Our Team (Of One)
The ROM in ROM2:
I, Dr. Ryan Owen McBride, am a Data Scientist, Teacher, Volunteer, and British Columbian dedicated to making the world better. I believe in the value of being a light that highlights the shadows of the world. I believe in the importance of integrity and striving for better world, even when faced with seemingly intractable problems in communities such as my home city of Surrey BC. This somehow means that I want to work on data science consulting projects with non-profits.
Professional Background: I Publish, Teach, and Review Fancy Data Science Stuff
I have a doctorate in computing science at Simon Fraser University. My thesis was dedicated to making British Columbia safer in two projects. The first project focused on predicting and removing electrical transformers containing carcinogenic chemicals by leveraging company risk tolerances. The second project addressed preventing storm-caused power outages and their resulting social peril and billions of dollars of economic losses by treating the problem as similar to a google search: of extracting the few geographical areas with the most outages so BC Hydro can distribute work crews to prevent that damage. Other research I have done includes: software to plan electrical sensor installation placements to detect electrical thieves as cost-effectively as possible; artificial intelligence research in ensuring internet traffic can be guaranteed to not be compromised assuming a certain encryption standards; surveys and comparisons of methods to find biologically interesting RNA sequences that fold into useful structures; and improved methods to track statistical properties of a stream with smaller error bounds.
Beyond publishing this research at internationally renowned data science conferences, I am part of the program committee for various research conferences: I am part of the vanguard of evaluating what research is worthwhile. One of my main focuses in reviews is on the importance of industrially meaningful solutions: scientists as a whole often focus too much on developing technology without considering whether the time spent to develop the software isn’t worth the actual cost. I also focus on the rigor of the technical work, whether the project can be explained convincingly to stakeholders, and the quality of any puns/humor. I also got a lot of scholarships from my work, over $100,000 worth: note that is Canadian dollars. I have previously also worked at, taught, or presented at Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, and Trinity Western University so am involved in the general university community in the Lower Mainland.
Volunteering Background: A Proud Rotarian
I’ve also been involved in volunteering efforts, such as becoming representative of Rotary Community Corps of Burnaby, a young adult group that helps lower mainland non-profits with consulting projects such as writing part of a grant application for a daycare in Surrey (attaining the largest daycare grant in the lower mainland), designing and suggesting social media marketing for the Burnaby Neighborhood House’s Incredible Quest event, developing some of the social media work on the Foreshore Park Fitness Circuit, and suggesting the benefits of an online fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Deer Lake. More recently, I’ve also recently become Director of Public Relations for the Burnaby Rotary Club, probably because as the second youngest member everybody assumes I know how facebook and youtube recommendation algorithms work (I don’t!).
Note: Though I am affiliated with Rotary, Rotary naturally does not endorse my independent professional efforts.
Personal Background:
I was born in Surrey, British Columbia to Anita McBride and Randy Orvil McBride (the first R.O.M. or the ROM1) in 1989 at Surrey Memorial Hospital. My parents met at Simon Fraser University in the now demolished Louis Riel House. And yes, that picture is me: I had blond hair before a life of isolated research away from the sun turned my hair brown. I went to W. E. Kinvig Elementary school, an inner-city school known for its high refugee population and known for its bad academic ranking. See the write-up here from the Vancouver Sun for an example of the sort of pain and issues in the area.
As a person, I’ve had my misfortunes: my family has seemed to have a major death every year during my whole time during university, beginning with my father dying of cancer when I was just starting university. Before I was born, my family went bankrupt due to some weird family entanglements. My brother had illness issues that robbed him of a chance of a normal youth and I had a few too many close friends inflicted by painful personal circumstances. While I don’t think this story is unique, I hope it helps explain why I am interested in helping out my community and trying to help those pained by circumstances outside of their control. I consider this project, of making data science more humanitarian to be one such application of this ideal: after all these years of study and student debt, I might as well use all that knowledge for something more worthwhile, more beautiful, especially to the communities in British Columbia, Church, and Volunteering that have guided me. I guess I would summarize it as I know how random life can be, of pain and circumstances sweeping away the life you had. I understand that success is often more based on luck and there is surprisingly little separating me and anybody else in the world, which is why I try to be more kind and understanding and give people extra chances.
For hobbies, I read a lot of books: here is my goodreads. I like the nearby Surrey library a lot. I also play way too many video games, like during a term where I was teaching Discrete Math at Simon Fraser University I had like 40 hours in DOOM Eternal. I am sorry MACM 101 D100 Spring 2020…
Artist Background: Room for Improvement
Maybe don’t hire me for my art skills: your grandaughter’s macaroni drawings may do a better job.