About Me

High school graduation (June, 2008)

My family in September, 2009

I was born in Miami, FL, but shortly after moved to Indiana, PA, where I spent my childhood. I began my schooling at Eisenhower Elementary School where I picked up an interest in chess; in fact, my chess career started at the small in-school chess club at Eisenhower. After playing in the local Eisenhower tournaments, I wanted to go further. Read more about my chess career here.

I stayed at Eisenhower until just over halfway through third grade, when my family moved to Murrysville PA. I finished up third grade at Sloan Elementary School, one of the elementary schools for the Franklin Regional School District, and moved straight to fifth grade. After finishing my elementary education, I moved to the district middle school where I was given more opportunities in mathematics; I participated in the nationally recognized MATHCOUNTS program, local scholastic competitions such as Equations and Calcusolve, and a variety of other competitions.

During my middle school, I stopped playing competitive chess, but started participating in a variety of new activities, such as playing competitive table tennis, participating in the regional PJAS and PRSEF science competitions, and even performing in dances and skits at our Temple. Along with school, these extra-curriculars kept me busy, and before I knew it I was a high schooler.

At the Franklin Regional Senior High school, I continued working on science projects, competed in many math tournaments, developed an interest for computer science, even represented my school in tennis for 3 years. I learned a lot about the kind of work that I liked, and after a tough four years I found myself in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon.

College has taught me a lot. From the technical side, I learned so much about math that I didn't even know that I didn't know, have picked up countless new skills in programming and computer science, and have been exposed to areas such as signal processing and computer engineering which I wouldn't have even been able to describe before. Perhaps more importantly, I also learned about time management, responsibility, and teamwork. Joining Kappa Delta Rho during the Fall of my freshman year showed me how much can be accomplished with a little teamwork, and juggling my school work, professional work, and social life has taught me a lot which I would never find in a textbook. And the rest... well I'll save that for another day.