Welcome to my online home. I’m Ching, your host on chingchang.org. Here is something about me:
Born and raised in Hong Kong. Came to United States for college at age 17. I got my Bachelor degree in Computer Science from University of Wisconsin – Madison where I spent the junior year working for Datex-Ohmeda – a local company in Madison that manufactures critical care equipment. It was my first industry experience. I wrote automated tests that hook into the hardware board of an anesthesia machine to turn the knobs and read sensor data. Fascinated as I watch the latex lung connected to the anesthesia machine inflates and deflates on the commands of my test program.
After graduating from college, I went to Boston University to pursue a doctoral degree in Computer Science on database theory. Theoretical computer science is challenging and fun, but soon I realized I am most excited when I am building applications, not when I am writing papers. The passion led me to compete in Imagine Cup 2005 (an annual collegiate software contest organized by Microsoft) and I won a place amongst the top 10 US Finalists. Seeing the devastation the tsunami caused in South East Asia in 2004, I prototyped a text-over-IP system that broadcasts emergency information via text messages to cellphones or email inboxes, a concept similar to how Twitter was originated. Soon after that, I was invited to a full day of grueling interviews with Microsoft. Weeks later, I wrapped up my master thesis, packed all my things, and flew to the Pacific Northwest with my cat. My master thesis was on utilizing reference locality to optimize the performance of join algorithms between data streams.
For three years, I was a part of the manageability team in SQL Server (Management Studio) where I discovered my love for designing and developing user interface. I was one of the key developers that created Performance Data Warehouse in SQL Server 2008. It was awesome to work on a product that is visible to thousands/millions of customers, but I was tired of Seattle gloom and needed a change. So I moved to Southern California to join a “start-up” (if such thing still existed at Microsoft) team within SQL Server – Parallel Data Warehouse where I was the sole developer building a web-based administration console for the product. After a year or so I was re-org’ed to the Engine team and now I am spending most of my time working on the health monitoring agent, metadata framework, and the mid-tier API.
Soon after I moved to Southern California, I started learning boxing competitively. When I could steal time away from work and life, I enjoy traveling and learn new languages.
