A Brief run down on my life to date Currently I'm 31 years old and I've been living in Australia on and off now for 7 years. I'm currently living in Sydney with my partner of 7 years. After all the traveling and zipping around we have done together it must be love as we haven't killed each other yet. Where I'm from I come from Dublin City in Ireland where I lived from 1973 until 1995. During that time I grew up, went to school and graduated from my undergraduate degree. I went to St. Patrick's (BNS) in Drumcondra until I was eleven. I then studied in St. Aidans (CBS) secondary school until I was eighteen. As a child I managed to travel around Europe to Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Spain, France and the UK with my family, the scouts, and school. Although I didn't appreciate it at the time I now know that living in Europe is hard to beat for the great cultural diversity and historical interest within such a small area. (Come to Australia if you want to truly experience distance). Between secondary school and University myself and my father took a trip around Europe to see the UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and France. This taught me several things about travel, don't take bus trips with North Americans who only get 10 days holidays per year don't go anywhere with flashy south Africans who own expensive jewelry don't take organized bus trips thinking it will be a holiday after ten days country jumping, it's hard to tell where you are and if you want experience the world (not just see it) then looking at it from behind glass, hurtling down an Auto-bahn at 200km an hour isn't the right approach. 1991-1995: Undergraduate Years In 1991 I entered Trinity College Dublin to study for an honours degree in Computer Science. During my summers in University I worked in Dublin, Munich and Los Angeles. I graduated from Trinity with a first class honours degree in July of 1995. After University I did a little traveling around Ireland and the UK, where I went hiking along the West Highland way in Scotland. (I highly recommend this route, just not in the record summer heat as we did). 1995-1997: The Japan Years In July of 1995 I went to Japan to teach English (JET) for two years in Hizen-Cho, Saga. This was an incredible experience and I would recommend it to anyone interested in living in an eastern culture for a while. I took the opportunity while in Japan to see that country, along with visiting several places in Asia. In Japan I got to visit local festivals, Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka, Karatsu Kunchi, lots of Kyushu, Hokkaido (for the Yuki Matsuri), Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. While living in Japan I was able to visit Thailand, Cambodia, Taiwan, Hong Kong (for change-over in '97), and South Korea. 1997: Beijing to Bali Time (II) After working in Japan, I took a three month trip across south east asia through, China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou), Hong Kong, Northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The end of my travels took me to Bali in Indonesia, from where I flew to Sydney Australia, to begin my life as a PhD student. 1997-1998: The Australia Years (part 1) In October of 1997 I arrived in Newcastle Australia to begin work on my PhD in Information Visualization (Computer Science). I taught a mini-course on the theory of computation in late 1997 which led me into teaching an Introductory course on computer programming in early 1998 while tutoring a third year database course. 1998-1999: The Austin, Texas Time In July of 1998 I arrived in Austin, Texas to work as a research intern. The reason for this move was that from June of 1998 until June of 1999 my PhD supervisor was on sabbatical in Ireland. So from June of 98 until Feb of 99 I was a research intern in a software company in Austin Texas. 1999: Austin to Sydney Time (II) After completing my research internship I managed to do a little travel, on my way back to Australia. This took me to Dallas, New Orleans (for Mardi Gras), New York, Boston, Limerick, Dublin, London, Israel, Jordan, and Italy. 1999-2001: The Australia Years (part 2) In May of 1999, after spending a research visit in Ireland, I returned to an Associate Lecturers position in the University of Newcastle in Australia. I worked in Newcastle University until August of 2001. During this time I did lots of research (I completed my PhD), lots of teaching, new course development, project supervision, postgraduate research supervision, undergrad research supervision, work experience supervision, and international student mentoring. Amazingly I actually managed to finish my PhD within four years of starting it (or 3 years and 2 months if you discount the period as an intern). I credit my supervisor with this feat, he has a limited amount of time and a high degree of motivation to ensure his students don't spend too long on a PhD. By keeping subtle, yet applied pressure on me he managed to get me to finish, even while I was holding down a full time job as an Associate Lecturer. Of course, the support I got from my students, tutors, head of department, dean of engineering, and the department I worked for also went a long way to ensuring my successful completion! Likewise the invitation to work at MERL also acted as a large incentive to finish, submit and move on with my life and research career. 