"My name is Ian and I recently completed my PhD in Computer Science. Dedicated to teaching and research but disillusioned with traditional academia, I am excited to work with students of all ages who are looking to learn and grow.

I studied data science and statistics as an undergraduate because I believed proficiency in these areas supports understanding in so many other domains. As a researcher, I've used my computational skills to study animal foraging behavior, microbial oceanography, and inequalities in social systems. I've also done research on some of my favorite computer science topics including information theory, network science, and bayesian inference. My background and interests are quite broad (I've long maintained an active inquiry into physics and philosophy!) and I am happy to work with students on a diversity of subjects and projects.

My undergraduate education was unique in that we explicitly studied the "science of learning", took many interdisciplinary courses, and designed and taught some of the courses ourselves. Helping other students learn and watching them realize how powerful they were as individual and collaborative thinkers was extremely rewarding. In graduate school, I was fortunate to help teach a course on the philosophy of statistics for 3 years. I loved working closely with students on both technical and more conceptual topics. I've also supported more advanced researchers in their professional projects. Through this I have discovered that so many difficulties in understanding are less about the content and more about the context: a comfortable, confident mindset is so important! Regardless of the subject matter or level, it is a joy to help students nurture this honest desire to learn.

I look forward to supporting students in their varied intellectual inquiries, whether they have well-scoped, Python related questions or broad questions about what uncertainty is and how to measure it." less...