Guest Speaker: Chris Sattes, Cybersecurity Engineer at City of Virginia Beach

Our recent WV Coding Club guest speaker was Christopher Sattes, Cybersecurity Engineer at City of Virginia Beach

Chris was born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia.

After High School, Chris went to culinary school - Le Cordon Bleu School of Culinary Arts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he became a certified Le Cordon Bleu Chef.

He returned to Charleston, WV and became a Sushi Chef at a prominent local restaurant for a few years.

Even after working in that career with excellence, Chris had a passion for technology and decided to explore a different direction. He learned about the North Korea Hack at Sony

related to the movie The Interview, which motivated Chris to go into Cybersecurity

Chris invested time in his new career path and along the way served in a variety of roles including Radio Shack management, Deskside Support with Advantage Technology, Amazon Kindle Support and One Stop IT Systems Administrator.

He then moved on to become an Information Assurance Engineer at Lockheed Martin and thus really began his entry into the world of Cybersecurity. In his role he battled with hackers from various countries around the world and really started to understand the importance and value of cybersecurity to our country and our way of life.

During Chris furthering his career, he was also advancing his education. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Technology: Cybersecurity from Southern New Hampshire University and then went on to earn his Masters of Science in Cybersecurity from Grand Canyon University. He also completed certifications in CompTIA Security+, Apple Certified Associate and Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)

Chris then moved onto a large law firm in the Virginia Beach, Virginia area and then onto his current career with the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia. In his career with the City, it can be stressful because he is helping to protect millions of dollars that flow through various systems to help the City operate. One of the fun, but important things Chris does is test the system with fake Cybersecurity emails to find staff who decide to click on them and then works to help educate staff of those dangers. Even with all the tools they use to help protect the City, Pfishing is a concern and is widespread, especially with hackers using Bots to replicate and send on to more connections. We are all exposed to CyberSecurity risks daily. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing quickly with Cybersecurity and will also hopefully be a tool to help prevent attacks and hacks.

Even though there is a lot of hardware and software related to protecting systems and networks, Chris utilizes coding in Cybersecurity - PowerShell (Windows Native), which allows him to automate many tasks in Windows. Chris shared with the students a number of certifications that would benefit them on a career path into cybersecurity:

COMP TIA Certification

Security+

NETWORK+

A+

Chris also gave the students his advice:

1. Explore the certifications with COMP TIA, so many facets to CyberSecurity careers, including Analyst, Penetration Tester, Forensics

2. There is still and will be a great need to invest in and hire Cybersecurity staff and provide significant compensation for those careers.

3. If going to college, look at a Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity or if not, explore Certifications which can take a lot less time and expense and seek out work experience.

4. To help protect your credit cards, use Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsung Pay.

5. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

"We are excited and grateful to have Chris take time to share his career and education path into the world of coding and cybersecurity. Our West Virginia Coding Club students benefit greatly from his advice and insights.", explained Dan McElroy, President of the West Virginia Coding Club.

Thank you Chris!

Keep Coding!

Guest Speaker - Kel Cecil, Vice President of Engineering at InspectionGo

We had the opportunity to learn from another great speaker, Mr. Kel Cecil, Vice President of Engineering with InspectionGo.

Kel was born and grew up in Princeton, West Virginia. His parents are very hard working people and wanted Kel to have the opportunities they did not. Kel became mostly self-taught in coding as he took the opportunity to benefit from his education. Kel attended Princeton Senior High School and Mercer County Technical Education Center, where he first built his own computer.

For his first computer program, Kel wrote a script to shut lab computers down remotely, which allowed the teachers to use it on their computer to shut computers down for all the students at the end of each day, saving time for all the teachers. This was also the first time Kel made money from programming.

Kel went on to West Virginia University Institute of Technology to study Computer Science and earn his Bachelor of Science and then earned his Masters degree in Computer Science combined with a certificate in Computer Forensics at West Virginia University (WVU).

Since his family is in West Virginia, Kel didn’t want to go far away from family, but wanted to be connected to opportunities in the software industry. Kel has been able to reside in Morgantown, WV while pursuing his career.

