Introduction

Hello,

The Beginning

My name is Rodney Murray. I grew up in Northern Wyoming on a farm where I learned the value of hard work and seizing opportunities that present themselves. During my time growing up there I thoroughly enjoyed helping on the farm, and operating heavy equipment. Although my youger self was quite happy with the idea of living and working on the farm for rest of my life, I made the decision (really the decision was already made for me that I would go to college!) to attend the University of Wyoming in Laramie where I received a degree Chemical Engineering. During school I thought for some time that I would want to become a process engineering at a refinery, but at that time I started learning how to adapt and make the most of opportunities that presented themselves on my path through life.

The Middle

My sophomore year I applied and received the opportunity to intern with ConocoPhillips in Farmington, New Mexico in the production engineering group. I found the industry quite interesting and after another internship in Alaska, I accepted a full time offer to work as a petroluem engineer in Anchorage, Alaska with ConocoPhillips and started in July of 2014. After a rotational position and an introductory role, I started down the path of reservoir engineering for the Greater Kuparuk Area (GKA). After a few years of working as a reservoir engineer I realized what I really enjoy is working with computers to build models (analytical, numerical, and of the statistical/machine learning variety) to inform decisions and optimize large complex systems within constraints.

The Present

After a couple years of forging my way into the world of data analytics within the reservoir engineering discipline, I started a role that was newly created in my organization to work as an embedded data scientist (or as they called it data analytics engineer…). During this time I’ve had the pleasure of deploying a model where we utilized machine learning and genetic algorithms to optimize gas lift in GKA, develop and implement a deep learning model for forecasting reservoir production, and using other statistical methods for forecasting and making decisions. After working in this capacity for a few months I recognized the opportunity to strengthen my knowledge in statistics which really is the foundation of all of my current work. In 2021 I started the Master of Applied Statistics program at Colorado State University; I must say I’ve enjoyed it even more than I first expected, and have been continuously excited to directly apply what I have learned in school to my day-to-day work. In 2022 my wife and I decided to move to Helena, MT so that we could be closer to family and continue new adventures. Since then I’ve continued to work for ConocoPhillips remotely, ride by mountain bike, and discover the join of gravel biking around Montana.

The Future

My current plan is to finish the masters program in 2024, and continue to work as a data scientist. I plan on continuing to live in Helena, MT with my wife Kassi for the foreseable future and explore everything that Montana and the surrounding area has to offer. If life has taught me anything though: I can plan and believe that I will be doing something specific in the future, but my ability to work hard and thirst for knowledge tends to lead to me unexpected places!

The Personal Side

While the above describes my history in education and work, I’m a person just like everyone else too! Outside of work and school I do like challenging myself with ideas in statistics and machine learning, but I also really like to enjoy the outdoors and trying new things there. I always enjoyed working on the farm because it was so nice to be outside and see everything happening around you. Now instead of driving a tractor I tend to spend my time doing some sort of biking - mountain biking is my favorite, but you can also catch me fat biking or gravel biking as well. I’ve downhill skiied off and on in resorts since I was in middle school, but in the last couple years have decided to invest in my own equipment and spend more time with that hobby as well as heading out into the back country on my skiis. I’ve classic XC skiied a couple of times a year for the last few years, but recently have picked up skate skiing and have found that signifiantly more enjoyable. I used to do a lot of photography (some of which you may see on this page), but have not spent quite as much time on that recently due to my other hobbies and school.

I met my wife, Kassi, in school at University of Wyoming where we were both majoring in Chemical Engineering. She ultimately decided to move to Alaska with me after she graduated in 2015, and we got married in 2017. It’s really because of Kassi that I have the list of hobbies above, because she also really enjoys the outdoors and loves trying new things. We have a yellow lab named Tig who also loves joining us on our adventures outside and hanging out with our friends.

The Site

This site is an experiment for me. It’s an opportunity for me to try something new and learn new skills which will hopefully prove useful somewhere, and will also hopefully help others see some of my interests and efforts. I can’t promise regular blog updates, but I do want to make an effort to apply my learnings in data science and from my masters program to problems and data outside of work and school and make the results visible here. I hope enjoy it!