Depoll.com -- About Me

Who am I?

My name: David Poll. My quest: to find the holy grail. My favorite color: Blue... no, Green!

Ok, ok, I'm a dork. I get it! But I'm sure you want to know more about me than some silly movie lines might tell you.

As I said, my name is David Eitan Poll, presently a grad student in Computer Science at U.C. Berkeley. I love what I do, and I do what I love. And what I love is computers!

I grew up in Southern California; Yorba Linda to be exact (yep, I'm from the O.C.). I'm a SoCal guy at heart, and probably always will be. Before Berkeley, I attended Troy High School, where I first discovered that I wanted to work with computers. At Troy, I graduated from the IB and Tech programs in 2005. It was a lot of work, but well worth it.

After arriving at Berkeley, I been worked toward my major and had lots of fun in the process. I took part in an undergraduate research group, Gamescrafters, and was a TA for one of the introductory CS courses, CS61c.

I completed my B.A. in a total of two and a half years. Thanks to my rigorous high school work, I came to Berkeley with a lot of extra units. I advanced quickly through the program, and finished in Fall of 2007. Then, I was accepted to the "5th year" M.S. program in Computer Science here at Berkeley, so I'll be sticking around for one additional year to pick up the graduate degree.

I'll be working with Professor Koushik Sen on my graduate research project. It looks to be an incredible opportunity, and I'm excited to see where it goes.

During the Summer of 2006, I was a Program Manager intern at Microsoft, working on a project within their developer division. It was a load of fun, and really cemented in my mind that this is the industry for me. I returned to Microsoft again in Summer of 2007, after which I accepted a full-time offer to work there. Summer of 2008, I'll be getting started, and am really looking forward to it!

But that's enough of the academic/career stuff about me. I'm sure by now you're dying to know who I really am!

I love computers, and that's definitely a big part of my life. But I have more depth than that! I'm a huge fan of word play, punning especially. I enjoy stand-up comedy, politics, and business. I'm also a news junkie, but I'm also into a variety of TV shows. Right now, I'm watching House, The Apprentice, Numb3rs, Jericho, and Heroes. Good stuff!

One of my other loves is singing (primarily a capella). At Microsoft, I sang a capella with a small group of other interns. We called ourselves Notepad. Clever, no? I also love singing trios with my Dad and Sister. We're like the family Von Trapp (except smaller and... non-Austrian)!

Overall, I'm a friendly, goofy, ambitious, and outgoing guy. I'm passionate about what I do, and I'm always interested in learning new things and interacting with different people.

About Me

I'm a "wild and crazy guy." Read on to learn about me!