Kel had a few different jobs that gave him experience and helped him to learn about other opportunities, while working from West Virginia. A major step forward was as a Senior Software Engineer at Realtor.com.  From there he became involved with a new startup and is now the Vice President of Engineering at InspectionGo (www.inspectiongo.com) One of the main focuses of the business is to help Home Inspectors have access to tools to build their business. They are developing a program called Keystone, that is preparing for open usage in the home inspection industry. Keystone allows inspection business owners to book and interact with their clients more efficiently by leveraging data sources to help office staff make better decisions when booking. 

For example, inspection companies deal with different requirements from state to state . One requirement, in some states, is the requirement to track all versions of service agreements. Keystone enables clients to sign and tracks all versions of agreements up to the point of signature, though not required in some states. Kel and his colleagues analyzed the requirement and stored all versions (the more stringent requirement) to satisify all scenarios by default. However, it is coded to allow inspectors to turn aspects on and off to be in compliance with local and state regulations.  When asked what coding languages they primarily use, Kel shared they use Elixir for web development and Python for data science. They deploy their apps to Amazon Web Services.

All of Kel’s team at InspectionGo is remote, but many are West Virginians from cities like Elkins, Huntington, Morgantown, and more.

Several have completed degrees in Computer Science, but others have graduated with unrelated degrees or programming bootcamps. Several of Kel's employees prepared for their Coding career through learning at NewForce, a Coding training program operated by Generation West Virginia. that was based in Huntington, WV. It has moved to become a remote learning program. More information about NewForce is available at their website: https://generationwv.org/programs/newforce/.

Kel shared some thoughts on their hiring process:

Kel shared, “We look for people passionate about solving problems. It is helpful to learn who they [the candidate] are and what they are about. When given problems to solve it is important to analyze the problem and talk through possibilities. For our pair programming interview, we all work together on some code. The focus is not necessarily to find a a technology match, but to find out if the applicant is hands-on and how they work together to solve the problem.”

Kel finds joy in seeing people solve problems and is exceedingly optimistic about the development of technology careers in WV. Now, there is better access to startup capital to develop a technology business. The barrier to entry for technology has been lowered with access to multiple frameworks to help build software. There is no better time for a student in West Virginia to take advantage of technology career opportunities.

Kel's advice to students:

1. Don’t be afraid to try things. Trying and even failing is a step in learning! Fail often and move forward.

2. Seek out other people who also want to solve problems.

3. Keep your eyes on the prize!

4. Differentiate yourself - what you built and problems you solved, keep code you worked on, like on GitHub to be able to show code.

Kel welcomes internships InspectionGo and plans to grow that program.

Dan McElroy, President of the West Virginia Coding Club, "Kel is another amazing example of a West Virginian who has found a great coding career path and succeeded in staying in West Virginia while working remotely. Kel shows our students that they can also do this. Thank you Kel for your time and insights for our West Virginia Coding Club students."

Keep Coding!


WV Coding Club student honored by Governor!

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice in his April 26, 2023 Press Conference honored one of West Virginia Coding Club’s students.

William Matheny, a 16 year old junior at Ripley H.S. in Jackson County and a member of our WV Coding Club since its inception in 2016, was notified recently that, out of 300 applicants nationwide for a summer internship at the NASA Katherine Johnson Facility in Fairmont, WV, he placed first! This is an awesome achievement and a testimony to the value of the WV Coding Club. William received an Advanced Tech Degree in Python Development through our Club last July and credits it, along with his participation in helping build an app for us which won our fourth Congressional App Contest this past Fall, as keys to his placing first with NASA.

Last year the NASA Internship Program was first in the ranking of the most prestigious internship programs in the country, finishing ahead of Google, Apple, Microsoft, as well as a host of other top notch companies.

At this time, there is no other program in our State that offers an Advanced Tech Degree certification for high school students.

See embedded video below that starts at 3:24 to see the Governor honoring William and his achievement! Also, you may go to YouTube directly for the video at this link: GOVERNOR JUSTICE HONORS WV CODING CLUB STUDENT

Congratulations William! Keep Coding!

Press Conference - Governor Justice honors WV Coding Club student.

Guest Speaker: Gordan Lane, Jr., Director of Fraud Monitoring with the WV State Auditor's Office

We had the privilege of having an amazing guest speaker, Gordon Lane, Jr., Director of Fraud Monitoring, West Virginia State Auditor’s Office. Gordon is a lawyer by trade, but has delved into the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist the State with fraud monitoring and detection.

