About Me

Hello, internet people! My name is Patrick, and this is my website. I'm a Computing Engineering major at the University of Notre Dame, and I made this site to share all of my favorite parts about science, math, and programming with all of you. I'm especially interested in A.I. and machine learning, and can't wait to help others learn and get excited about the subject.

Early Background

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and I feel like I've always been a nerd of some kind or another. When I was a kid, I was always coming up with elaborate games of some kind or another, with rules way more complex than they needed to be. I feel like this kind of exploration of fantasy worlds of my own design was my first step into the world of programming. Thinking about the societal ramifications of bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender or what goes on inside of a Pokeball almost feels like working on a proof or writing some new program.

My first experience with programming came, like I think it did for a lot of kids, from math class. I was amazed that I could write a few lines of TI-Basic to solve the Pythagorean theorem, or even make a ball bounce back and forth. It almost felt like discovering a super power, and has helped contribute to why I still love math to this day.

While math introduced me to programming for the first time, it was science which that introduced my to Python, and programming for the computer in general. I was on Science Olympiad, and my friends were competing in an event where they had to launch something out of a home-made cannon and hit a target a set distance away. I wanted to help, so I wrote a Python program which collected data from previous launches and provided suggestions for future launches. I've been programming ever since then, finding new ways to use it to make my life easier or solve some problem.

After bouncing around a lot, I've landed on Computer Engineering as my major of choice. It lets me combine my passions for math, physics, and programming into one cohesive whole. The skillset I've been building has let me build a chess AI, write code to fly up in a rocket, and even utilize the power of machine learning to do everything from optimizing embedded systems to composing love poetry for my girlfriend.

Professional Development

I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to apply my programming skills to everywhere from the insurance industry to machine learning research in embedded systems and health care. Along the way I've learned valuable skills, like how to write well-documented code which can be read and understood by others, automate tasks to save hours of employee labor, and gain an understanding of complex concepts through research and experimentation. My career is just beginning, and I can't wait to continue learning about everything the world of software has to offer!