Hi, I’m Chris!
About Me
I am an Analytics Associate Manager at Accenture Federal Services (AFS) and a physics Ph.D. graduate of the University of Michigan. My research studying neutrinos at Fermilab in Batavia, IL and my time spent working on commercial aviation at MITRE in my previous job have equipped me with the programming and statistics background necessary for my new position. I look forward to applying the data cleaning, EDA, and predictive modeling skills I have developed during graduate school and while supporting the FAA to providing useful insights for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), my federal client at AFS.
Past Projects
Programming and Modeling Work with the Short Baseline Neutrino Program
Contained Muon Neutrino Analysis
August 2020 - Present
This is my thesis measurement: studying the energy and direction of contained muons from neutrino interactions. I wrote selection algorithms to isolate these events from backgrounds of cosmic ray muon events and other neutrino interactions. This procedure consists of a selection of binary cuts. This project involved modules written in the MicroBooNE UBOONE_SUITE package as well as offline macros written in C++ and Python.
Kaon Decay-At-Rest (KDAR) Muon Neutrino Analysis
February 2018 - July 2020
This was my orginally planned thesis measurement: studying the energy and direction of muons from low-energy muon neutrino events originating from the decay-at-rest of a kaon. After filtering these events in simulation, I wrote reconstruction and selection algorithms to isolate these events from backgrounds of cosmic ray muon tracks and other neutrino interactions. This procedure includes two parts: (1) a pre-selection consisting of binary cuts meant to remove events for which it is highly unlikely or impossible that they are KDAR interactions, and (2) a Boosted Decision Tree (BDT), created from the TMVA class in the ROOT analysis package, to isolate signal events from background events using distributions of variables. Unfortunately, the uncertainties in this analysis were too large to make the measurement feasible. This project involved modules written in the MicroBooNE UBOONE_SUITE package as well as offline macros written in C++ and Python.
Firmware Programming and Testing For Detector Electronics For Acquiring PHotons from NEutrinos (DAPHNE) with the Short Baseline Near Detector (SBND) Experiment
November 2016 - Present
Together with two other students, I have written and tested firmware in VHDL to configure the readout electronics for the photon detector system for the SBND experiment, set to take data in 2022. We are using equipment and adapting the algorithms written for mu2e, another physics experiment at Fermilab with different goals.
“WireMask” Algorithm for Overlay Samples
November 2018 - December 2018
To better represent data with simulation, the MicroBooNE collaboration overlays cosmic muon data over simulated neutrino interactions. The wires that are determined to be “noisy”, or having excessive signals, have to be “masked”, or nullified, to do this successfully. I wrote an algorithm that does this during the overlay procedure.
CRT Cosmic Veto
October 2018
Because the kaon decay-at-rest muon neutrino interactions are contained within the detector, events which trigger the cosmic ray tagger (CRT) panels outside the detector likely do not contain one of these interactions and should be rejected. I wrote an algorithm which matches an incidence, called a hit, in the CRT with a coincident flash of light deposited in the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and rejects the event if they occur within an amount of time from one another.
T0-Tagged Cosmic Tracks
July 2016 - July 2017
I developed a technique for isolating a ‘calibration’ sample, a set of reconstructed data used to prepare the detector for measurement. The sample consists of cosmic ray muon tracks that pierce either the anode or the cathode of the experiment and have full 3D coordinate information available. This method led to a public note, was used in two publications, and is now being employed by the larger LArTPC community.
Cosmic Ray Muon Tagger
May 2016 - October 2017
Together with a collaborating postdoctoral associate, I designed a method for reconstructing the paths that cosmic ray muons take through the MicroBooNE detector, known as "tracks". The tools created use the charge information deposited on the anode wire planes to find the trajectory of the particle and the light deposited in the PMTs to reject poorly-reconstructed tracks. I also created the means of assessing the algorithm's performance.
Academic Experience
July 2015 - August 2021
Doctor of Philosophy in Physics, University of Michigan
I completed 30 credits of courswork and worked in the group of Prof. Joshua Spitz, performing research with the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) Program at Fermilab for my Ph.D. thesis. My thesis title was "First Muon Neutrino on Argon Cross Section Measurements with an Off-Axis Beam".
August 2011 - May 2015
Bachelor of Science, Cum Laude, University of Notre Dame
I graduated with a major in Physics and a minor in Energy Studies. Additionally, I graduated with the Honor Physics distinction and was inducted into the Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honors society in April 2015.
Skills
Python
Advanced
Pandas
Advanced
PySpark
Intermediate
Machine Learning
Advanced
Cloud Computing
Intermediate
Data Visualization
Intermediate
SQL
Beginner
Git
Advanced
R
Intermediate
Project Management
Intermediate
Wilson Hall at Fermilab