Welcome, I'm Eric.

I am a technical project manager and developer based in Philly with 10+ years of experience in non-profit and research settings.
My professional background is primarily in data/operations management, where I build software and create technology strategy to make our jobs easier. Academically, I have studied computer science and social science. The focus of my work is:
1) Developing socio-technical systems to facilitate effective processes
2) Building open-source projects to advance knowledge infrastructures
3) Harnessing data to serve people, instead of the other way around

An image of space bubbles around a computer, photo credit Canva Magic Studio An image of space bubbles around a computer, photo credit Canva Magic Studio
An image of me, photo credit Jose Quintana An image of me, photo credit Jose Quintana

A bit about me

I have built and maintained software and data systems in a variety of organizations, working closely with experts and beginners in science/academia, workforce development, and education. I have managed research infrastructure using modern development stacks and an agile approach, as well as legacy government reporting projects using a careful waterfall approach. I believe that successful information systems are built and maintained when we:
- set clear scope at the start of a project and make iterative edits that snowball over time
- design software stacks that are calibrated to the organization and its members, not the current tech fads
- and that in all of this, coding is usually the easiest part

2021 - Ongoing
Building open science and software
Research Project Manager. CSSLab
2020-2024
Mastering the fundamentals
MCIT. Penn Engineering
2016-2021
Coding resourcefully & managing change in a waterfall
Systems Analyst/DOL Grant Coordinator. YouthBuild
2016-2017
Picking up the programming bug
Data in Education. AmeriCorps VISTA
2015-2016
Heading into the cloud
Research Associate. Freelance

Experience

I started my career in non-profits, many of which had limited resources to build information systems, so data was most often stored in one of three places: spreadsheets saved on someone's desktop locally, paper files locked away in a filing cabinet, or the memory of staff.
Trying to transform these ways of knowing into digital spaces, I focused on designing systems that amplify the work of staff and complement the expertise that practioners have built over years of doing their jobs. I also ran into the limits of data in education settings. I knew that what was being quantified systematically could become a compressed, flat representation of the work of staff and young people if used for funding, hiring, and decision-making in ways it was not designed for.
I became interested in understanding the limits of prediction and explanation using data. This drove me to join the Computational Social Science Lab, which unites computer science, statistics, and social science using digital data and platforms to study people.

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