Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Cambridge, MA

S.M. Technology and Policy Program, June 2008 (anticipated)
  • Thesis: The Environmental Benefits of Wind Generation — Challenges in the data and computation of avoided emissions associated with renewable electricity generation.

University of Virginia — Charlottesville, VA

M.S. Systems Engineering, January 2007
  • Thesis: Values and Data in a Boundary Object — The treatment of risk assessments and chemical hazard data in the CleanGredients database.

Carnegie Mellon University — Pittsburgh, PA

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, August 2000
  • Undergraduate research: control and design of serpentine robots.

Experience

Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Cambridge, MA 2006-2008

Research Assistant, Laboratory for Energy and the Environment
  • Demonstrated quantifiable environmental benefits of proposed offshore wind turbine installation for town of Hull, MA.
  • Computed the potential avoided emissions of the turbines based on the temporal correlation of wind resource and hourly unit-level marginal fossil emissions across the New England ISO.
  • Designed infographics to communicate our findings to policymakers and the general public.
  • http://web.mit.edu/agrea/index.html

MIT Energy Map — 2006-2008

Developer, Extracurricular Project
  • Built the MIT Energy Map, an interactive visualization of the past six years of MIT’s energy use.
  • Initiated ongoing effort to gain access to MIT Facilities’ live metering data.
  • http://energymap.mit.edu

GreenBlue Institute — Charlottesville, VA 2005-2006

Database Developer
  • Designed and implemented CleanGredients online directory of the environmental impacts of cleaning product ingredients.
  • Enabled cleaning product formulators to choose chemical ingredients based on the ingredients’ environmental impacts along with their functional characteristics.
  • Incorporated needs and concerns of industry stakeholders and the EPA into the web application.
  • http://www.cleangredients.org

Harvard University — Cambridge, MA 2003-2004

Mechanical Design Assistant, Anderson Research Group
  • Provided mechanical design support to the group’s scientists in their work studying the chemistry of the atmosphere.
  • Redesigned aircraft based H2O isotope measurement instrument.
  • Designed, maintained and reassembled existing instruments and laboratory test apparatus.

Skylist, Inc. — Austin, TX 2000-2003

Systems Administrator
  • Developed in-house ticketing system to track customer contacts.
  • Administered 250+ Linux, NT, and Mac servers.

Carnegie Mellon University — Pittsburgh, PA 1997-1999

Research Assistant, Laboratory for Sensor Based Planning
  • Developed control software for serpentine robot systems.

Skills

Programming Lanuages & Operating Systems

  • AutoCAD, Inventor, C, C++, Java, JavaScript, HTML, MATLAB, Octave, Perl, PHP, Processing, R, Ruby, (My|Postgre)SQL
  • Linux, BSD, Windows 95/NT/2000, OS X

Fabrication

  • Machine tool operation, woodworking, electronic assembly and testing, fiber-matrix composite fabrication.

Activities & Interests

  • MIT Generator, MIT Energy Club
  • Building a better world through green design, information visualization, and engineering for sustainability.
  • Riding and working on my bicycles; taking pictures; and learning.
  • Technology as a tool for knowing our world more completely.