Austin Lasseter

Washington, DC · (703) 786-4028 · austinlasseter@gmail.com

I build machine-learning solutions using Python scientific libraries and AWS cloud computing services, with 10 years experience serving the federal government in data modeling and analysis. I am also an avid teacher of data science.

Experience

Senior Data Scientist

US Army
  • Oversee team of developers building serverless software tool in AWS GovCloud (AWS Lambda, API gateway)
  • Modeling and visualization of financial data using AWS SageMaker to inform resource allocation
  • Establishing first instance of AWS Academy Cloud Foundations course at US Army
November 2019-present

Data Science Instructor

General Assembly (2018-2019) / Lambda School (2019-present)
  • Machine Learning (scikit learn, nltk, spacy, keras)
  • Data Analytics & Linear Algebra (pandas, numpy, matplotlib, plotly)
  • Deploy Python applications (flask, plotly dash, docker, AWS elasticbeanstalk, Heroku)
  • AWS Academy Cloud Foundations (preparing students for AWS Cloud Practitioner certification)
November 2019-present

Portfolio Projects

Personal projects not related to work
  • Deployed random forest classification model for NLP: https://tmdb-rf-genres.herokuapp.com/
  • K-Nearest Neighbors for classification: https://knn-iris-classifier.herokuapp.com/
  • Visualization of Virginia Census Data: https://virginia-census-data.herokuapp.com/
  • Plotly Dash tutorial: https://github.com/austinlasseter/plotly_dash_tutorial
  • Video: How to deploy a Plotly Dash app: https://youtu.be/tcF4XPAq7rE
Portfolio

Education

Data Science Certificate

General Assembly, Washington DC
10-week part-time course, 12-week full-time immersive course
October 2017-April 2018

Ph.D. Education Policy

University of Maryland, College Park
May 2013

M.A. Humanities

University of Dallas, Irving TX
August 2004

B.A. Philosophy

Ateneo Regina Apostolorum, Rome, Italy
June 1996

Skills

Data Science Toolkit
  • scikit learn
  • tensorflow
  • keras
  • xgboost
  • pandas
  • plotly dash
  • AWS SageMaker

Interests

Apart from being a data scientist, I enjoy most of my time being outdoors. I cycle to work every day (even in the winter months). I'm a certified rock climbing instructor. I've completed 10 marathons, including the Marine Corps Marathon (three times). I'm a volunteer coach for my kids' soccer and baseball teams. When I'm not modeling big data, you'll find me kayaking on the Potomac River, rock-climbing at Great Falls National Park, or hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Certifications & Achievements

  • AWS Academy Certified Instructor
  • AWS Developer
    • AWS Solutions Architect
  • Certificate in Data Science, General Assembly
  • ScrumMaster Certification
  • IBM Certified Specialist in SPSS Statistics
  • Certificate of Completion: Jose Portilla's 'Python for Data Science and Machine Learning Bootcamp' on Udemy
  • Certificate of Completion: Jose Portilla's 'Complete Python Bootcamp' on Udemy
  • Rock Climbing Youth Instructor Certification, State of Maryland
  • Conversational fluency in Spanish; reading proficiency in French, Italian, & Latin