U of A Academy of Computer Science and Computer Engineering Inducts Eight New Members

Dani Jackson

Top from left: John Simmons, Blake Puryear, Justin Bertram and Chris McCroskey; bottom: Brandy Metzner Umdenstock, Barret Miller, Kanat Bektemirov and Bert Sanders.

The U of A Academy of Computer Science and Computer Engineering inducted eight new members at the annual New Member Induction Banquet held on April 14 at Mermaid's Seafood Restaurant. Inductees included Kanat Bektemirov, Justin Bertram, Chris McCroskey, Barret Miller, Blake Puryear, Bert Sanders, John Simmons and Brandy Metzner Umdenstock.

Bektemirov received his B.S. in computer science in 2015. After graduation, he co-founded a software startup to make finding elder care easier. Now, Bektemirov acts as the chief technology officer at SupplyPike.

Bertram received his B.S. in computer science and minor in mathematics in 2001. After graduation, he moved to Brazil to do mission work with university students before returning to Arkansas and joining Acxiom. Now, Bertram is working on the messaging engineering team at Red Hat where he serves as committer in the Apache Community, member of the ActiveMQ Project Management Committee and one of the lead developers of a message broker deployed across thousands of organizations.

McCroskey received his B.A. in political science in 1999. After graduation, he became director for Rockfish Interactive. McCroskey also co-founded Tweet Congress, a website that began as a grassroots effort to encourage politicians to tweet with constituents. McCroskey is now the founder and ideator at IdeaLoop.

Miller received his B.S. in computer science in 2008. During his 15 years at Tyson Foods, Miller has worked in technical and business leadership roles and has been fundamental in initiatives such as development of computer vision solutions powered by machine learning to improve production automation. Now, Miller is a leader in the application of emerging technologies to business and manufacturing.

Puryear received his B.S. in computer science in 2012, making him the youngest addition to the academy. After graduation, he joined Drip as director of product strategy. Now, Puryear is the director of product at Recharge, where he leads a team of product managers and product owners.

Sanders received his B.S. in computer systems engineering in 2001 and later received his M.S. in computer systems engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. After graduating, he took a job with Acxiom before moving to J.B. Hunt and then Walmart. Now, Sanders leads modernization and scaling efforts for Walmart's in-store pricing system, enabling no-touch digital shelf labelling and cloud-powered checkout.

Simmons received his B.S. in computer science in 2001. After graduation, he spent 20 years supporting mission critical distributed technology solutions at IBM, Toshiba and Bossa Nova Robotics. Now, Simmons works as InOrbit's head of product, where he leverages his extensive experience with autonomous mobile robots.

Umdenstock received her B.S. in computer engineering in 2003 with a minor in mathematics. After graduation, she began working as an intern at Walmart, where she began to move up the ranks. After her success as a software and systems engineer, Umdenstock moved into leadership positions. Now, she works as the chief of staff for the Developer Platforms organization within Walmart Global Tech.

The academy is making strides toward diversifying its members. The new members show great promise for the future of the academy. Inductees Bektemirov, Bertram and Umdenstock attended the business meeting the following morning, providing excellent insight to the board. The academy looks forward to improving over the next year with the great additions they have made to membership.