McKesson

Senior Software Developer

• Team lead for Patient Cost Estimator, CPT and ICD-9/10 Code Finder, and Medical Necessity applications and services
• Designed and developed software enhancements and new features for the Incident Reporting System using ASP.NET and C#
• Modified existing software to correct errors and improve the performance of the Incident Reporting System
• Researched product development options and provided analysis for product direction
• Communicated with customer to identify needs, prioritize requests, and provide status updates

Stetson University

Adjunct Faculty

• Taught undergraduate course “Introduction to Computing” in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science
• Lectured on fundamental programming concepts such as variables, arrays, conditionals, loops, functions, and objects
• Prepared class notes, homework assignments, programming assignments, and exams related to the topics discussed in the course text
• Graded assignments and exams, and provided feedback using the Blackboard learning management system

Stetson University

Visiting Assistant Professor

• Teach undergraduate and graduate courses in Management Information Systems, Applied Business Programming, Data and Information Technology, and Business Analytics in the department of Business Systems and Analytics

Lockheed Martin

Senior Software Engineer

• Performed requirements analysis, preliminary and detailed design, and code and unit testing on features of the UKMATS Common Server, a server application written in Java responsible for the storing and retrieving of data pertaining to the testing of Merlin components from a PostgreSQL database. Created service modules for the front-end graphical user interface using C#
• Developed new features for the SAGE image generator software including mission functions and multiple channel support using C++
• Developed Web portal for viewing archived webcasts produced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development using Microsoft Silverlight and C#
• Designed and Implemented component software for various convoy training simulators using Ada

Consultant

Consultant

Consulting services include desktop and web-based application development using the .NET framework (C# and VB.NET), database design and development (SQL Server, MySQL, Access), and data analysis (Python, R, VBA).

Prior consulting experience includes enhancements of the Patient Cost Estimator and Incident Reporting projects which I previously lead at McKesson Corporation. Both applications were implemented using C# and ASP.NET. Incident Reporting was developed using Web Forms and utilized a SQL Server database to store user and incident reporting data. The Patient Cost Estimator was an MVC application which also utilized a SQL Server database to store user and patient data. In addition, RESTful web services were developed and consumed by the application to search CPT and diagnostic codes.

A Coordinated Reinforcement Learning Framework for Multi-Agent Virtual Environments

ProQuest

A Coordinated Reinforcement Learning Framework for Multi-Agent Virtual Environments

ProQuest

The Development of a Virtual Reality Business Simulation for E-Learning

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Since the turn of the century, there has been increased interest to apply virtual reality technology, used extensively in the field of gaming, to e-learning. Minecraft, a popular gaming platform among students, provides all of the elements needed to develop a virtual reality e-learning business simulation including non-player characters (NPCs), in-game scripting via command blocks, mechanisms to trigger these commands, and a scoreboard feature. This research in progress presents the stages of development required to build a virtual reality e-learning business simulation using Minecraft, and demonstrates the advantages of using Minecraft over other popular virtual reality applications for constructing three-dimensional virtual environments for e-learning.

A Coordinated Reinforcement Learning Framework for Multi-Agent Virtual Environments

ProQuest

The Development of a Virtual Reality Business Simulation for E-Learning

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Since the turn of the century, there has been increased interest to apply virtual reality technology, used extensively in the field of gaming, to e-learning. Minecraft, a popular gaming platform among students, provides all of the elements needed to develop a virtual reality e-learning business simulation including non-player characters (NPCs), in-game scripting via command blocks, mechanisms to trigger these commands, and a scoreboard feature. This research in progress presents the stages of development required to build a virtual reality e-learning business simulation using Minecraft, and demonstrates the advantages of using Minecraft over other popular virtual reality applications for constructing three-dimensional virtual environments for e-learning.

Applying Virtual Reality to Business Simulations for E-Learning

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Games and simulations have been a used to facilitate the student learning experience in the classroom for several decades. Business simulations date back to the 1950s, and since the late 1990s, computer-based behavioral simulations featuring the use of decision trees have become a standard form of e-learning. Recent studies have applied virtual reality to e-learning simulations in the areas of computer science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and social science. This research in progress presents a virtual reality decision tree simulation that will aid business students in the learning of management information systems just as similar systems have done for other fields of study in the past.

