Frequently Asked Questions about Patrick R. Michaud

I get asked lots of questions. Lots of questions. So, I've created my own FAQ.

The frequently asked questions included in this FAQ are:

1. How old are you?
2. Do you really have a Ph.D. in computer science?
3. Why are you doing tidal analysis? What does tidal analysis have to do with computer science?

1. How old are you?

This is by far the most frequently asked question. I don't know what the big deal is about my age, but a lot of people seem to struggle with the question of "just how old is Patrick?" Meeting me in person wouldn't help you, either; people who meet me in person consistently under-guess my age by 5 to 10 years.

Having spent most of my life having to "prove my actual age," I've come to the conclusion that if people really wanna know my age they should have to work for it. :-) So, I'm going against the spirit of a FAQ by answering this question with "Guess." It's not like I'm keeping my age a secret--there are many people who know my true age--I'm just not making it easy for you to find out. However, I will give you a couple of clues that might help narrow the field a bit:

• I received a Ph.D. in computer science in January, 1990. I've been an assistant professor in Computer Science since then (see my resume.)
• I've kept some sort of paying job for at least 16 years. I've done contract programming for at least a decade.
• In many cases, I've been less than half the age of some of my students. I'm well below the average age of undergraduate and graduate students here at TAMU-CC.

If you just gotta know and can't figure it out, write me at pmichaud@pobox.com.

2. Do you really have a Ph.D. in computer science?

Yes, despite my age (or perhaps because of it, see question 1), I really do have a Ph.D. in computer science.

3. Why are you doing tidal analysis? What does tidal analysis have to do with computer science?

It's a bit of a story. At TAMU-CC there's a research/educational institution called the Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science (URL forthcoming). In 1988, CBI began installation of a network of tide gauges called the Texas Coastal Ocean Observation Network (TCOON). These gauges collect water level and other environmental measurements for studies along the Texas Gulf Coast. By 1991, the amount of collected data had become so large that CBI decided they needed a computer person to reorganize their databases and write software to perform tidal analysis. Thus, I now have a joint appointment at the University (50% teaching load, 50% CBI tidal analysis/CBI system administration).

As part of my research at CBI, I'm developing computer-based "automated" methods for analyzing tides and water-level data along the Texas Gulf Coast. These methods are being developed in cooperation with the National Ocean Service branch of NOAA. It might seem that this is a "solved" problem, except that standard methods for the Atlantic and Pacific coasts seem to fall apart when applied to the Texas Gulf coast. So, I'm writing new ones. They'll be published later this year.