First name: Lucas
Community username: @Cang_Household
Member since: 2020
Occupation: Formally trained as a biochemist. Currently serving as a de facto information system engineer for a biomedical research lab. Pipeline builder for a multimillion dollar project.
What Verizon products and services do you use?
Fios Internet 500/500, Fios Digital Voice (+free international calling), VZW Basic Plan (? hard to find the formal name in the account page). Products: iPhone SE (2020, VZW), G1100 (Quantum Gateway Router), G3100 (Fios Router), CR1000A (Verizon Router), E3200 (Fios Extender), MoCA Ethernet Adapter, Fios Network Adapter, Nokia ONT
What are your areas of expertise?
General computer networking, strongswan IPsec VPN, iptables, Linux system engineering, full stack engineering (programming web pages)
I like playing with cheap single-board computers, like Raspberry Pi. Because of the shortage of Raspberry Pi, I migrated to Banana Pi router boards with more Ethernet ports so I could explore networking technologies. I built a VPN router from Alpine Linux hosted as a VM on my laptop at my college dorm, so I could extend my parent's home's network to my dorm to check on the house when they are away.
I am an advocate for open source. I would prefer to use Linux operating system whenever I can. I like to explore embedded networking technologies like distributed switching architecture (DSA for short). It allows a 4-port switch chip to be split up to 4 independent logical network cards by adding software tags on frames. So cool. I like to keep things light weight, so I could accomplish more on the existing slower speed hardware than to buy new hardware.
I self-taught web development in middle school, in an effort to amend an online code submission portal used by the programming class. We learned Pascal (yes, they were still teaching Pascal in 2014) to solve problems on the book, rather than in the daily life. While learning web development, I began to deal with TCP sockets and ports and ultimately firewalls. This is when I became interested in computer networking.
In high school, I joined a club who runs the school's official website. The students handled all the logistics in coding. The school district "cracked us down" after we mistakenly and prematurely announced the following day as a snow day, creating confusion among the 10 schools in the district. We still had the following day as the snow day because the weather played to our favor. After the club was disbanded, I became disheartened towards building major projects like a website, so I started exploring more transient projects in networking.
The school bought several large TVs at the time but lacked a centralized solution for broadcasting videos. So I located the floor plan and "colluded" with younger IT guys in the school to locate all the wiring closets and open switch ports. I came up with a plan that used IP multicasting to send video streams to TVs across the school. To learn how multicast works, I found some Cisco CCIE courses and self-taught a great deal of networking concepts. The assistant principal in technology green-lit my plan, but was put on indefinite pause once COVID hit.
Fast forward to college. I majored in biochemistry and still solved computer science problems when not studying or sleeping. I joined a research lab in a major health system to deliver solutions on clinical decision making and basic science research, currently trying to find ways to let machines take over the repetitive and tedious tasks.
Recently, the lab was awarded a multimillion dollar grant to study human anatomy. We purchased computers and servers to assist the analysis, so the assembly, configuration, and networking connectivity automatically fell on my shoulders. When not thinking about the computers, I am thinking about the science side of the project, such as the naming for human anatomical parts and fluorescent markers for recognizing certain types of tissues.
Other colleagues in the lab develop algorithms for detecting lung opacity on the CT scans and making sense of key diagnoses from electronic health records. I find that, to really understand what the clinicians want in terms of technology, someone needs to be an expert of both. I already have the background in computer technology, so let me be an expert in clinical diagnostics. To this end, I am preparing for the MCAT exam as part of the medical school applications.
What are your other hobbies?
Building and programming my own router, building home security system. reading building/wiring schematics. research local codes and federal laws. communicating with attorneys.
Sports - tennis, swimming.
Gardening - growing hot peppers and watermelon.