Over the last few years the State Auditor's Office has developed an in-house AI fraud detection application. It helps to review all transactions that use State of West Virginia credit cards. They work with DataRobot [www.datarobot.com] (Boston, MA). During COVID-19, DataRobot worked with West Virginia University (WVU) in developing AI as a long-term forecasting and simulation decision intelligence platform for COVID-19.

Gordon explained how Artificial Intelligence helps to analyze relationships with data in meaningful ways. He also discussed machine learning and how they use databases and organize them in a fashion and given some direction. People may be more familiar with natural language models, like Chat GPT. A lot of the critical work is in data engineering and combining data in a larger data set.

There are a variety of activities that the State Auditor’s Office (SAO) conducts to help prevent fraud. One of those is to review State credit card transactions. These credit cards are used by State, County and Public Higher Education Institutions’ employees.

It is a tedious job for an investigator to look through thousands of transactions a day. To apply Artificial Intelligence to an aspect of the work of the State Auditor’s Office requires rethinking the types of data that are needed to potentially detect fraud. The AI uses information from the bank database with all the data of all the daily transactions. It used investigators past determinations to “understand” what future transactions may indicate a risky transaction. Then combine it with additional data sets that may seem unrelated to possibly catch someone using a card for personal use.

So the AI system “learns” about and tries to replicate the experience of the investigator, by SAO staff working to find relationships, and implement feature engineering to help the AI to look for those fact patterns. This helps the SAO to identify risky and safe transactions. Other data sets can also help to refine the ability of the AI to help identify possible risky transactions.

Does it work? Yes, SAO’s first AI project, 97% of the time marked suspected fraud (risky transaction) that the investigator would select. It helped to catch or start investigations into many people in it’s short time. That helps to protect the funds of programs that are for our communities’ benefit.

So, if that can be done, how else can SAO apply AI to their work? Another project SAO is working on is a model to help identify wasteful spending to potentially save money.

Gordon shared with the students that as much as people are worried about AI “controlling” or taking over the world, it is still so early on that it is only fiction in movies.

What else can AI do in the world? It can help with predictive maintenance problems - like giant air conditioning and heating systems for large facilities. Sensors on various parts track when the parts fail or are not working properly, helping people to learn when a system is about to break down. Then it can help predict when a system is about to break down based on sensing what parts are failing. This is being done right here in West Virginia for a large international company.

Now, think about using this towards human health, with a large enough data set and a large enough population, AI can then use that information to help predict when certain diseases can happen or more so at a beginning stage to intervene earlier.

There is a lot of work happening in the development of low code and no code AI systems, using different algorithms that have already been developed. It takes database(s) and searches through a library of algorithms and selects the best algorithm to apply to the project. No code systems still need people who have an understanding of databases and some coding to work with them.

A West Virginia company developing AI is Trilogy Innovations [www.trilogyit.com], growing very quickly, in Bridgeport, WV.

Gordon’s advice if you are interested in getting involved in Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning:

1. Learn about Data, Coding, Sensors, Rasberry Pi, Problem Solving. There are many good resources online and by large tech companies like Google.

2. Education paths to help be better prepared to work with AI: Computer or Data Engineering / Architecture, Physics and Math major.

3. Stay involved in the WV Coding Club - learn from the speakers who present to this group.

4. Reach out to adults who are working in this field and they would be happy to share. Happy to talk or help connect with others.

Dan McElroy, President of the WV Coding Club, commented, “Gordon has given us all a glimpse into some aspects of what Artificial Intelligence can do to help us be more efficient and effective in what we do. What an amazing talk from an amazing person. Thank you Gordon for your time and insights into this still developing aspect of computer and data science.”

Thank you Gordon for speaking to and sharing this insightful information with the West Virginia Coding Club!

Keep Coding!

Guest Speaker - Nick Wan, Full Stack Software Engineer at SLB

We were happy to have another great guest speaker, Nick Wan, Full Stack Software Engineer at SLB (Schlumberger), a global technology company driving energy innovation for a balanced planet.

