About

I'm 55 years old and I started my PhD in mathematics education in January 2024. I'm at the University of Georgia working on AI applications in math education, but I got here via a long detour through corporate IT, game design, and a brain surgery that clarified some things.

Why I Do This Work

I spent decades building software systems and leading IT departments. I've seen the pattern before: technology that looks impressive in demos but doesn't actually help users. AI in education is following the same trajectory. Lots of hype, lots of venture funding, lots of claims that don't survive contact with real classrooms.

I build things first, then research them. Not the other way around. I want to know if tools actually work before publishing papers about them. This makes me slower than people who just prompt ChatGPT and write up the results, but it means my research is about real tools with real students, not thought experiments.

I care about whether AI genuinely enhances learning or just looks cool. I can tell the difference because I've built both kinds of software. The cool-looking kind gets funding. The actually-helpful kind requires understanding how people learn and what makes tools usable.

How I Got Here

I was ABD (all but dissertation) in math education back in the late 90s when life intervened. My family's insurance benefits business was collapsing after the IT director quit suddenly. I put my PhD on hold to save the company, which I did - built a modern IT department from scratch, worked 80-120 hour weeks initially, eventually got it stable.

Then I got comfortable. Stayed at the company while doing minimum work. Spent my time running online guilds in strategy games, designing worlds for D&D campaigns, building game prototypes. Started a keto food company with my partner. Lost 100 pounds. Had good years living in the country, building things that interested me, not worrying much about legacy.

In 2022 I sneezed in my sleep and my skull fractured. Spinal fluid leaked out my nose for days before I figured out it wasn't a sinus infection. Emergency surgery, then more surgery at Duke to repair the cracks. When I woke up from that second surgery, my brain was running at 100%. Maybe it hadn't been for years - I don't know. But it was clear then.

I had maybe 20-30 productive years left. I could spend them coasting, or I could do work that mattered. I'd been using AI successfully in my D&D campaigns. I understood AI, computing, and math education. My niche wasn't pure AI research - too many smart people already there. My niche was the intersection: someone who could build AI tools, understand mathematical learning, and critically evaluate whether the tools actually worked.

I applied to UGA's math education program. Got in. Started January 2024. I've been killing it. No self-sabotage this time around.

What Makes My Approach Different

I'm a builder who does research, not a researcher who occasionally builds things. When I work on ArguAgent or Build-A-Bot or the video transcription pipeline, I'm writing actual code, debugging actual problems, making actual architectural decisions. The research comes from asking: does this tool help students learn? How do I know? What would constitute evidence?

I have low tolerance for AI hype. I've seen this movie in corporate IT: impressive demos that collapse in production. When someone claims their AI revolutionizes education, I want to see the actual classroom data. When someone says AI can grade mathematical arguments, I want to know what happens when it's wrong.

I also have low tolerance for purely theoretical work that never touches real students. There's value in theory, but I'm interested in tools that work in messy classrooms with actual middle schoolers, not idealized learning environments.

Life Outside Research

I live in rural Madison County, Georgia on 10 acres of woods and gardens with my partner Gloria. We're 20 minutes from campus, which is far enough to have quiet but close enough that I can attend seminars and meetings when needed.

I used to run D&D games constantly - multiple games a week, elaborate custom worlds like Riven (a forested realm with AI-illustrated settings), regular salons on voice chat. I had to scale back when the PhD started demanding real time. I miss it. After the comprehensive exam defense and paper submissions, I need to get back to better work-life balance and start playing again.

I'm good at building communities, which turns out to be relevant for building educational tools. I ran war guilds in strategy games, organized online groups, created spaces where people wanted to spend time together. Same skills, different context.

My closest friend Ciel lives in Malaysia. We met online during COVID when I was running D&D games. He's 28 and wants to move to the US. I'm working on making that happen - probably marry him for the green card, navigate the immigration bureaucracy. These things take time but they're worth doing.