I was born in Gdansk, Poland and shortly thereafter moved to New York. I grew up in Eastchester, just north of the city. I still have family in Poland and visit often.
I went to Iona Preparatory High School, where I was on the speech & debate and tennis teams. I graduated in 1998.
In the summer of 1997 I lived in Perros-Guirec, France as part of the Experiment in International Living. I studied French and traveled around Bretagne.
I then went to Yale University, where I lived in Branford College. I graduated in 2002 with a B.A. in Computer Science & Psychology and received a M.S. in Computer Science in 2003.
In the summer of 2001 I lived in Seattle while interning at Microsoft with the Encarta group. In the summer of 2002 I went on a fantastic 6-week road trip with my college buddies on a route that hit New York, New Orleans, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, back to New York, and everything in between.
Now I'm living in Pittsburgh and working on a Ph.D. in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
In the summer of 2004 I lived near Kyoto, Japan while working at ATR. I've been back in the summer of 2006 and winter of 2007 to work across the street at NICT.
Visit my dad's photography site and my sister's opera fan sites.
Phil, Fred, and I have been brewing beer since taking a class in Spring 2005. We call our enterprise Dirty Robot Brew Works. We've developed an optical sensor that counts airlock bubbles and informs us when fermentation is complete.
I took lessons with Yale Aviation, and I'm currently working toward a Private Pilot's license. The AOPA is a great resource if you are interested.
In Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Flying Club and the Pittsburgh Flight Training Center are two local flying groups.
I am training in Seido Karate with the Pittsburgh Seido Club.
I love skiing, and my favorite place is Vail, but usually 7 Springs will have to do!
When it's above freezing I like to go rock climbing at The Climbing Wall. I was a member of Yale Climbing when I was there.
I also occasionally play tennis, racquetball, and ping-pong...
I've been learning to play Go. I'm still very much a beginner, so the Kiseido Go server is a great place to practice online.
I also have a passing interest in Shodo (Japanese calligraphy).
I'm studying bagpipes with the Carnegie Mellon Pipes & Drums.
I grew up playing the trombone in school bands, and it is now being used in the service of playing Oompah music with a few other RoboGrads.
Here's my MySpace page.