About Me

I'm a USAF veteran and a Systems Engineer with expertise in Mission Engineering, MBSE, and Architecture. When I am not working on my day job or not in school, I enjoy spending time with my little family. I am a very active community member, preserve Earth activist and founder of "Preserved COS" and "Falcon Home & Backyard Gardening". I volunteer in the community to raise awareness of proper recycling, water conservation, and re-purposing to reduce the impact on Earth and lower the production demands. My local garden club with almost 400 members continues to grow with the purpose to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening via information and resource sharing. Our main goal is to share tips and tricks to have many successful sustainable gardens in our local community along with conservation. I also lead and participate in many volunteer programs throughout the year (Rebuilding together, Habitat for Humanity, Rebuilding trail with RMFI, clean up parks and trails and many local community volunteer events). My latest effort giving back to my community is an online book shop called "Falcon POST" - any and all profit is donated back to community. I am a huge dog lover and have three big guys we absolutely adore.

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Meet My Mentors and Peers

Dr. Rory Lewis -Dr. Lewis is my academic advisor and the best mentor I could ever ask for. He has extensive expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. He has done several groundbreaking research projects and even addressed Deputy Chief of Staffs, generals and high-level DoD officials on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Artificial Consciousness. Dr. Lewis conducts his Machine Learning research at both the University of Colorado's Colorado Springs campus and the neuroICU ward at Anschutz Medical School campus. He also works at Warsaw University and the Pentagon where he is a Senior Research Fellow in machine learning systems for Intelligence Surveillance & Reconnaissance. Dr. Lewis is also a Senior Research Scientist for machine learning and artificial intelligence at the RAND Corporation. Website: https://www.uccs.edu/rorylewis/

Dr. Kristen Walcott - I met Dr. Walcott in Spring 19 semester and we immediately connected. She and I share many common interests inside and outside the academic arena. Dr. Walcott got me interested in embedded system testing and presently we are conducting research on smartphones push delay in wearable devices. We were also fortunate to present our research in 2019 Mountain Lion Research Day and competed for Top Scholar. We didn't win, but it was one of Dean's favorite presentation. Dr. Walcott's interests lie in software testing and computer architecture with an emphasis on software testing and debugging in resource-constrained environments such as mobile devices and embedded systems.

Dr. Sang-Yoon Chang - Dr. Chang is a great mentor who is always there to help so that we can reach our academic goals. He is allowing me to participate in his weekly lab seminar so that I can gain knowledge in other areas in Computer Science and Security. His research is in the area of security of networked systems with a focus on wireless and mobile systems. He also has an interest in bridging theoretical insights and systems implementation to design practical security solutions. Lastly, his CS 5920 (Applied Cryptography) class is simply "THE BEST".

Mark Vaszary - Mark and I got accepted to the program together and we became teammates and friends immediately. Mark's research area focuses on radio frequency transmissions and security impacts on the privacy and confidentiality of those transmissions. He is conducting research on vehicle security with software-defined radio and has expanded research into satellite communications. In our first semester, we worked on a survey paper focused on the "Security Risk in Connected Vehicles and Threats via Connected Mobile Devices".

My other mentors, friends, and colleagues in this journey I must recognize are Dr. Encarnacion (Mathematics and Physics), Dr. Scully (Computer Science and T&E), and Dr. Hopper (Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering). From writing my recommendation letters at the beginning to every day peep talk thereafter, they encourage me every day to be a better person and to strive for more. I am forever thankful for your friendship and guidance.