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Sam

Founder, Hack Portland
CS Master's Student @ Northeastern Roux Institute
🎷 Smooth Operator 🍖

👋 About This Cool Cat

Hey! I'm Sam, the founder of Hack Portland. I started this community to bring together developers, hackers, and tech enthusiasts in the Portland, Maine area. I'm passionate about low-level systems programming, embedded systems, and building a vibrant local tech community.

Currently pursuing my Master's in Computer Science at Northeastern's Roux Institute, graduating in August 2026. I work as a Teaching Assistant for CS5600 (Systems Programming), helping students tackle the challenges of multiprocessing, threading, and operating systems concepts. I also work as a Software Developer, bringing systems programming knowledge to real-world applications.

💼 What's Cookin'

🎓 Teaching

TA for CS5600, helping students master systems programming with C, pthreads, and OS fundamentals

💻 Developing

Working as a Software Developer, applying systems programming expertise in production environments

🌐 Networking

Currently diving deep into protocol analysis, DNS troubleshooting, and packet inspection with Wireshark

🎵 Building

Developing a comprehensive DAW session manager with Go and PostgreSQL for my database final project

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🛠️ Technical Chops

C Programming Systems Programming Embedded Systems STM32 Bare-Metal ARM64 Assembly Go PostgreSQL Networking Protocols Memory Management Concurrent Programming
💡 My Philosophy: I love understanding how things work under the hood. Whether it's debugging memory leaks, optimizing cache implementations, or exploring hardware-software interfaces, I'm all about diving deep into the mechanisms that make our systems tick. Smooth and steady, like jazz. 🎷

🎵 The Back Story

Before diving into computer science, I spent years in the audio production world working at inMusic Brands and Apogee Electronics in technical support roles. This experience gave me a unique perspective on troubleshooting, customer-facing technical communication, and understanding the intersection of hardware and software. Like a smooth jazz riff, everything connects. 🎷

🚀 Why Hack Portland?

I founded Hack Portland because I believe Portland's tech scene deserves a dedicated space for hackers, makers, and developers to collaborate, learn, and build together. Whether you're into systems programming, web development, embedded systems, or anything in between, Hack Portland is here to bring us all together.

Like a well-seasoned ham and a smooth jazz ensemble, we're better together! 🐻🍖🎷

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