Intro

I'm Brandon. I'm currently 25 years old, grew up near Cleveland, Ohio, and I'm always trying to learn & try new things. My career interests are focused on working with companies to fully leverage cloud architectures and machine learning to translate predictive analytics into prescriptive analytics. I love to learn and challenge myself, and I like to work with Python and databases of all shapes, sizes, and theorems. Whether its the ACID Principles or the CAP theorem, Regression or Classification, Supervised or Unsupervised - I'm all about learning how it works and how it fits into the grand scheme of the data analytics stack!

Personal Mission Statement:

I, Brandon Donelan, strive to be courageous, compassionate, and virtuous in all facets of life; respecting that continuous self-improvement and continous learning are catalysts for achieving great things in one's lifetime. I will embrace competitiveness; not in opposition of my peers, but in opposition to the difficulties along this life-long journey. Lastly, I aim to be a source of strength for those in need, a source of love for those I'm close with, to always stand up for whats right, to always put forth the best effort I can muster, and to be the best I can be.

I wanted to include my personal mission statement on this site, because I work to use it as my guiding principle through life. In particular, the second sentence might seem interesting or confusing to others. What inspired me to include this in my personal mission statement is something I overhead on the radio during a NASCAR race, when I heard a spotter and crew chief tell their driver to just, "Race the Track". Because of this I want to include an antidote to further any readers understanding:

What it means to "Race the Track"

If you were to watch a race on television or mill about in a pit area at your local dirt track you might hear someone tell a driver to, "Race the track". This is a saying amongst race car drivers and their respective race teams that I believe transcends racing, and which can be applied in all of our lives. In a very direct way, to race the track means just that - to be as fast and consistent as possible. To persevere over challenging features a racetrack might have, whether it be potholes, sharp turns, or menacing straightaways. This saying holds another more important, yet indirect meaning though. This indirectness is discovered not by focusing on what is the subject of the statement (the track), but what is not: the other drivers.

The underlying idea behind this is the premise that its not the other cars that you need to beat, it's the race track itself that must be beaten. To illustrate why this is a valid argument, consider NASCAR. NASCAR has long been known as the redneck racing that only turns left, but anyone with that perspective probably has never watched a full race. NASCAR is a great example, because the advanced aerodynamics on the race cars behind the scenes, where its observed that two cars working together in whats called drafting, are actually faster than a car on its own. To put the fastest possible laps down, a driver will often need to work with his competition, and not against those other competitors. If those 2 cars are both consistent and together, then they will leave a third in the dust - substantially increasing their respective chances of achieving their goal. Ultimately, it then comes down to those cars at the end, which sometimes gets messy and ruins both cars' days. The key is to race hard, but race with respect. If you are able to do this, then you just might end up in victory lane.

Currently

I specialize in designing, building, and leveraging systems that drive intelligent decisions using an organization's data. Whether in Business Intelligence or Data Science, I enjoy working with data to make measurable, tangible impacts on the company in which I work for.

At the moment, I work as a Data Engineering Consultant at Accenture, and have formally worked as an Analytics Data Engineer at RevSpring Inc, working in the healthcare RCM space. I also work for Deck of Dice Gaming in my spare time, and serve as Director of Analytics, supporting both real-time and server-based analytics for their mobile applications, where I design and build systems to drive decisions.

Some history

I grew up in Strongsville, Ohio, which is a suburb directly southwest of Cleveland, Ohio. I attended the wonderful public schools there, and graduated from Strongsville High School in the class of 2014. While growing up, I enjoyed athletics and was involved in both football and baseball throughout most of my childhood and was able to pursue that because of the support from my wonderful parents, Tom and Ginny. I have 2 older siblings, a brother named Connor and a sister named Emmie. As the youngest of three, perhaps my greatest feat was still being my parents favorite despite the long odds.

I like

• Python
• Learning and generally being curious about things
• Data Science & Machine Learning
• Riding my motorcycle in sunny weather
• Space
  • I even have a tattoo of the pulsar map on Voyager spacecraft, the only man-made object to exit our solar system's heliosphere, becoming the first human-made object to enter – and measure – interstellar space.
• Entertainment:
  • Cleveland Browns football (yes, even at the darkest of hours: Billy Manziel, going 0-16, and even drafting 29-year-old Brandon Weeden in the 1st round)
  • NASCAR - Favorite Cars are the #12 Penske car and #21 Wood Brothers Racing car
• Activities:
  • Snowboarding
  • Running & Weight Training
  • Hiking
  • Reading
• Favorite Video Games:
  • Shake It Up! Dice Poker
  • Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (only the real know)
  • The Halo Series
• Favorite Charities:
  • A Night To Shine
  • Autism Speaks

Fun Facts About Me

• Give me a Rubik's Cude and I'll solve it in less than 5 minutes. My PR is 1:50!
• My Favorite programming language is Python, which I taught myself.
• I can (sort of) speak some Czech, or better said, Já umím mluvit trochu Česky. As this ages I get less and less capable everyday unfortunately.
• I once had a raging mullet.
• I have a cat named Cookie. He is a ~6 year old rescue.
• My favorite color is forest green.

I dream of

• One day opening an animal shelter to take care of animals in need.
• Making the world a better place.
• Influencing others' lives in a positive and impact way.
• Running my own company one day.
• Making great memories with those I share my time here on Earth with.
• Wide open highway on a sunny day in July.