A Coordinated Reinforcement Learning Framework for Multi-Agent Virtual Environments

ProQuest

The Development of a Virtual Reality Business Simulation for E-Learning

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Since the turn of the century, there has been increased interest to apply virtual reality technology, used extensively in the field of gaming, to e-learning. Minecraft, a popular gaming platform among students, provides all of the elements needed to develop a virtual reality e-learning business simulation including non-player characters (NPCs), in-game scripting via command blocks, mechanisms to trigger these commands, and a scoreboard feature. This research in progress presents the stages of development required to build a virtual reality e-learning business simulation using Minecraft, and demonstrates the advantages of using Minecraft over other popular virtual reality applications for constructing three-dimensional virtual environments for e-learning.

Applying Virtual Reality to Business Simulations for E-Learning

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Games and simulations have been a used to facilitate the student learning experience in the classroom for several decades. Business simulations date back to the 1950s, and since the late 1990s, computer-based behavioral simulations featuring the use of decision trees have become a standard form of e-learning. Recent studies have applied virtual reality to e-learning simulations in the areas of computer science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and social science. This research in progress presents a virtual reality decision tree simulation that will aid business students in the learning of management information systems just as similar systems have done for other fields of study in the past.

Coordinated Reinforcement Learning Agents in a Multi-Agent Virtual Environment

Proceedings of the IEEE 12th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2013)

This research presents a framework for coordinating multiple intelligent agents within a single virtual environment. Coordination is accomplished via a "next available agent" scheme while learning is achieved through the use of the Q-learning and Sarsa temporal difference reinforcement learning algorithms. To assess the effectiveness of each learning algorithm, experiments were conducted that measured an agent's ability to learn tasks in a static and dynamic environment while using both a fixed (FEP) and variable (VEP) ϵ-greedy probability rate. Results show that Sarsa, on average, outperformed Q-learning in almost all experiments. Overall, VEP resulted in higher percentages of successes and optimal successes than FEP, and showed convergence to the optimal policy when measuring the average number of time steps per episode.

A Coordinated Reinforcement Learning Framework for Multi-Agent Virtual Environments

ProQuest

The Development of a Virtual Reality Business Simulation for E-Learning

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Since the turn of the century, there has been increased interest to apply virtual reality technology, used extensively in the field of gaming, to e-learning. Minecraft, a popular gaming platform among students, provides all of the elements needed to develop a virtual reality e-learning business simulation including non-player characters (NPCs), in-game scripting via command blocks, mechanisms to trigger these commands, and a scoreboard feature. This research in progress presents the stages of development required to build a virtual reality e-learning business simulation using Minecraft, and demonstrates the advantages of using Minecraft over other popular virtual reality applications for constructing three-dimensional virtual environments for e-learning.

Applying Virtual Reality to Business Simulations for E-Learning

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Games and simulations have been a used to facilitate the student learning experience in the classroom for several decades. Business simulations date back to the 1950s, and since the late 1990s, computer-based behavioral simulations featuring the use of decision trees have become a standard form of e-learning. Recent studies have applied virtual reality to e-learning simulations in the areas of computer science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and social science. This research in progress presents a virtual reality decision tree simulation that will aid business students in the learning of management information systems just as similar systems have done for other fields of study in the past.

Coordinated Reinforcement Learning Agents in a Multi-Agent Virtual Environment

Proceedings of the IEEE 12th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2013)

This research presents a framework for coordinating multiple intelligent agents within a single virtual environment. Coordination is accomplished via a "next available agent" scheme while learning is achieved through the use of the Q-learning and Sarsa temporal difference reinforcement learning algorithms. To assess the effectiveness of each learning algorithm, experiments were conducted that measured an agent's ability to learn tasks in a static and dynamic environment while using both a fixed (FEP) and variable (VEP) ϵ-greedy probability rate. Results show that Sarsa, on average, outperformed Q-learning in almost all experiments. Overall, VEP resulted in higher percentages of successes and optimal successes than FEP, and showed convergence to the optimal policy when measuring the average number of time steps per episode.

