Rejoining academia

I am rejoining academia.

The last few years have been a whirlwind of life events.

I left my faculty position at University of Tennessee in early 2022 after 3.5 years. The stars had aligned for me to get that job, and I really enjoyed it, but I ultimately wasn't happy. It was probably some mixture of burn out, "the grass is always greener", and questioning my impact.

Then I left my dream job as a researcher at Microsoft in 2023. Again, I enjoyed it and was successful there. But the voice in the back of my head wouldn't go away, questioning the impact I was having.

Then the startup I joined as CTO was acquired months later. It was a blast. I learned more each day than any other job I've ever had. I stuck around for a few months with the company that acquired us before taking a much needed break.

Now, I'm going back to academia!

I've joined Carnegie Mellon University as an Associate Teaching Professor in the Software & Societal Systems Department and School of Computer Science.

I miss teaching, being surrounded by students that I can learn from, the freedom to work on wacky side projects, and the smell of campus on a fall afternoon.

And where better than CMU?