About
About
I build and improve software that makes complicated work easier: simplifying workflows, automating repetitive tasks, and connecting data with the applications people use. I work across user interfaces, backend logic, and databases, with a focus on Python, Oracle APEX, PL/SQL, and JavaScript. My work includes extending existing systems and making them easier to maintain.
In enterprise software, that has meant taking over an existing field-quoting application as its sole developer and leading four other developers on a contract-generation product. I cut document-generation time from more than thirty seconds to under one second, introduced team Git workflows, and built a Python utility that colleagues used to work with Oracle databases through Claude and Cursor.
My scientific Python experience comes from atmospheric research at UMBC and internships at NASA Goddard. At NASA, I wrote two data tools and am a named co-inventor on their NASA-owned New Technology Reports. In personal projects, I design and direct AI-assisted development of tools for agent orchestration, evaluation, and policy enforcement. I am available for remote software engineering work across applications, data, and developer tooling.
Education
Education
Research
Research and presentations
- Abraham, C., Norman, O., and Shepherd, E. (2020). Studying Anomalous Discrepancies between MODIS and CALIOP Cloud Observations. UMBC High Performance Computing Facility, Technical Report HPCF-2020-12. Research assistant: Jianyu Zheng; faculty mentor: Zhibo Zhang. View CyberTraining project and report listing (opens in a new tab)
- Abraham, C., Norman, O., Shepherd, E., Zhang, Z., and Zheng, J. (March 2020). Studying Anomalous Discrepancies between MODIS and CALIOP Cloud Observations. UMBC CyberTraining group project presentation. View cloud-observation presentation (opens in a new tab)
- Shepherd, E., et al. (Dec 2019). Assessing the Use of Forecast Meteorological Analyses to Support Aerosol Retrieval in Near Real-Time. AGU Centennial Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
- Zhang, Z., Shepherd, E., et al. (Nov 2019). Understanding the Quantitative Connection Between Cloud Opacity and Cloud Optical Thickness Using CALIOP and MODIS Observations. 2019 MODIS/VIIRS Science Team Meeting, College Park, MD.
- Zhang, Z., Shepherd, E., & Wang, C. (Jun 2020). Investigation of Anomalous Transparent Clouds Based on MODIS and CALIPSO Observations. 2020 International Radiation Symposium, Thessaloniki, Greece (conference canceled, COVID-19).
- Shepherd, E., and Levy, R. (August 2019). Streamlining Ground-Truth Validation and Algorithm Improvement for the Dark Target Aerosol Research Product. NASA Goddard summer intern poster session, Greenbelt, MD. Poster. View Dark Target research poster (opens in a new tab)
- Shepherd, E. & Yu, H. (Aug 2018). Study of Aerosol Poleward Transport using CATS Observations. NASA GSFC Summer 2018 Intern Poster Session, Greenbelt, MD.
- Berman, M. & Shepherd, E. (April 11, 2015). On the Viability of Fresnel Lens Solar Thermal Energy Systems. Northeast Regional Honors Council Conference, Gettysburg, PA.