I grew up in Groveport, Ohio, and graduated from Groveport Madison High School in 1988. I attended Ohio State from 1988-1990 until I joined the US Navy in 1990 where I studied electronics and I left as a 2nd Class Petty Officer (E5). From 1994-1996 I attended Ohio State and earned my BS in Mathematics.
After school, I worked for a variety of companies as a Software Engineer, CompuServe, Bank One/Chase, UUNET, MCI/WorldCom, Covansys/Saber/HP, Victoria’s Secret. In 2006 I started working full time with my own company Preston Research LLC and in 2012 started a new company CodeGin LLC, where I’m focusing on Mobile & Web Development. I’ve also worked at various companies in between from Architect to Vice President of Software Engineering, but my heart is in start-ups and Entrepreneurship.
In 2003 I met my wife Emily on a trip to England. I flew to South Africa 6 weeks later to be married. In October of 2003, Emily joined me in Columbus where we have been ever since. In October of 2009, we were joined by our daughter Lilu.
I have a robot hobby and wrote my first book on the subject in 2005. It’s called “The Definitive Guide to Building Java Robots“. In 2006 I helped co-author a book with Dion Hinchcliffe called “Real World Ajax” and later in 2012 I authored “Learn HTML5 and JavaScript for iOS“.
In 2009 I purchased by 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle and I continue to work in it to this day.
I enjoy and have spent a lot of time speaking at various user groups and conferences over the years mostly about AI, Robots, Smart-Homes and Exoskeletons.