It was awesome having you speak!! Had lots of folks messaging me afterwards asking about where to take your courses. You definitely got folks ‘flipping the script,’ I think. Big thank you again!

Kendall Giles came to this presentation not only having done research, but having already applied much of what he was discussed to his own writing life. As such he was able to provide deep insights into the modern publishing industry from his semester as an intern in a major literary agency in New York. He discussed subjects ranging from how books are picked up by agents and sold to publishers to how to create a solid schedule for writing and how to build a platform that will garner attention and increase your chances of making it. He was prepared, he added levity to the presentation, and he was confident in his delivery.

I am completing the Master of Information Technology program next month and have your course currently. I’ve completed all projects and can state by far, this is the best offering in the program. I have many years of experience as an accomplished cybersecurity professional and senior leader. It’s clear you spend a lot of time preparing high quality instructional materials and the recitations are professional, concise, and informative. ECE 5480 was highly recommended by fellow students and program personnel. Now it’s clear why. Love it, keep up the great work!

Kendall is humorous, keeping me engaged during the lecture. He shared his personal journey of becoming a professional writer and gained first-hand knowledge by interning at a publishing/agent house in New York. Kendall used technology to make the lecture available online (additional content) after the presentation, further engaging his audience. The presentation (on PowerPoint) was well-developed, clear, and organized.

I also wanted to let you know that I truly enjoyed this class. It’s by far been one of my favorite classes. The course structure and labs made the class very interesting and enjoyable. I honestly learned a lot from the class. I wish more of the classes in the MIT program were structured like this.

Also, I would like to mention that this class has been fun. I have definitely learned a lot of skills that will help me now and in the future.

A fascinating article by Kendall Giles on applying the philosophy and methodolgy of hermeneutics to analysing historical combat texts

Kendall’s sense of humor and empathy shone through as he delineated the common condition of writers trying to find their place in the publishing maze. He would make a wonderful teacher at any level (and, I suspect, a fine agent!).

Thank you so much for a great class, I learned a lot and filled some gaps I’ve had in my career as a technologist. I’m happy to buy you a beer or beverage of choice.

His energy and passion were high, he was funny, organized and very detail oriented. Kendall is a marvelous teacher, and I just hope that teaching is part of his professional path!

I wanted to let you know I got my first software engineering job at ________. I will be on their enterprise engineering search and automation team. I wanted to thank you for everything you taught me through the AI and ML class and that you will be teaching me in Cybersecurity this summer.

You probably wonder what impact your classes have on students after they leave Virginia Tech so I would like to share my success story with you. Thanks to Virginia Tech and your class I landed a job as a Senior Financial Analyst at Amazon shortly after graduation. In my current position I support a team of Data Scientists and Machine Learning Engineers. They create ML models and my job is to quantify how much these models are going to impact the business. Your class gave me a great foundation to be able to communicate with the science team (most of them PHDs) and I feel empowered to deliver more value as their finance person. Amazon gives the opportunity to do some of the work that data scientists do and the opportunity to transition to a data science role in the future. I am very happy at the way things turned out after Virginia Tech. Thank you for the great effort you put into developing your classes and know that it does not go unnoticed.