About Me
Hello there! I am Michael Fryer, a Data Scientist & Software Engineer. I graduated from Montana Technological University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. I am currently pursuing a Master's in Applied Data Science at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, where I also work as a Machine Learning Teaching Assistant.
While at Montana Tech, I worked as a Software Engineer at the Butte Food Bank, where I designed and built FRED, a full-stack inventory and reporting system. After graduating, I joined Heavy Iron Studios in LA as an Associate Game Programmer. During my tenure at Heavy Iron, I was the lead UI developer on Pac-Man: Mega Tunnel Battle. Our game was built in UE4 and delivered to Bandai Namco in the fall of 2020. In addition to my responsibilities on the game UI, I also created the Live Ops portal that Bandai Namco would use once the game shipped — for that I reached for Django. After we shipped, I was put on the Rocket League team where I briefly worked on a still-unreleased project. I took a planned career break after Heavy Iron Studios to pursue independent projects and transition into data science. During that time I built and deployed web applications for my content creation work, including the Arcadia site that aggregates and distributes video content for a creator collective. I collaborated with a team on regular content production while also completing self-directed study in Python, statistics, and machine learning — work that ultimately led to my acceptance into the M.Sc. in Applied Data Science at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.
During my schooling at Montana Tech, I served as the Secretary to my school's student chapter of ACM in 2017-2018 and as the President in 2018-2019. Before becoming Secretary, I volunteered at one of the local museums, the Butte Science Mine, on a project called Digital Signage. The project's vision was to bring more interactive, exploration-based digital interfaces to the museum that help children and adults learn more about a subject. Helping with Digital Signage secured my club roughly $4,000 for an industry trip we later took to Seattle, where we visited companies such as Microsoft, Valve, and a couple of startups. As the Secretary, and again as the President, I helped my department get accredited as a testing site for the ICPC regionals. This meant schools from all around Montana could commute to Butte to compete in the competition as opposed to the next closest testing site in Colorado. Many smaller schools, including ourselves, would not have been able to compete if there was not a local testing site like ours.
In my free time I love to pursue my hobbies of playing video games and creating video game content. In 2021, I started creating Minecraft content on YouTube. Over the years I have gained over 500 subscribers and have felt my skills as a creator and editor grow. Starting this hobby allowed me the opportunity to become part of a Survival Multiplayer Server, or SMP. By working together with the other members of Arcadia SMP, we have created a wonderful world for viewers to enjoy. One of my favorite projects on Arcadia was creating a deckbuilder game for my fellow members to play. I did everything from scratch — card design, card balance, and "programming" in Minecraft. The one exception was card art, which a fellow server member helped me with. When the game finally released, it was incredible to watch my server members get hooked on it. Watching players theory-craft about card combos — or rage over their most-wanted cards not showing up in the shop — was endlessly entertaining. Seeing this project through from start to finish was highly rewarding and has given me plenty of ideas for similar projects in the future.
Not all my hobbies are related to the computer. I also love getting outdoors, especially during the summer. Taking a drive out to Polebridge, MT or floating down the Tobacco River are both fantastic ways to spend a summer day, as is throwing bags in the backyard. I also enjoy getting out early in the morning to do some trolling on Lake Koocanusa. In the fall of 2024, I caught the biggest rainbow trout I've ever seen out on Koocanusa — it weighed in at around 4.5 pounds! After some time in the smoker it tasted delicious as well. I'm looking forward to getting out fly fishing in the spring again. Montana winters can be pretty long, so you have to make the most of summer while it's around!
In the fall of 2024, my parents and I renovated the exterior of the cabin I am currently living in. The previous owners hadn't taken great care of it, leading to significant exterior damage — they had never applied chinking to seal the logs, and the siding was nearly destroyed by birds going after bugs in the walls. We applied chinking to all the exterior logs to keep out bugs and help seal against the cold. We also ripped off all the old siding, which was unpainted tongue-and-groove just stapled to backer board. Once the six-week-late Hardie board finally showed up, we got it up over a fresh layer of Tyvek. There is still more work to be done inside, but the exterior work has already made a huge difference!
If you made it this far, thanks for reading through all that. There are links to this project's GitHub, my YouTube, and a download for my here as well as in the footer.