Nick has worked at SLB on ProcessOps, collaborative digital solution for assuring uptime and optimizing performance of oil and gas production processing, for the last two years.

Nick’s first involvement in Coding/Computer Science was in the Spring of his senior year of high school in Georgia. His classmate, Sam, started a Computer Science Club and invited him to join. Nick's first meeting focused on Object Oriented Design and Arrays, which were new concepts to him. Inspired to learn more, Nick downloaded Java and created his own choose your own adventure program. And his coding journey began. . .

Nick grew up in Georgia and when it was time for college he attended Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). He decided to major in Computer Science. Nick's mother is a Network System Administrator and encouraged him to explore computer science as an educational focus and a career. Nick shared that the first semester was very difficult, many new abstract concepts. To enhance his learning he spent time in Georgia Tech's library with classmates to work on software projects together.

Nick recognized after a couple years focused on his studies he needed to gain some practical experience in software development through internships. He was able to secure internships for his remaining college years at Chic-fil-A, GA Tech Research Institute, and Ultimate Software. For his Chick-fil-A internship he worked at the Technology Innovation Center and helped code related to the Heater system and build software to monitor and change settings remotely. Through his internship experience Nick found a lot of value in bringing ideas into reality. He also recognized that developing "soft skills", like communicating clearly and efficiently, was needed to be successful.

Nick learned and appreciated more and more what he could do with coding / computer science and how important programming is and will be in the world. He decided to continue his education and earn a Master's Degree. He explored staying in Academia or not. Nick decided to work in industry and decided on a career opportunity at SLB.

Nick is a Full-Stack Software Engineer (Front End [Client Software] and Back End [Server Software]). He has been working on a new project with a Back End focus. He is the Domain expert for ProcessOps web application, which helps SLB and other oil and gas companies to use the application with their own data with energy assets and processes. With a new client that wants new features, Nick also leads the development for that.

Nick's Advice:

Having a college education can help make a difference in entry level jobs. Certifications can help depending on the job. College is not required for a number of jobs, but definitely can help boost your position in the organization. There are fundamental concepts about computer science that college can help with, but may not be as easily accessible via self-taught or Coding Camps. Software is an amazingly  accessible industry compared to other professions, for example, like becoming a doctor. Choosing a path of not going to college - it may be harder, so be prepared for that.

There are many success stories of people making a leap from another type of career and then going into coding via coding camps and certification programs.

There is developing digital competition in the energy industry. Traditional competitors are investing in digital, and some newer partners and start-ups can become competitors. In this new age, there are now digital "wildcatters" in the energy space.

Kiona Meade, Digital Business Manager, at SLB, also answered questions during Nick's presentation and shared about SLB's recent rebrand, logo update to reflect the carbon budget curve, focus on technology and energy innovation through other energy technologies (hydrogen, geothermal, methane reduction, etc.) in addition to oil and gas. Through their focus as a technology company, they are accelerating decarbonization through innovation and science and assist other companies around the world to do the same.

Dan McElroy, President of the WV Coding Club, shared, "Nick has given us great insights into another path to develop a career in coding and computer science. We appreciate Nick's advice to our students and helping share information about career opportunities in another industry. We also appreciate Kiona's insights into what SLB is doing and focused on globally. Thank you both!"

 

Keep Coding!

WV Coding Team wins 4th straight Congressional App Challenge!

Our West Virginia Coding Club Team (Mariam, Caleb, and William) were just notified that the app they created and submitted has won this year’s Congressional App Challenge! This is the forth straight year that they are Congressional App Challenge Champions. The Congressional App Challenge is the most prestigious student Coding competition in the United States. This year’s submission, “Idealize” was their mobile app creation.

Since the competition became available to West Virginia teams four years ago, the WV Coding Club Team has participated and submitted winning apps each year. These students have learned a lot about Coding and software development from concept to finished product by being a part of these competitions.

We are proud of their accomplishment and humbled to know that their success is due in part to the opportunities to learn Coding that the WV Coding Club provides.

Dan McElroy, President of the WV Coding Club, explained, "This is a primary reason why the WV Coding Club was created and continues. It gives our West Virginia students the opportunity to learn Coding and problem solving skills that can provide them a good paying job in a constantly growing and evolving Tech industry. We are excited that our students are applying what they are learning and being recognized for their efforts. Through the WV Coding Club we strive to provide a solid foundation for our West Virginia students to be prepared for future opportunities.”

