I am passionate about active transportation. From 2021-2023 I was on the board of the advocacy group Bike Ottawa, where I contributed data analysis to Bike Ottawa’s 2020 and 2021 annual reports (the COVID-19 Pandemic video, Cycling Trend Changes in 2020 map, Cycling Trend Changes in 2021 map, Winter Cycling Network Missing Links, and Pedal Poll report). You can find my writing in City Hall Watcher and The Globe and Mail, and I’ve appeared in CBC News, the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail’s City Space podcast, Newstalk 1010, Canada’s National Observer, Momentum Magazine, and several podcasts to discuss cycling infrastructure and advocacy.
My partner Kent and I published a short paper where we used physics to answer the age-old question: “How big a table do you need for your jigsaw puzzle?”, which went kind of viral after I posted about it on social media, culminating in an appearance on national breakfast TV.
Helping other people learn to program is a passion I discovered after starting graduate school. I co-founded UofT Coders, a weekly study group for researchers and community members where we teach each other programming, talk about issues and best practices in science, and consume snacks. I’m also an instructor with Software Carpentry, a worldwide network dedicated to helping people become better programmers and scientists. UofT Coders have hosted several Software Carpentry workshops at the University of Toronto (April 25-26, 2016, May 9-10, 2016, May 26-27, 2016, February 3-4, 2017, January 18-19, 2018, June 18-19, 2018 and July 12-13, 2018).
I love riding bikes with my kids, gardening, crafts, hiking, camping, and reading novels. My family and I have done several bikepacking trips in Ontario – check out my posts about our Lake Erie loop in 2023, also covered by the Toronto Star. My family and I are also hiking the Bruce Trail end-to-end. Check out photos and stories of our adventures on the blog.