TA Spotlight: Joshua Fox
Each week we spotlight an OMSCS TA, so you can get to know who's behind the screen. Here are three questions for Joshua Fox who TAs CS 7637: Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence.
What do you do professionally?
I am a Section Manager for a United States government contractor in an overseas environment providing high-threat protective services to government officials. I organize, manage, and supervise a group of highly qualified security personnel, develop and implement multiple stages of the section plans, review and ensure compliance with the government contract, and coordinate with our client to ensure standards and expectations are being met.
Why do you TA for OMSCS?
The reason I TA is two-fold: First, I enjoy the ability to assist other students in progressing through the program and get the most out of the time they spend. Guiding students along a successful path is very rewarding and is a great aspect that I found Georgia Tech excels at as I have been progressing through the program myself. I feel the TAs for the classes are very helpful in ensuring the students are on the correct path, are made aware of their shortcomings, and given a solution to alter the issues to succeed from then on out. Secondly, my goal is to master the subjects I have studied, and one of the best ways to ensure you truly know and understand a subject is the ability to properly teach it. When I am assisting students or explaining an area of the subject, I have to know the intricate details to successfully convey the information. Over time, this becomes more and more prominent thus furthering the track to mastery.
What’s your preferred programming language and why?
I have become greatly intrigued with machine learning, and with that, I have a very strong relationship with Python. I do enjoy and use Java when building business-level software. While Java is my go to for most web and enterprise applications, Python is extremely easy to use with its simple syntax, and the available machine learning libraries make quick mock-ups painless. This may all change shortly as I become more versed with Java machine learning and continue to integrate them into my application development.