Ex-GitHub · Ex-Google · White House Advisor · UC Berkeley Ph.D.
Download the full CV (PDF) — complete history, publications, teaching, and the full record of talks and press. Also on LinkedIn and GitHub.
Selected Experience
Fimio — Founder and CEO, 2022–2026
Built and shipped a sandboxed AI inference deployment platform and a malicious smart-contract detection API. Backed by Redpoint Ventures, Protocol Labs, and Neo, with angels including Nat Friedman. Wound the company down in 2026 and returned remaining capital to investors.
GitHub — Technical Advisor to the CEO, 2020–2022
Supported the CEO in bringing GitHub Copilot to market, the first mainstream AI
coding assistant, and led tiger teams prototyping for product leadership.
GitHub — Senior Data Scientist, Machine Learning, 2017–2020
Applied machine learning to the software development lifecycle. Co-built
GitHub's first repository recommendation engine, reaching a 20% click-through
rate.
Google — Technology Portfolio Manager, 2014–2015
Co-led Google's $15M Computer Science Education portfolio, growing it by 25%.
UC Berkeley — CSEd Doctoral Candidate, 2013–2016
Designed a machine learning study of gender in intro CS, and built a data
science unit inside CS10.
Earlier roles at Insight Data Science, ICSI, TEDxEuclidAve, the Center for Advanced Sensors, and Thoughtware are in the PDF.
Advisory & Public Service
U.S. Department of State — Expert Speaker, AI Diplomacy, Lagos, 2026
Keynoted on the future of AI at the University of Lagos and led responsible-AI
training for 300+ staff and students at YABATECH with the U.S. Consulate
General.
Neo — Accelerator Mentor, 2022–2023
Mentored founders across two cohorts of Ali Partovi's Neo Accelerator.
The White House — Advisor, Presidential Innovation Fellows, 2013–2015
Volunteer advisor to the Obama Administration, and invited speaker at
convenings on unintended bias and education data.
Education
Ph.D., Computer Science Education — UC Berkeley, 2016
M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering — University of Memphis, 2004
B.S., Computer Science — University of Memphis, 2001
Selected Talks
- Cognitive Apprenticeship — Experience in Open Source, keynote, linux.conf.au, 2021.
- Africa — The Next Frontier, keynote, DLD Munich, 2020.
- Science in the Age of Data, JupyterCon, 2020.
- Opening Keynote, GitHub Universe, 2018.
- A new vision for the global brain, keynote, O'Reilly Velocity, London, 2018.
- On learning AI: The Myth of Innate Ability in Tech, TEDxSanFrancisco, 2017.
Thirty-odd more, back to 2012, in the PDF.
Selected Press
- The Guardian Nigeria, U.S. Consulate, YABATECH train 300 staff, students on AI, 2026.
- Fortune, Africa Is Tech's Next Great Frontier, GitHub A.I. Expert Says, 2019.
- Harvard Business Review, What Data Scientists Really Do, 2018.
- VentureBeat, GitHub wants AI to help developers code, 2018.
- NPR All Tech Considered, Big Data Looks For Future Entrepreneurs, 2014.
- TWIML Podcast, Machine Learning at GitHub, 2019.
Twenty-odd more in the PDF.
Publications
Peer-reviewed work in computer science education and the semantic web, including the 2016 ASEE paper on culturally responsive curriculum and the XRDS essay on culturally responsive CS. Full list in the PDF.