Background
Canola field in the Swan Valley
Hi, my name is Kyle Clarkson. I'm 25 and for nearly three years I have lived in Vancouver, British Columbia while I completed a graduate degree at the University of British Columbia. Yet home for me is hundreds of miles away in the quaint farming community of the Swan River Valley in Manitoba where most of my family currently lives.
Growing up in a rural community, I spent a lot of my time outdoors. These activities included camping, quading, snowmobiling, hunting, and fishing among others. I attended Swan River Regional Secondary School where I played football, rugby, and badminton.
I'm an Anishinaabeg Canadian and member of Pine Creek First Nation (boozhoo is a type of greeting), but my family also has its roots in other nations such as England, Ireland, and Norway. I even have ties back to the MacLean Clan of Scotland!
Education
I attended Brandon University (2014-2018) in Brandon, Manitoba where I completed an honours degree majoring in mathematics and computer science. I had the privilege of working with Chenkuan Li and Gautam Sriviastava on the use of generalized functions to define fractional derivatives and integrals and location prediction of Twitter users during the solar eclipse of 2017 respectively.
I then moved out west where I completed a Master's of Science in computer science at the university of British Columbia. Working with the wonderful Will Evans in the Bioinformatics, Empirical, and Theoretical Algorithmic (BETA) lab , my thesis pertained to an improved competitive factor for a path finding problem related to the Watchman Route problem in computational geometry.
I also enrolled in courses that covered topics including human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced algorithms. My favorite part of my time as a graduate student was assisting students learn various topics as a teaching assistant for several courses.
In August 2021 I joined the BCCDC Public Health Lab as a software developer to assist with the creation of PLOVER, a web application that assists in the tracking of various lab data. The biggest feature was the monitoring of COVID19 samples - from PCR testing to whole genome sequencing results PLOVER assists with the interactions between the provincial health authorities and lab technicians.
Vancouver at night
Interests
Wedgemount lake near Whistler
I enjoy learning new things. This is why software development is so attractive to me - there are always new frameworks, theories, and applications to learn! Through work, I'm constantly expanding my knowledge of web technologies, software design, and databases. I attempt to keep up to date with new research in several areas such as reinforcement learning, graph theory, and mathematics.
When I can get away from my computer I like to spend my time outside walking, cycling, and hiking in the mountains with friends. These are great opportunities for me to practice my amateur photography skills (check out my Instagram or the images on this site.) I've recently dusted off my rugby boots and joined a local Vancouver team, the East Van Scribes (would highly recommend!) In the winter time I also snowboard and ski!