2001-2002: The Boston Time In September of 2001 I moved to Boston, MA where I worked at MERL as a Visiting Research Scientist. This was a great experience, working in a world class research lab with lots of incredible research projects and really smart people. I know MERL has a summer internship program, which I would recommend for postgrads looking for 3-4 months work experience. The only down side to living in Boston at that time was my arrival coincided with the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11th. I wasn't directly affected but I could see the effects of what happened on my friends, co-workers, and the country in general. It wasn't a pretty experience and media in the US are scum (trying to keep everyone on edge for months). 2002: The Round the World Time (II) I worked in MERL until the 15th of March 2002, after which I began a mini-odyssey back to Australia. Myself and my partner traveled from Boston to Washington DC, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Mexico, then onto Miami and Orlando. This took us about 45 days of often rough travel. The Mayan culture in Guatemala and Honduras is incredible. Guatemala has some of the best scenery near Panahachel and Tikal. The coastline of Belize and Mexico is picture post-card perfect. Washington DC is hole, unless you are staying in a nice place. Miami is a fun town and Orlando is good place to chill out after backpacking. From Miami we flew to Chile where we went up the coast then down to the lake district area near Pucon. Chilean people are truly friendly and kind (much like all people in the Southern Hemisphere!). From Pucon we traveled into Argentina where we visited the Lake district, then the Glaciers at El Calafate, then onto Ushiua in the very south before flying through Buenos Aires to Salta in the very north. From here we started our assent into Bolvia by first passing though Chile and the valley of the moon. To get into Bolivia we took a four day 4 wheel drive tour across salt plains and other unique scenery. In Bolvia we stayed near Lake Titikaka before heading across the border to Peru to visit Cusco (highly *under* rated town) and then onto Macchu Pichu (amazing, as you would expect!). From here we left the high lands and fly across Peru before making our way back into Chile and onto Santiago. From Santiago we traveled to Buenos Aires again before visiting the Waterfalls in the North. We spent a few days in Rio before heading to Europe. This took us to 99 days into our trip. Once in Europe we did a host of things which included my masters graduation (Ireland), conference on program comprehension (Paris one week), sightseeing by car in Northern and western France (2 weeks), then onto German for a research visit to Cottbus and then a conference in Dagsthul (1 week). The trip ended with a 3 week trip around Italy visiting Rome, Naples, Sienna, Florence, and Venice! At this point we were 150 days into our trip, so it was time to head home to Australia and get a job. 2002-: The Australia Years (part 3) Since that trip didn't kill me, I started a new job as a Senior Research Fellow in Sydney University. I would like to expand my research profile, attract good students, conduct world class research, build industry collaborations, for my eventual return to a full time academic role in 2005. Of course a lot of things can happen in three years, so only time will tell. Since starting this job (almost 2 years ago), I've put together a number of successful research grants (>800k PA) (I now have a research staff of 4 working with me), completed a smart meeting room and pervasive computing lab, established a good collaboration with Telstra Research Labs, an ongoing collaboration with the National ICT Australia, supervision of 2 PhDs, associate supervision of 2 Phds, completion of 5 honours and 2 MIT theses and 3 undergrad projects. In life I've done some more travel, New Zealand, USA, Europe, Nepal, Japan, Cook Islands along with buying an apartment and moving around Sydney. I've also started to learn to sail but this is an ongoing learning experience. I've turned my hand to painting but aside from strict geometric forms, it's pretty basic stuff. All in all, a busy time!!

What does it all mean ? The basic answer to almost any question I am asked about life, love, travel etc.. is "Well, because life is a gift, so why not enjoy it ?". If you just think about it, you only have one life in which to make a difference and enjoy yourself in the process. To me, this means finding a balance between a rewarding career path and a rewarding life. These are difficult things to balance, and I don't always get it right but I do try and aim for a balance in all things. I figure I have one life to live so I better get off my ass and do the things I want to do before I'm too old/settled or just plain lazy to do them. Future/Ongoing Plans I really need to keep this bit up to date as I've completed quite a few things on the old list recently. Travel around the world: This is an ongoing plan. I've have traveled through about 45 countries in the world. Given there are well over 170 countries, I still have a lot to see and learn. Buy a boat: Well firstly I'll have to learn how to sail, after enough practice and if I still like it I'd like to live on the ocean for a while...

Last updated: July, 2004