Who Am I?

I was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1976, and twentysomething years later, I'm still here. I went to school at Cannington Primary School, followed by a special language entry to Rossmoyne Senior High School. At Rossmoyne, I studied Mandarin Chinese for 1 year, and German for 3 years. At the end of this three year period, I traveled to Timmendorfer Strand, a beach town in the north of Germany, to participate in a student exchange.

I completed my year 12 exams, achieved a TEE score of 443.8 (out of a possible 510), and gained entry to the Physics programme at Curtin University of Technology. I completed my bachelors degree in 1996, and changed departments to take my honours in Computer Science in 1997.

Upon finishing my honours, I started my PhD. My scholarship ran out in January 2001, so I took up a job lecturing Artificial and Machine Intelligence 251 (Link accessible to Curtin students only) during Semester 1 2001. I submitted my thesis in July 2001, and started as a Software Engineer at Calytrix Technologies, where I remain to this day.

My thesis was passed unconditionally by three markers, with two of these markers recommending a V.C. Commendation for my work. My doctorate was conferred on April 24, 2002, and I formally graduated on Feburary 10, 2003.

I have received the following academic recognitions:

6 time member of the Vice Chancellors List (a group consisting of the top 1% of students in the University). I am currently the adminstrator of this list.
Winner of the First, Second, and Third Year Dean's Prizes, awarded to the Dux of each academic year within the Faculty of Science.
Winner of the Australian Institute of Physics (WA Branch) Prize, awarded to the best graduate of a Physical Science course in WA.
Winner of the Curtin Jubilee Prize in Physics, an occasional award given to outstanding Physics students
Graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Physics) with Distinction in 1997, with a Semester Weighted Average of 89.1%
Graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) (Honours) in 1998. I received First Class honours, and was judged the best graduate of the honours course.
Received the Curtin University Silver Jubilee Scholarship to undertake my Ph.D. in Computer Science.

I have a nerdity quotient of 84.00%. I'm not telling you my purity score, but its lower than my nerdity score. My geek code block is:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GS/GCS d- s:+ a-- C++ UL++++/UI+/US+ P++ L+++
E- W++ N- o-- K !w O M- V-- PS+ PE Y+ PGP+
t++ 5+ X+ R(++) tv b+++ DI++ D+ G++ e++>++++
h- r++ y
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Online, I generally go by the handles freakboy (there is a story behind that one...), and prospero (E-prospero on fora where prospero is taken).