Hi! My name is Eric Plaks.
I’m the one on the right next to my daughter and wife. I grew up in Connecticut and got my BS Engineering in Computer Science in ’78. I moved to San Diego a few months later and began my career in software engineering. Along the way I rode the Internet wave and became highly specialized in networking protocol software that runs on Internet devices. Intel bought the company I worked at and it was a great time to be a software engineer. Last summer Intel left San Diego as a cost savings and I had the option to move to Oregon or take a severance package. I started thinking, what do I really want to do from here? I’d like to teach science!
I am clearly a professional techie but even a professional is just a user when he gets on a PC or a Mac. Especially if he’s a low level grunt as I was, working on the bowels of computers embedded inside devices. So before you assume I know a lot about technology, keep in mind that my daughter sometimes has to show me how to get to a function in my cell phone! The culture is that the engineers sneer at applications like Power Point as tools that only managers use well. Thus I never became proficient at Power Point or Excel. I used high powered Unix based mini computers at work and got a Mac at home, but when we were purchased by Intel I got assimilated. Resistance was futile and so I became a PC user. Besides, every Pentium sold helped my stock options increase in value. It was the 90’s and greed was good!
I am very impressed by the mission statement and the fact that my professors seem to really believe in it. Compared to a corporate mission statement I’d have to say that it’s long and complicated and vague. But even Intel doesn’t have as big a goal as to “transform public education”. “social justice” and “educational equity” are tantalizing subjects that beg me to dive in and learn how they are applied by good teachers. I have almost no idea how, to tell you the truth, but I’m more than willing to learn.
-Eric
