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For this episode, I visited the PORTAL building at UNC Charlotte to sit down with Dr. Mohamed Shehab—a professor whose mobile development course keeps showing up in conversations with students as one of the most impactful experiences of their degree. I’ve heard it repeatedly from students I’ve hired: “Dr. Shehab’s course changed how I think about building software.” When you hear that kind of feedback consistently, you have to ask what he’s doing differently. ...

Back in November, I was preparing for the Cracking the Cloud presentation at UNC Charlotte. I needed a way to explain how the cloud fundamentally changed what’s possible on the internet—not through abstract concepts, but through something students could immediately relate to. That’s when I remembered Thomas Game Docs. If you’ve never heard of her: she’s a YouTuber who makes incredibly well-produced video essays about video games. And she sometimes runs surveys asking her audience things like “Who’s the LEAST popular Pokémon?” or “Who’s the LEAST popular Animal Crossing villager?” ...

For this episode of Data Pour, I sat down with Lucas Ward—one of my SWE managers and a senior technical manager at Ippon—to talk about what it actually looks like to lead people in a consulting practice while the industry is shifting under our feet. We filmed at the Charlotte Beer Garden, which feels like the most Charlotte setting possible: more taps than you can count, plus the steady soundtrack of loud cars and motorcycles rolling by. We both went with an OMB beer (Mecktoberfest) because… you kind of have to. ...

AWS re:Invent 2025 keynotes felt like AWS repeating the same move they pulled 15 years ago—democratizing something that used to be gated behind massive budgets and specialized teams. This time it’s AI. I published a full write-up on Ippon’s blog breaking down the core thread running through the keynote: scale as the prerequisite for “access,” abundance via custom silicon (Trainium), and the shift from “AI as a feature” to “AI as a production capability.” ...

We filmed this episode of Data Pour at People’s Market in Myers Park, Charlotte—grabbed drinks, hit record, and got into the kind of conversation that happens when two people who grew up in “big data” start comparing notes on where AI is actually headed. Funny thing is—this bottle shop closed down a week after we filmed. Perfect metaphor for tech, honestly: everything feels stable until it isn’t. Why James James Barney is one of my closest friends and mentors. I’ve known him for a long time, and he’s been the person I go to when I want an AI take that isn’t hype and isn’t fear—just reality. ...

Recently I came across another engineer’s personal blog — clean layout, good typography, that “I actually finish my side projects” energy — and it pushed me to finally build one of my own. I picked Hugo because I like Go, and because using Jekyll in 2025 feels like opting into pain. I briefly considered Ghost, remembered it either requires paying Ghost or hosting Ghost, and closed the tab. And since I’m “the AWS guy,” it felt morally necessary to deploy the whole thing on AWS. Maybe I’d even use Kiro if I felt extra fancy. ...

When I talk to students — especially STEM students — one question keeps coming up: “Is AI going to take my job?” They ask it jokingly, but you can tell they’re serious. What they want is assurance. They want to know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. That the late nights, the debt, the effort, and the hope they’ve poured into their degree will amount to something real. ...

I was invited to speak at UNC Charlotte recently to the computer science programs, and I approached the session, Cracking the Cloud, with a very specific goal: to give students a realistic, actionable way to stand out in a job market that’s becoming more competitive every year. Companies are slowing early-career hiring. AI is reshaping workflows. Expectations for junior talent are rising, not shrinking. Students can sense this shift, but many don’t know what to do with that reality. That’s where the conversation begins. ...

I recently stepped into the role of host for Ippon’s Data Pour series, but before I officially took over, our CTO, Andy Lamora, sat me down at Wooden Robot Brewery in Charlotte and interviewed me on camera. It was a great atmosphere — good beer, good weather — and then a handful of cameras appeared, all pointed directly at me. I’m still getting used to public speaking, so the entire setup felt a little awkward. Beer helps, but only so much. ...