New CZI Lead for AI and Engineering Seeks To Help Educators Access the Best of Learning Science

My interest in engineering began when I was 13. With my mother's very first paycheck, she bought our family a ZX81 - one of the first personal computers. I was immediately hooked. I taught myself to program and later decided to go to university to study computer science. From there, I pursued my Ph.D. in machine learning - now the major field of artificial intelligence - and discovered that I really loved building things, specifically computer programs.

With this newfound passion, I joined a small U.K.-based startup to lead their engineering team, where we were using a new software tool from Apple. It was the '90s, and the tool was so new that they hadn't even created instructional manuals for it! I cracked the programming language and asked a colleague on the Apple team there if I could make a manual for it.

I flew to Cupertino, California, for the project. After an incredible trip, we soared over the Golden Gate Bridge while the sun was setting, and it was a truly magnificent scene. I remember thinking, "I have to be here." And the rest is history!