Well, I am a software engineer in California. I started programming on Commodore 64 using the language BASIC when I was 12. Coding has become an addiction for me since then. During the pre-Google period I designed “my own” algorithms some of which turned out to be credited to some computer scientists years ago. Gauss series (at age 9), bubble sort (I know, funny!), binary search (after wasting a lot time with linear search) and something very close to RSA are some of them.
Continued my journey with Microsoft development tools until 2004. With a radical decision, I switched to Linux platform after coming across the Linux distribution Pardus. Improved my skills in C/C++ on this promising platform. Chose Qt framework for cross-platform GUI development. This was some sort of freedom for my solutions.
I noticed “the Internet of things” and aligned my skills to web applications using Python and JavaScript.
I saw that coding has become something more than a hobby for me. However, something was missing to complete the big picture. Studying software engineering was the silver bullet together with my experience. I got the systematic view for software architecture & engineering and many other useful skills. Well, I am a man of practice. The more I learn the more I want to apply what I learn. Finally, I added my last project to my works: The TALOS Computation Server (Back-end: Python, Front-end: JavaScript with jQuery & Raphael). I value all my projects but this last one was accomplished while studying to get two master’s degrees in the middle of abundant uncertainties. It helped me build confidence for designing and implementing highly scalable frameworks similar to Tornado on which Facebook relies on. There is no need to reinvent the wheel but when it comes to inventing something better than that I am ready.
My second major operations research gave me tons of analytic skills to approach optimization, simulation, data mining related problems. Among those, data mining has become very popular recently. I got lectures from phenomenal instructors from both statistical background and CS background. Spent a lot of nights fitting a model and validating it. All of these fields are demanding computational skills which motivated me to become better and better.
Recently, found some time to test my skills on codechef.com (my favorite coding contest) after graduation. Result: #34 in USA. I am solving all of the questions asked. However, optimization still takes a little time (main difference between the champion and me).
Now I have decided to write things so that I can contribute to the community knowledge and use this web site to track where I was as the years pass.
Every new day is a challenge and a chance to learn new things and create useful solutions.
Cheers…
Selcuk