College

I started college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in September 1986. I majored in Computer Science and Mathematics. I lived on campus in the dormitories until my senior year when I lived with 2 other roommates, John Roh, and Michael Chun Pong Lam, in downtown Troy NY. There was one time, at that apartment, that I had to call 9-11 because someone was overdosing on drugs right outside our door.

I met a lot of interesting people here and generally had a good time. Everybody complained about the cafeteria food, but I loved it. I practiced a lot of martial arts during my college days in spite of having a 21 credit course load every semester and working 12 hours a week at the GE Research & Development Center in Niskayuna as an intern developing finite element models. My mentor there was a wonderful mathematician named Moyyed Hussain.

I went to Karate class on Monday. Wednesday, Friday, and Aikido on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. I also helped a friend teach Hapkido to children once a week on Fridays. I went to karate tournaments occasionally.

Summers were spent either as a research assistant (RA) or Intern at GE R&D. It was during my first summer working as an RA that I met a great Friend, Rich Mohrmann, who introduced me to a lot of social activities outside of studying. He also joined the Karate club. I remember being so busy most of the time that I had to plan out every minute of every week on a sheet of paper that I carried around with me in my back pocket. I had trouble staying awake after eating lunch in the cafeteria. There was one class, complex variables, that was right after lunch in which I always fell asleep. I often sat in the front row, hoping that might help me stay awake. When it came time for the big exam, I remember the instructor saying to me as he handed me the exam "I bet you won't fall asleep today".

I have a lot of funny stories about my roommate John Roh. He was always doing strange things. I should make a web page just for him. He would sleep through all his classes all day and study all night. If he remembered to get up for a test he would ace it and ruin the curve for everyone else. He is one of the most brilliant people I've ever met, yet somewhat short on common sense IMO. He had a pile of parking tickets in the back of his car which he never paid. The campus police actually used to follow him around. He skipped gym class all semester one time and then tried to make up all the classes for the semester in 2 days. We used to practice ninja training at night. Sometimes he would attack me at random moments to check my martial arts skills. He once hid in my closet and attacked me with an axe when I opened it. He was one of my best friends during college. He went on to become CTO of Hostway, a web hosting company in Chicago, that he co-founded, and also became a professional poker player.

In May 1990, I graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a BS in Computer Science. I had a double major in math and computer science, but somehow I was a few credits shy of getting 2 degrees (I found out about this requirement at the last second). Fortunately, I was later able to transfer a few credits from graduate school and get the bachelors degree in math from RPI as well.