About

Hello! ¡Bienvenidos! 안녕하세요

Welcome to my page! My name is William Stone, hopefully you can learn a bit about me during your visit here.

I am currently working as a software developer at General Motors. Though I can function in a full stack capacity, I have been allocated as the batch app SME for our project due to my inclination towards data. Previously, I worked as a graduate research assistant under the direction of Dr. Junggab Son at Kennesaw State University while completing my MS in Computer Science. I started at KSU during the fall semester of 2017, seeking only a graduate certificate. Wanting to open my future to new opportunities, but unsure if returning to school was the right answer, I decided to test the waters by completing a series of catch-up equivalency courses, but being surrounded by others pursuing self-improvement is infectious and I could not shake the temptation of staying. I chose computer science because I have always been interested in the connection between things (especially those which may at-first seem unrelated) and CS finds itself woven into so many different parts of life in the modern world.

I received my BS in Biomedical Engineering at Mercer University in Macon, GA. Again, searching for a discipline that would allow me to connect disparate topics like computing and mechanical engineering, I chose BME as it was my best option (I was also interested in med school) at the time as the University did not offer a program in mechatronics. After graduating, I started working for Anheuser-Busch as a quality assurance technician. I worked there for seven years, eventuslly reducing my hours there significantly to better focus on my work on campus.

Circling back to my interest in connectivity, I am very interested in AI though I don’t think I can do exactly what I’m looking for without more school. I would like to eventually pursue a PhD, but in the interim will focus on continuing to grow as an IT professional and hone more general development skills while working towards a position that more closely relates to my machine learning interests. I am also planning to take advantage of my employer’s great benefits and seek additional learning opportunities by way of a data science-oriented graduate program.

Outside of work, I enjoy learning language, albeit a bit ironically because I am pretty quiet person. I speak Spanish decently (after sufficient warm up), but I understand and read much easier. I tried Japanese many years ago and Simplified Chinese more recently, but gave up before any significant skill developed. I’ve leearned a bit of Portuguese and some Korean in my free time after graduation. I love driving and working on cars, specifically Japanese and German, though I can’t say the “working on” bit applies to the latter. I am currently in the process of resto-modding my first car I bought while in high school, a 1989 Nissan 240SX and have a few projects in mind for the future. I enjoy videogames even though I am playing less these days and my skill level seems to be highly correlated with time investment. I’m also getting back into hiking and being active outdoors, currently working towards participating in my first RunBikeRun duathlon in April 2022!