James B.

Assistant Director, Institute for Cyber Security at The University of Texas at San Antonio

San Antonio, Texas Metropolitan Area

About

My passion at work is to create and develop, and in doing so, solve real-world problems. This helps create tangible items that companies can use and not have to worry about "the plumbing" and focus on their product. My supervisors have said that I their "go to man." I bring true value to any company by quickly picking up and learning any subject. Likewise, I'm an active listener and make sure I understand the problem at hand so I can be 100% confident that my solution will work. Currently at work, I primarily help PhD students succeed in their research. This means I pickup and go with the latest technology, make sure they have the technology to support them and when help make their theory into application. In doing so, I actively work with them on the theory, fine tuning it and often times improve it by finding missed details that need to be considered when theory meets application. In terms of technology, my team and I have deployed a ML cluster where students can deploy virtual machines in their own private playground that are tied to GPUs where the students always have a clean working environment. Each VM is preloaded with all of the tools they need to 'just go' with their ML research and several ML models are NFS mounted locally for faster access. So if anything breaks, they can just make a new VM and start again. This helps speed up their learning process because nothing is damaged for long and they can safely try new things. In the past, I've helped institutes develop and create a secure data analytics platform consisting of Hadoop, Spark, Python and R, along with their own identity management system. In another project, I developed a 1-click solution for professors to easily create their own clusters to eliminate bottle-necks in academia of acquiring computer systems, and the knowledge gap of how to set up the infrastructure quickly and easily. This streamlined the process from weeks to minutes. I'm a master of Ansible, Python, scripting (python and shell), OpenStack and AWS. I deploy design, build, hack, and maintain cloud environments and storage spaces. I'm always trying to optimize and clean code.

Experience

  • The University of Texas at San Antonio (9 yrs 11 mos)
    • Data Scientist
      Sep 2025 - Present · 10 mos

    • Assistant Director for Cloud Security and Privacy Research
      Feb 2023 - Present · 3 yrs 5 mos

    • Technology Research Analyst II
      Mar 2020 - Feb 2023 · 3 yrs

  • Cloud Software Engineer at Open Cloud Institute & Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute
    Apr 2015 - Aug 2016 · 1 yr 5 mos

    I have designed & implemented a high availability HortonWorks Hadoop 8-node Cluster and deployed RHadoop as well. Setup our own identity management system using FreeIPA to validate users across all nodes. Likewise, I have instructed students on how to use mapreduce with R and python and HDFS. Similarly, I have been working extensively on OpenStack.

  • Intern at Intel Corporation
    Jan 2016 - Apr 2016 · 4 mos

    Intel OpenStack Developer in conjunction with the Open Cloud Institute at UTSA. - Went through RackSpace OpenStack Training - Fixed several bugs in the OpenStack community

  • The University of Texas at San Antonio (5 yrs 10 mos)
    • Lab Services Supervisor II & Lecturer 1
      Aug 2014 - Apr 2015 · 9 mos

      • Oversee & monitor all physics and astronomy labs • Maintain laboratory equipment and setup • Maintain and monitor TA scheduling • Instruct TA's on how to teach and use of equipment • Maintain inventory for department/Lab supply room • Develop/Maintain department website • IT issues/request for department • Maintain Physics extra help room • Outreach • Instructor of record for all physics labs

    • Lab Services Supervisor II
      Sep 2013 - Mar 2015 · 1 yr 7 mos

      • Oversee & monitor all physics and astronomy labs o Maintain laboratory equipment and setup o Maintain and monitor TA scheduling o Instruct TA's on how to teach and use of equipment o Class demonstrations • Maintain inventory for department/Lab supply room • Develop/Maintain department website • IT issues/request for department • Maintain Physics extra help room • Outreach

    • Laboratory Services Supervisor I
      Jul 2009 - Aug 2013 · 4 yrs 2 mos

      Helped develop Modern Physics Laboratory experiments. Feb 1, 2013 - Redesigned physics department website and went live Information Technology Assistant - Help with the repair and diagnostics of computers. Jan 6, 2010 - March 20, 2011, Manager of Rigaku Ultima IV SAXS XRD machine. Jan 22, 2010, Website manager for the department of physics website. March 16-18, 2010, Completed a 3-day training course for the Rigaku Ultima IV SAXS XRD machine. Sept 2010, Set up and manager of new solar lab.