Charles Blackmon-Luca

I am a software engineer at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, working on the Pangeo project. My work explores the intersection between climate science and cloud computing, and emphasizes contribution to open-source code.


Experience

Software Engineer

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Created continuous integration tools using GitHub Actions to lint and test Intake-based climate data catalogs. Developed HTTP API to serve cloud accessible Zarr datastores and metadata using Google Cloud Functions. Deployed dynamic website through App Engine to display interactive previews of datasets using xarray and Flask.

August 2019 – Present

Computational Technology Intern

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Optimized netCDF dataset fetching algorithms using xarray and xESMF, reducing runtimes by 60%. Transferred 2+ terabytes of Zarr datastores to cloud storage using Google Cloud SDK command line interface. Worked in a Unix environment using JupyterLab to create demos of climate data manipulation and plotting. Created and maintained repository of source code on GitHub, improving portability across team platforms

June 2018 – July 2019

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Analyzed correlational data between rainfall and surface energy budget in climate models using SciPy. Generated comparative figures using Matplotlib to identify and correct computational errors in models. Compiled errors during weekly group meetings to prepare for writing and publishing of corrigendum.

February – May 2018

Technical Outreach Community Help Chair

National Society of Black Engineers

Organized and supervised K-12 workshops outlining programming in Scratch with Raspberry Pi motherboards. Led general body of 80+ members in distributing college resources and mentorship to local underserved schools. Awarded Regional Chapter of the Year (2016-17) for exceptional community service efforts in tristate area.

September 2016 – May 2017

Education

Columbia University, School of Engineering and Applied Science

Bachelor of Science
Computer Science – Minor in Applied Mathematics

GPA – 3.5

Relevant Coursework
  • Introduction to Databases
  • Numerical Methods in Python
  • Fundamentals of Computer Systems
  • Data Structures in Java
  • Dynamical Systems
  • Partial Differential Equations
  • Linear Algebra
  • Statistical Inference
  • Complex Analysis
September 2015 – May 2019

Skills

Programming Languages
  • Python
  • JavaScript
  • Java
  • C/C++
  • MATLAB

Software
  • Google Cloud Platform
  • Amazon Web Services
  • Git
  • Bash
  • Unix
  • MySQL
  • Microsoft Office
  • LaTeX

Interests

On my days off, I like to get out of the house to go biking or swimming. When I feel like staying in, I prefer retro gaming, watching horror movies, and listening to music – my favorite genres are hip hop, R&B, and jazz.

Of course, there are plenty of other random things keeping me busy:


  • 🎸learning to play the guitar
  • 🎹playing with software synthesizers
  • 👢looking at weird clothes on the internet
  • 🥑trying more vegan/vegetarian recipes
  • 🧼improving my skincare routine