The best way to get to know me is to meet me in person. Unfortunately, this can be rather difficult if you are not in Austin, Texas, so this site will have to serve as a poor substitute.

Biographical

I was unceremoniously dropped into the world on June 11, 1981, in Chicago, the son of immigrant parents from Taiwan. I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, spent the next decade and change being bored, and graduated from Bloomington High School South. While in high school, I relieved boredom by taking classes from Indiana University.

I wound up going to Cornell University for college, mostly because the Cornell Presidential Research Scholars threw money at me. It wound up being a whole boatload of fun as well.

During my time there, I picked up a major in Computer Science, and dabbled in network research, robotic submarines, and even managed to edit a literary magazine. Unfortunately, I never did complete that English major, but I have done some creative stuff.

I am now in graduate school at The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Computer Science, because they too threw money at me. Every now and then I do some research.

I'm currently a PhD student at The University of Texas at Austin's Department of Computer Science, working with Professor Calvin Lin on static and dynamic dataflow analysis, program testing, and forensics. If you don't know what that means, don't worry, because I don't either.

Professional

I am currently a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin, working with Professor Calvin Lin. You can read more about my research interests elsewhere.

I have teaching experience at Cornell and UT. At UT I am the TA for Honors Data Structures and Algorithms (315H). At Cornell, I was an undergraduate TA leading a discussion section for one year for Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (312) and prior to that, I was a grader for one and a half years for the same class. I am told that my teaching style is pretty good, or at least very entertaining.

At Cornell, I co-founded the Cornell Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Team. Since the first competition, the Cornell team has consistently been one of the top teams.

During my first year at Cornell (1998-1999), I was a part of the Cornell Network Research Group writing network topology mapping software. This lasted until my research adviser, Prof. S. Keshav, left for Ensim.

I have interned twice at International Business Machines. During the summer of 2001, I worked at the IBM Almaden Research Center on a consumer digital media device. During the summer of 2002, I worked at IBM Server Group in Endicott, New York, on pSeries Unix machines.

For more information, see my resume.

Hobbies

I drink lots of wine. My friends think I am knowledgable about this.

I do calligraphy. I've been doing it for a bit over a decade now, and my calligraphy is somewhat passable. Although my normal note-taking handwriting is unremarkable (at least it is legible), I can, with relatively little effort, make my handwriting look quite good when I write letters and the like. It's fun. Although penmanship may be a dying art (seriously, who needs cursive these days?), it's still good fun for the artistically inclined.

I enjoy costuming. It is a good way to relieve stress and it is lots of fun to weird people out by showing up in costume. Some of my past activities are photographically documented.

I collect fountain pens. It is one of my more irrational hobbies. How many do I have? Let's just say that my collection is small by collector standards but contains far more pens than anyone can hope to use in their lives.

As for martial arts, I engage in recreational swordplay. I used to know foil fencing, but I've let that lapse. My kendo is not bad (but not great either; I'm working on that). I do not know nor am I interested in learning any forms of unarmed combat.

I am a voracious reader, and will read anything that is put in front of me. Regrettably, other demands on my time mean that I don't read as much as I'd like to for fun.

I am also a geek, and proud of it. 

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