Congrats to our WV Coding Club Team and Keep Coding!

To see their Idealize App presentation here: CLICK HERE FOR IDEALIZE PRESENTATION

Neil Chakrabarty - Guest Speaker - Chief Technology Officer, State of West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection

The West Virginia Coding Club recently had Neil Chakrabarty, Chief Technology Officer, State of West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, as its guest speaker.

Neil shared he started Coding in 3rd grade. He used a deck PDP-8 with Teletype, paper tape. (Note: Photo Insert) Neil has used a plethora of different computers and related technology over the years.

After High School, he looked for jobs in Computer Science. He started a business (Consulting) in Huntington, WV. Neil wrote a billing system for a law firm improving their collections.

From there he did projects for an Oil Company,  Steel Company, Bank and Health Care (Mental Health) - various programs for their needs.

Neil had an opportunity to write a grading system for his Dad, who taught at the University. Neil realized he was very good at Coding, but not as much as a businessperson. 

Neil decided to join the military and was there for four years, then went on to West Virginia University. Neil then had job opportunities and then decided to go to West Virginia for the balance of pay and cost of living. He worked for West Virginia State College (now West Virginia State University). Then he moved on to the Department of Environmental Air Quality for the State of West Virginia. 

Neil continued to consult. Neil shared about an opportunity in attempting for great success. Neil had a plan. . .

Medical Care billing and payment costs. Expense of medicines. Two secrets - 

  1. Just in time production (industrial - pharmacy) Inventory Management System

  2. Predictions (Statistics)

He and others worked to lower costs, but faced substantial opposition. He provided the students insights on how they could use these techniques to become successful and potentially wealthy.

From there, Neil worked with the Department of Environmental Protection (West Virginia) to help them to work with software that was being developed for DEP. His job started in determining what was missing and work with the vendor and DEP to help fill in the gaps and bring items to completion. It took leadership to move forward and develop applications and systems internally at DEP. Only a handful of Departments of Environmental Protection around the county have their own dedicated Information Technology group.

Neil helped develop communication tools and processes to benefit everyone., including a Bug Tracking System (BugZilla), Monthly Reporting System, to help to ensure all aspects are moving forward with needed applications and databases.

Neil discussed how he interviews and hires developers. One aspect is a test on a  book they are provided - something they don’t know about to see what they can absorb and then apply.

Neil shared with the students about Artificial Intelligence, Predictive Analysis and Predicting a Trend. Neil shared a video with the potential future of Artificial Intelligence.

Rules Neil follows (advice):

  1. Be technical / seek and understand technology

  2. Be authentic about what you know and don’t know

  3. Don’t assume what others need or what they know

  4. When you divide money don’t round, be exact; pennies are not divisible

  5. Take good care of yourself

  6. Take a step back and look at the big picture. Make sure you’re going where you want to go

  7. Seek to be with people who you want to be like.

"Neil provided great insights and advice for the West Virginia Coding Club students. We appreciate the positive impact that his coding skills, experience and leadership have in West Virginia!", commented Dan McElroy, President of the West Virginia Coding Club.

Keep Coding!

WV Coding Club students compete in International event

Two West Virginia Coding Club students recently competed in an International event. This annual competition was held this year in Chicago, Illinois, hosted by the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). Trey and William, represented Ripley High School and the State of West Virginia with their project designing and building of an e-Commerce website. They used many of their problem-solving and coding skills developed through the WV Coding Club to apply to this effort and competition.

The competition consisted of 26 teams from the combined countries of China, Japan, Canada and the US. Although the boys did not come away with the top prize, they gained invaluable knowledge and experience and are already looking forward to adding to their skill level to be more formidable next year.

Both boys recently completed an Advanced Tech degree program offered through the WV Coding Club, becoming members of a very select group of students completing this certificate at the incredibly young age of 15.

“The WV Coding Club is very proud of the boy’s significant accomplishments, competing Internationally and representing our State. This level of experience will greatly benefit them as they prepare for their future careers,” shared Dan McElroy, President of the West Virginia Coding Club.

Keep Coding!

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