IN THE COMMUNITY
Where my work intersects with the broader professional communities
Early years – getting my start
Applied Operations Research Training (Graduate Program: MS ‘Business Technology Management’, Operations Research concentration) → while working full-time, rotating shifts:
- My pivot from physics into operations research was grounded in applied, project-based work. Rather than a traditional thesis, the program emphasized group-driven systems design: forming fictional organizations, developing lean business models, producing executive summarie, and defending analytical decisions before faculty panels simulating executive review.
- This work trained me to reason about systems under uncertainty, negotiate assumptions across technical and non-technical stakeholders, and make analytics legible for decision-makers; skills that continue to anchor my approach to socio-technical readiness and AI-era assurance.
SAS Global Forum (hands-on participation, 2012-2015) → first professional opportunity using my MS degree in Operations Research:
- As the sole programmer on a federally funded (Dept of Ed) grant, I participated in hands-on SAS Global Forum sessions and regularly submitted my code to ‘Code Doctors’ for peer review – ensuring analytical correctness, methodology soundness, and that I wasn’t developing critical systems in isolation.
- Not only was this my first ‘Operations Reserch’/’Project Assistant’ role, it was my first ever experience with object-oriented programming – using a formal language, outside of MS Excel (add-ons, etc)
Internal (OJT) Knowledge Exchange
Lunch’n Learns (participated in and lead):
- Focused on practical tooling and workflows, including an introduction to Git (GitHub/GitLab) for collaborative development, version control, and reproductivity.
- These sessions supported shared technical fluency and reduced siloed development practices across the department.
Hackathons (designed and coordinated) → department-wide:
- create a structured space for cross-team experimentation, rapid prototyping, and shared problem exploration.
- The event emphasized collaboration over competition and sought to surface workflow improvements, tooling ideas, and integration opportunities beyond formal project structures
Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Bootcamps (Contracting, Consulting):
- SOCOM/SOFWERX: ‘Small Business Bootcamp’
- APEX: ‘Procurement Readiness Academy’
Industry Days (GovCon):
- Understand emerging capability gaps, integration challenges, and readiness expectations across complex socio-technical systems
- These engagements inform how I frame applied research, digital twin prototypes, and forward-deployed assurance models
If your work touches similar questions of systems readiness, decision assurance, or human integration, you’re welcome to reach out.
Systems work at the boundary of people, policy, and technology.
Porteolas · Operations Research · Decision Assurance · AI-era Readiness
Engagements vary by context and need. © Porteolas, Inc. All Rights Reserved.