First Post

Hi, this is the first post for my blog for the class Futuring and Innovation (CS875-1803C-01) at Colorado Technical University.  I'm working towards getting a Doctor of Computer Science degree and I'm currently in the third quarter of my first year. I'm excited for the challenges that this course and this degree have to offer!

Throughout my career, I have tried to be in a state of constant improvement and learning. I believe that it is an essential part of being a computer scientist to always have the attitude of a student. With technology changing daily, it is imperative that computer scientists stay up to date with current innovations, so they can apply them in their work.

I started my career as a Russian linguist for the US Air Force. Once I realized that I truly did not want to do that job for a living, I transferred to be a communications specialist, which lead me to being a Systems Administrator at the headquarters for the Air Intelligence Agency. This job allowed me to find a rather small and select office to work in, that was working with offensive and defensive cyber weapons. In 2005 I completed my enlistment and was hired on as a contractor with Northrop Grumman to work in the same office. I worked my way up the ranks and was recruited by MITRE to be lead systems engineer for offensive cyber development operations. MITRE provides full education benefits for their employees. I have already received my bachelor’s in computer science and my master’s in information assurance and network defense. I signed up for my doctorate a week after I was hired by MITRE!

I'm very excited to complete this degree. A doctorate in computer science will allow me to move up within my company, and with my government sponsors. I was really excited to start Futuring and Innovation and I believe this will be one of my favorite classes in my degree. I would like to focus this blog on interesting information that I find that could be used to further my understanding of my research topic. I'm currently working with various DoD organizations to implement agile development methodologies into cyber weapon development. Most government regulations are built around a traditional waterfall development approach, and I am working to change that. The challenge is to find a way to incorporate stringent government oversight into a development method that was designed to remove unnecessary oversight, review, and documentation from the development process. So far it has been an uphill battle, but I am making progress. At this time, I've published two papers on this subject and I've developed a strategy that has been accepted for use on one of our programs. With luck, I can use the information I learn in this class to help with my work and use the lessons I'm learning at work to help guide some of the research I conduct for this class!

I'm also an avid tinkerer, and I will always jump on an opportunity to automate something! I have a house full of Raspberry Pi's that open my garage doors and turn on my lights! I fly drones whenever I can, and I make terrible Python code in rube goldberg-esque attempts to solve simple problems with Arduino boards! I'm excited at the possibility of finding some like-minded students that will geek out with me! Thanks for reading!

~ Ben