege of working with a group of dedicated seismologists who specialize in monitoring the globe for signs of illegal nuclear testing. My contribution to this effort is assisting them primarily in the creation of big data analytical pipelines to help them mine their 300 TB+ dataset of historical seismic events.

Research Interests

• Data Science / Machine Learning
  • Decision Trees / Random Forests
  • Neural Networks / Extreme Learning Machines
  • Any clustering algorithm for Unsupervised Learning.
• Swarm Intelligence
  • Particle Swarm Optimization