Greetings! I’m a father of four, a hobbyist woodworker and blacksmith, a software developer for the state of Maine, and at various times a university lecturer, writer, researcher, software developer, corporate trainer, and consultant. I’ve been a computer nerd since before it was cool, was one of the first generation of web developers in the 1990s, and I still learn something new every day about using information systems and data analytics to serve and improve business processes.
Maine businesses have a serious need for information systems, business intelligence, and data analytics talent that is not always available for hire locally. I’m proud to offer my own humble services in these areas on a freelance basis. Consulting is also a great way for me to acquire new skills and keep old skills up-to-date.
I am what they call nowadays a “full-stack” developer, combining front-end web design skills (HTML, CSS, Javascript, Bootstrap, Angular) with back-end database modeling and development (SQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc.), and the programming layer in the middle (my main languages recently have been Java and Python, but I’m flexible). Because I also have a pretty good understanding of statistics and data visualization (and I teach courses on these), I think my skills are uniquely suited for developing analytics and information systems that allow users to make sense of their data. Have you got organizational databases full of potentially valuable information that you can’t easily extract as reports or dashboards? I think every business does.
I finished my Ph.D. in Information Systems at USC in 2012 and, since then, have continued to publish some academic research. One area I’ve been interested in since my dissertation is theories of decision-making under uncertainty, which I study with computer simulation models. More recently, I’ve become interested in work systems like Agile software development and Lean manufacturing, and how information technology can or does improve the working life in such systems. I’ve published in the most prestigious information systems conferences: ICIS (SIGDSA), AMCIS, and HICSS.
I enjoy sharing what I know, and have held a variety of teaching positions. The first, in 2001, was teaching English to preschool children in rural Taiwan; since then I’ve had opportunities to teach students of every age in five countries and taught information systems at four major universities: China Agricultural University, the University of Southern California, Arizona State University, and the University of Maine.
Selected course offerings:
Some of the materials I’ve created for my own teaching may be useful to others, so I’ve tried to make them available in formats that make sense, including one textbook (with another on the way), two teaching cases and some tutorials. Please let me know if you find these useful or have constructive feedback! I also have teaching notes and lesson plans: email me!