Projects

Ambush developed a network monitoring device for his neighborhood computer club that provides real-time status updates on the club's Wi-Fi network. The system alerts members when the network goes offline, displaying a red indicator and providing information about the cause of the outage. When the network is functioning normally, the indicator remains green. Created during the early stages of his professional involvement in the technology industry, the project was one of his first opportunities to apply his programming and robotics skills to solve a real-world problem. As a result, the computer club gained greater visibility into network issues and a more reliable user experience.

Ambush created Troll Track, an online research platform designed to analyze and monitor patterns of online behavior, trolling, and toxic discussion activity. To support the project, he developed a large-scale web scraping and data collection system that continuously operates around the clock, gathering and analyzing information from millions of public discussion posts and user profiles. 

The platform has processed more than three million Disqus articles and profiles, enabling large-scale research into online trolling, harassment, racism, and other disruptive behaviors across internet communities. Through custom-built algorithms and automated data collection tools, Troll Track provides insights into discussion trends and user interactions that would be difficult to identify manually. 

Troll Track allowed visitors to evaluate the nature of online discussions and user profiles before engaging in conversations, helping them better understand the tone and quality of digital communities. The project reflects Ambush's interest in applying software engineering, automation, and data analysis to address real-world challenges involving online communication and digital citizenship.

As a Software Engineer with Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab, Ambush volunteered his time to support the infrastructure behind EarthTime, a platform that visualizes geographic data and time-lapse satellite imagery from around the world. Over the course of a week, he built and configured ten high-capacity servers designed to support the platform's growing storage and data distribution needs.

The servers he assembled are now responsible for storing and serving millions of image files that power EarthTime's interactive visualizations. Several of these systems were deployed internationally, including installations at museums and educational institutions outside the United States, helping expand public access to geographic and environmental data.

This project provided Ambush with hands-on experience in large-scale infrastructure deployment, data storage systems, and the technical foundations required to support globally accessible educational technology platforms.

Ambush worked as a Contract Software Engineer on the Emancipatory R+D project, contributing to research efforts focused on educational technology and public education. In this role, he was responsible for collecting, organizing, and analyzing data related to technology expenditures within the Pittsburgh Public Schools district. 

His work involved researching district spending on educational technology products, software platforms, digital learning tools, and related services. By gathering and structuring this information, he helped support the project's efforts to better understand how educational institutions invest in technology and how those investments impact teaching, learning, and access to digital resources. 

The project provided Ambush with experience at the intersection of software engineering, data research, and education policy, while contributing to broader initiatives focused on equity, innovation, and technology in public education.