62: Breaking Into Technology & The Importance Of Being Your Authentic Self With Ivan Walker

In this episode, the guy chat with Ivan Walker, Chief Technology Officer for the Bean Path & Software Engineer at Amazon, about his journey through tech, the importance of being your authentic self, and steps to breaking into a career in tech. Tune in. More about our guest: Ivan Walker is a software development engineer (SDE) with the Amazon/A9 visual search team based in Atlanta, GA.  He put his PhD studies on hold to assist startup company Partpic build out their platform for visual search for replacement parts. Partpic’s success in this space led to their acquisition by Amazon. He recently lead the infrastructure effort for his team to launch their fastener recognition service within the Amazon mobile app.  As a doctoral student at Georgia Tech, Ivan split his time between researcher and instructor.  As an instructor, Ivan was consistently highly rated by his students.  Ivan’s research topic was developing paradigms to utilize neural interfaces (non-invasive EEG) to assist athletes in achieving optimal performance. Ivan holds a B.S./M.S. in Computer Engineering from Jackson State University. His previous work and research experiences includes Intel (GEM Sponsor), IBM, Raytheon, Army Research Laboratory, and Air Force Research Laboratory.  His research interests are in cognitive science, machine learning, software engineering, and education.