In January of 2021, I sat down at my kitchen table, pulled open a website called “Canvas”, and set to work on Discrete Mathematics. My previous 5 years in the commercial real estate industry had presented me with very few (ZERO) interactions with mathematical logic on this level, nor had they ever even included the word “Python”. My days in CRE (Commercial Real Estate: Where Anything can be an Acronym) were spent reading leases and contract agreements, figuring the impact of a renovation on the viability of a grocer tenant on a 10-year IRR, and searching the globe for the dreamer who would purchase a mall in the middle-of-nowhere Michigan worth 10% of its loan value. As dismal as those tasks may sound, I truly enjoyed my time in CRE despite knowing that I belonged somewhere else.
My interest in computer science was sparked during the early days of the pandemic. The CRE world slowed to a halt, and I was left with little to do but take long walks and shadow my roommate as he went about his days as an engineer in predictive analytics. His role centered on the management of data lakes and data processing as well as managing cloud-based analytics applications that provided continuous monitoring of wind farms and truck fleets, to name a few examples. And so, I enrolled in OSU’s post-cacc program and have been plugging away for over two years now. As each quarter has gone by, I’ve found myself with an increased skill set and affirmation that I am on the right path. Now, as Colorado educates me on its unique take on the concept of spring, I am able to see the checkered flag waving in the distance.
As for me, I’m Patrick Cook. I grew up outside Chicago, went to UW-Madison for my first degree (Go Badgers), and spent 5 years in the commercial real estate industry. Since starting the post-bacc program, I’ve ran operations and seller management for a utility company’s e-commerce site. I now live in Colorado where I fly fish, ski, and take a lot of photos. Here’s one:
Now, to talk about the Capstone class and the project and teamwork that it will contain. I am hoping to work on one of the following projects:
- Cloud-based Application for Fire Department 911 Risk Analysis
- Top-n Music Genre Classification Neural Netowrk
- Cloud-based Optimization of Algorithmic Stock Market Trading Strategies
In this class I hope to learn some new technologies and sharpen my overall backend skill set, produce a project that will make our team shine, and meet some good people along the way. I think these projects are the most interesting to me because of their alignment with my interests in backend and challenging nature.
As a team member, I often settle into the leadership role but tend to prefer wearing the creative contributor/communicator hat. I enjoy writing, speaking, and working through problems in group settings. I haven’t had any bad experiences so far with groups in the program, my partners and teammates have all been fantastic. I’m very hopeful this will be the case in this class!
If you’d like to partner up, shoot me an email at cookpat@oregonstate.edu
Signing off for now,
Patrick
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