Hello. Welcome to my Web site. My name is Mike Helmick. I am a computer scientist living and working in Seattle, WA. Originally form Cincinnati, I graduated from St. Xavier High School, and then earned my B.S. (Computer Science) from Xavier University in 2000.
After graduation, I went to work for Convergys in Cincinnati (formerly Cincinnati Bell Information Systems – CBIS). I did this for about a year, and then headed back to school. I was enrolled in the MBA program at Xavier University for a year, before deciding that really wasn’t for me.
Also that year, Cortny and I were married and moved into our condo in Cincinnati. Just the beginning of a long journey.
In the summer of 2002, I started at Northern Kentucky University, and in May 2004, earned my M.S. in Computer Science. Around that time I also switched jobs, and became a senior consultant w/ Cardinal Solutions Group, a privately held consulting group in Cincinnati. The next step in the journey, was a big one.
Along side of all of this, I started training for multi-sport competition on the fall of 2003. In the summer of 2004, I ran a 5k, a 10k, did 2 biathlons (run-bike-run), and 5 triathlons (swim-bike-run). I actually ended up earning the most points, and won the Ohio points championship for men age 20-24. I wasn’t the fastest, but competed in the most races, and earned the most points.
In the fall of 2004, I started at the University of Cincinnati. I was a new student in the Computer Science and Engineering Ph.D. program. The first year was intense, full time coursework, and full time work. This meant arriving at work around 6:30 in the morning, leaving for class, going back to work, and getting home after 7pm. At the end of the first year, the doctoral qualifying exam. This is basically the hardest test you can think of in your field. 20 broadly distributed questions, answer 6 with a deep dive. Then, in 1 week conduct some original research and defend it. I passed.
I found an awesome job, a compatible job in August 2005. I started at Miami University as a visiting instructor. I did this for 2 years and finished my Ph.D. (in just 3 years total… not sure how I did it). Free of being a student, I was promoted to Visiting Assistant Professor and did one more semester at Miami University.
Then in January 2008, we took the journey to the west coast. We uprooted and moved to Seattle, WA. I took at job with Amazon.com, working on SimpleDB at Amazon Web Services (where I still work). We settled in the Ballard neighborhood, in north Seattle. We quickly adjusted to the urban lifestyle.
So that is how I got to where I am now.
In addition to my cs work…
Me in Bakasana, at Golden Gardens
I am a big fan of travel. We are trying to as much of the world as we are able to. The only regret I have is that we didn’t start traveling earlier! In 2003, we went to London, and then toured through Wales, and around all of Ireland for 2 weeks. A wonderful trip. In 2007, we headed to Italy for 10 days. Everyone should see Venice, and I recommend going in December. Just this year, 2008, we headed to Alaska for a 7 night cruise.
In December of 2009, we headed to Mexico for some intense Yoga training, Level 1 teacher training with Baron Baptiste. I will be going back to Mexico in May 2010 for Level 2 teacher training.
After moving to Seattle, I said, “do you want to try Yoga?” Such a life changing question. Just 2 years later I’m in a great mentoring program and well on my way to becoming a Yoga teacher myself.
And the big trip… we are going to the Galapagos Islands in 2010.
I’m very happy to have discovered the path of Yoga, a path that I have only been on for a year and a half. It works for me: physically, mentally, spiritually. Yoga translates to mean, “to yoke.” To yoke together our body, mind, and spirit. Unity between ourselves, each other, and the world. Physically, it is a great work out. Mentally, it will clear your mind, and give you path of clear thought. So, like I said, this works for me. So much so that I have decided to start down the path of becoming a yoga instructor. This is why I put in the hard work.
So that is me: Husband, Seattleite, Computer Scientist, Yogi.
