Long Biography

I was born in Miami Fla. on July 4th. My parents thought Miami was too scary a place to raise a family so we moved to Naples when I was 16. I graduated from Barron Collier High School then went to Georgia Tech for a B.S. in Computer Science.

After college I moved to Livermore, CA, to work at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. While at LLNL I also earned a master's degree in CS at UC Davis. At LLNL I was a programmer on several interesting projects, including a fusion reactor and a few black projects. After four years at LLNL I decided to join the Air Force in the hopes of becoming a fighter pilot.

I attended Undergraduate Pilot Training in Columbus, MS. That was one of the most challenging and satisfying years of my life. I was a distinguished graduate, and the top instrument pilot in my class. After UPT, I went through Fighter Lead-In training in Alamogordo, NM, and F-15 training in Phoenix, AZ. After all that training (about 3 years) I was stationed at Dobbins ARB in Atlanta, GA. I joined the Georgia Air National Guard.

While in the Air Guard I began graduate studies at Georgia Tech. Ron Arkin was my adivsor. My work focused on learning in mobile robot teams. During my Ph.D. years I spent a summer at JPL working with Larry Matthies. I finished my Ph.D. in 1998.

During my studies at Georgia Tech, I met my wife, Maria. She and I have three children: two boys and a beautiful girl (below).

We moved to Pittsburgh where I was a postdoc with Manuela Veloso in the Computer Science Department. Then I was a Research Scientist at the Robotics Institute for two years. Eventually, in 2001, I made my way back to Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in the College of Computing.