From a Nullpointer Exception..

Beginning

When I began my first software project in 2004, I encountered a Java NullPointerException while installing JBPM on my first non-personal laptop. As an electronics engineering graduate with limited software background, it took time and persistence to understand the error and fix it. I still remember the excitement of that moment — identifying the root cause, searching the web for answers, and successfully applying the solution. That journey from problem to resolution sparked a passion for software engineering that continues to drive me today. In the end, I not only installed JBPM but also helped create a functional workflow for a client — and discovered the thrill of solving real-world problems through code.

Graduate Academic Journey

After three years of hands-on experience as a software engineer, I pursued a Master’s degree at Clarkson University. Under the guidance of Dr. Daqing Hou , I published papers in top-tier conferences, which led to my admission into the doctoral program at The University of Alabama under Dr. Jeff Gray.

During my six years of graduate study, my primary focus was software engineering. I worked on several interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of software engineering, high-performance computing, machine learning, data mining, mathematics, and cloud computing—aimed at improving the design, development, and maintenance of complex software systems.

Journey from Big Data to AI

I restarted my software career after graduate school, right around the time Big Data was gaining momentum. Hadoop had just emerged, and the industry was becoming increasingly excited about applying machine learning to large-scale data. Over time, machine learning evolved into data science, and the rise of neural networks—both shallow and deep—ushered in the era of deep learning.

Today, data science is transforming once again under the broader umbrella of Artificial Intelligence (AI), driven by the explosive growth of Large Language Models (LLMs). I’ve been fortunate to witness and contribute to this evolution firsthand, growing from an engineer to a lead engineer, and eventually to a manager and senior manager overseeing teams that design, implement, and apply AI-driven solutions.

During this time, I worked with several multinational companies across the retail, healthcare, and employment domains, primarily collaborating with their search technology teams.