Introduction
Hi everyone. My name is Jeff Zemerick and my interests are in software engineering, DevOps, cloud architecture, big-data, and natural language processing. While in high school I created one of the first software development companies in West Virginia. I made software to manage instant messaging for parents, schools, and law enforcement.
I am available for AWS, Google Cloud, and NLP consulting. Please contact me to discuss your project!
My AWS and Google Cloud Experience
We’ll start with what people are probably looking for the most. 🙂
I am proud to have a lot of AWS certifications and also a lot of Google Cloud Certifications. You can see my AWS certifications transcript and my Google Cloud certifications transcript. I am an AWS Community Builder for 2022 and 2021 for Machine Learning. My first AWS certifications were obtained in 2014. (Back then the certifications had issue numbers!)
I am also an AWS Lead SME, which means I help contribute to development of the AWS certifications exams. I have contributed to the AWS SysOps Adminstrator, AWS Solutions Architect Professional, AWS Data Analytics Specialty, and AWS Developer exams.
My Story
I have worked in many domains from government, to commercial security, healthcare, and search. I got my feet wet with cloud when AWS first launched around 2008. My interest in NLP was sparked in 2012 when I was working with structured and unstructured data and learning about the difficulties of handling unstructured data. That interest led me to Apache OpenNLP. I started contributing to the Apache OpenNLP project where I could and today I am the current chair of the Apache OpenNLP PMC. I owe the Apache OpenNLP team a lot of gratitude for their help and guidance over the years.
I started out with QBasic, QuickBasic, and Visual Basic for DOS. I picked up C++ through Visual Studio 6 before moving to .NET. I moved to Java around 2010 and have since predominantly used Java as my high-level language. I have experience with Scala and Python. I have been picking up Go and Kotlin. I do a lot of Bash, CloudFormation, and Terraform scripting and use Linux almost exclusively. Ubuntu has been my first pick since it was versioned using single digits but I also enjoy using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Amazon Linux, and SUSE.
I have been an entrepreneur having started one of the first software development companies in West Virginia while in high school. I made software to manage instant messaging for parents, schools, and law enforcement agencies. (Remember ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and AOL IM?) I graduated from West Virginia University with a BS and MS in Computer Science. My first adventure into machine learning was through the automated classification of text chat logs.
Today, I do consulting and make software that sits in the intersections of cloud, big-data, and NLP through my company Mountain Fog. I enjoy tackling data problems around data ingestion and search. Some of my favorite tools are Apache Kafka, Apache NiFi, and Apache Flink. Combining these applications and frameworks can create very powerful platforms for data ingestion and manipulation. I believe search is important (and often overlooked) because without the ability to efficiently locate data the data is practically worthless.
I believe the future lies in distributed computing across disparate cloud platforms. The internet of things will continue to grow and expand and will bring lots of technical and ethical challenges. I hope I can find ways to contribute for the betterment of society.
I live outside Pittsburgh, PA, USA, with my wife Courtney and our two dogs, Eli and Amos.
Looking for help?
I am available for cloud (AWS and Google Cloud), data, and natural language processing (NLP) consulting. I am available for AWS, Google Cloud, and NLP consulting. Please contact me to discuss your project!