Learning Data Visualization through Virtual Reality

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Business analytics has become an essential area of study for students looking to gain an understanding of the statistical techniques and specialized tools used to assist businesses in their decision-making process. As datasets become increasingly large and complex, traditional visualization techniques such as scatter, bar, and line charts often result in cluttered visualizations. Current three-dimensional visualizations solutions that overcome the spatial challenges presented by two-dimensional charts have led to the problems of data obscurity and user disorientation. Consequently, virtual reality technology has recently been considered as a potential alternative for visualizing large datasets. This research presents an R package for visualizing Excel data in virtual reality that transcends the limitations of current three-dimensional visualization offerings.

A Coordinated Reinforcement Learning Framework for Multi-Agent Virtual Environments

ProQuest

The Development of a Virtual Reality Business Simulation for E-Learning

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Since the turn of the century, there has been increased interest to apply virtual reality technology, used extensively in the field of gaming, to e-learning. Minecraft, a popular gaming platform among students, provides all of the elements needed to develop a virtual reality e-learning business simulation including non-player characters (NPCs), in-game scripting via command blocks, mechanisms to trigger these commands, and a scoreboard feature. This research in progress presents the stages of development required to build a virtual reality e-learning business simulation using Minecraft, and demonstrates the advantages of using Minecraft over other popular virtual reality applications for constructing three-dimensional virtual environments for e-learning.

Applying Virtual Reality to Business Simulations for E-Learning

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Games and simulations have been a used to facilitate the student learning experience in the classroom for several decades. Business simulations date back to the 1950s, and since the late 1990s, computer-based behavioral simulations featuring the use of decision trees have become a standard form of e-learning. Recent studies have applied virtual reality to e-learning simulations in the areas of computer science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and social science. This research in progress presents a virtual reality decision tree simulation that will aid business students in the learning of management information systems just as similar systems have done for other fields of study in the past.

Coordinated Reinforcement Learning Agents in a Multi-Agent Virtual Environment

Proceedings of the IEEE 12th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2013)

This research presents a framework for coordinating multiple intelligent agents within a single virtual environment. Coordination is accomplished via a "next available agent" scheme while learning is achieved through the use of the Q-learning and Sarsa temporal difference reinforcement learning algorithms. To assess the effectiveness of each learning algorithm, experiments were conducted that measured an agent's ability to learn tasks in a static and dynamic environment while using both a fixed (FEP) and variable (VEP) ϵ-greedy probability rate. Results show that Sarsa, on average, outperformed Q-learning in almost all experiments. Overall, VEP resulted in higher percentages of successes and optimal successes than FEP, and showed convergence to the optimal policy when measuring the average number of time steps per episode.

Learning Data Visualization through Virtual Reality

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Business analytics has become an essential area of study for students looking to gain an understanding of the statistical techniques and specialized tools used to assist businesses in their decision-making process. As datasets become increasingly large and complex, traditional visualization techniques such as scatter, bar, and line charts often result in cluttered visualizations. Current three-dimensional visualizations solutions that overcome the spatial challenges presented by two-dimensional charts have led to the problems of data obscurity and user disorientation. Consequently, virtual reality technology has recently been considered as a potential alternative for visualizing large datasets. This research presents an R package for visualizing Excel data in virtual reality that transcends the limitations of current three-dimensional visualization offerings.

Teaching Information Technology Alongside Business Analytics: Case Study

Journal of Education for Business

Business analytics can be described as the statistical analysis of data to make decisions and meaningful conclusions. As the demand to advance the curriculum of undergraduate business education increases, courses in business analytics aim to provide students with fundamental skills in critical thinking. Educators have found that spreadsheet applications that include statistical features are easy to use and facilitate student learning. The authors analyzed student performance in an introductory business analytics course that used Microsoft Excel as a statistical tool by comparing scores from this introductory course with those from an information technology course in which only Excel skills were learned.