I’ve spent nearly 20 years immersed in digital marketing, but my journey didn’t start there. Long before SEO and PPC dominated conversations, I was coding neural networks.

More than two decades ago I built a character recognition system as my AI engineering thesis. The old C++ application I sweated over, teaching computers to squint at messy characters and get the difference between an H and a K, still boots up, and still guesses right!

It’s a reminder of where it all began: finding practical solutions for complex problems.

Over the years, I’ve used that same mindset to tackle challenges across industries. My “Purrfect AI” algorithm, for instance, doesn’t just plot paths - it adapts to chaos.

Obstacles, moving targets, and shifting terrain don’t throw it off-course. It’s been embedded into commercial systems and proved time and time again that a fast algorithm gets noticed.

Speed mattered, but real-time recalibration? That’s what made devs run my code in their projects while muttering compliments, which, trust me, isn’t always standard in software circles.

Then there’s the driving simulator I designed for Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center - a blend of AI pedestrians, AI-driven vehicles, and nuanced scenarios.

I spec’d out traffic models, tweaked vehicle aggression (some days too realistically), and built a world that could stress-test cognition. It helped researchers study how alcohol and dementia affect driving performance.

That project didn’t just catch academic interest; it hit television screens and landed a feature in The New York Times. My mom clipped the piece.

Later, General Motors wanted to prevent staff culture from curdling. So, I coded the “Explore Plant Culture” simulation for them, shipping it with a complex AI-driven conflict system.

Relationships, work roles gone sideways, real-world mess reflected in code. Nothing staged, no rigid scripts: participants watched digital avatars argue, team up, adapt as things changed, and learned how even tiny shifts in behavior detonated teamwork or set the plant humming.

I’m not pretending it fixed everything at GM, but watching white-collar types take on the role of a tiny foreman? That sticks with you.