About Me

I spend entirely too much time working on computer related projects and could use an intervention, possibly involving a lobotomy. I suspect I am ADD patient zero. Asimov's Robot stories led me to a life-long interest and PhD in artificial intelligence from Northwestern University. I have worked for Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, Citrix Labs, and Ernst & Young in numerous areas: telecommunications, distributed processing, databases, data science and machine learning to name a few. I am an expert in C, C++, C#, and Java coding. I am proficient in Python, SQL, and a number of other languages. I taught upperclass and graduate computer science topics at Illinois State University for six years, including operating systems, distributed processing, graphics, and gaming. I also taught at DigiPen Technical Institute for a year, topics including software engineering and artificial intelligence. I also do android apps for games and open science projects. I have collaborated on a robot of a wormlike creature that is on display currently at Ars Electronica in Linz Austria. See https://github.com/portegys and tom.portegys.com/programs.html for code projects. See tom.portegys.com/research.html for a list of my publications in AI and other fields. My most recent project is an AI simulation of honey bee nectar gathering, which includes a fascinating dance they do to tell other bees where the nectar is outside the hive. I enjoy the teaching part of tutoring quite a bit. Grading homework not so much! Last summer my granddaughter and I built a horse racing game with Godot, for example. My approach is to build things as the best way to learn. Computers give you that opportunity!

Education & Certifications

Tutoring Subjects