About

I’m James Gibson. I write web applications, do data mining and statistics, and occasional research in finance and economics. This is my personal website.

I am the technical cofounder of Quottly

Previously, I consulted through Space Dolphin Labs, Inc

I contribute to open source when I can, especially the jStat project.

Most of the code I write is Ruby and JavaScript, with a lesser emphasis on python, idris, and clojure, in that order. I am reasonably well-equipped at PostgreSQL, and the Amazon Web Services stack.

Open Source Contributions

I am a maintainer for the jStat project, a javascript statistics library.

I’ve contributed pull requests to the following open source projects:

  • jStat, a javascript statistics library. I am a maintainer; have contribued documentation & bugfixes.

  • ar-octopus, a database sharding library for ActiveRecord, including enhnacements to error handling.

  • vows, a js testing library, inlcuding bugfixes.

  • middleman-guides, the documentation for Middleman, a ruby static site generator.

  • villainy-octopress-theme, the Villainy theme for Octopress, including a bugfix.

  • ember-cli-rails, Ember-CLI Rails Plugin, some minor documentation.

  • simple_calendar, a calendar generation library for rails, testing documentation

  • ember-rails-assets, an ember-rails assets plugin, minor documentation

  • slimtimercli, a Ruby language command-line client for SlimTimer, including a bugfix.

  • trailblazer.github.io, a Ruby web framework’s documentation, very minor editing

I contributed features that were not accepted to:

I have contributed code that I do not expect to be merged back into upstream to:

  • forem-theme-orange, an old theme for the Forem Rails Gem. The PR keeps the theme working on the newesest Rails 3 release of Forem.

Academic Articles

  • My undergraduate thesis on biasedness of fencing ratings, which was awarded the “Summa Cum Laude” designation from the University of Florida’s Department of Statistics in 2014, is available online. Not peer reviewed.

Talks and Presentations

  • “A Tiny Bit of Programming”, a talk on very basic VBA, Matlab, and R for Investment Banking-oriented finance graduate students, given February 13th 2015 at the Hough School of Graduate Business at the University of Florida. Slides

  • Keynote speaker for Robinson High School 2013 International Baccalaureate Pinning Ceremony (~400 guests). Very well received.

Acknowledgements Received

Employment

  • Since July 2015, I have worked full time changing the way students take classes through Quottly

  • From November 2014 to July 2015, I worked as an independent software developer through Space Dolphin Labs Inc. Projects included Quottly and Modernmeal.

  • From September 2011 to December 2013, I worked as a research assistant at the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, located at the University of Florida, under Jim Dewey and Dave Denslow. I used census microdata to great effect to study labor polarization trends in Florida.

  • In June, July, and August of 2012, I interned in the credit policy research group of Moody’s Investor Service, working under Steffen Sorensen. I conducted research on the impact of M&A activity in the commercial banking sector on credit ratings.

  • In July and August 2011, I interned at Skyway Capital Partners in Tampa, Florida. I completed deal viability analysis on several proposed transactions.

Education

I hold a B.S. in Mathematics, Cum Laude, and a B.A. in Statistics, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Florida’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (May 2014). I also hold a Master’s of Science in Finance from the University of Florida’s Hough Graduate School of Business (May 2015).

Academic Honors and Awards

  • “Summa Cum Laude” designation for BA in Statistics

  • “Cum Laude” designation for BS in Mathematics

  • National Merit Scholar, 2011

  • 2400 SAT (non-superscore), 2010 (99.98th percentile)

  • 800 SAT in Math II and Physics subject tests (2010)