About Dr. Mark Snyder

Mark Snyder's fascination with computers began in high school with a Radio Shack TRS-80, where limited memory forced creative programming in BASIC. This early puzzle-solving joy led to a vocational data processing program and a bachelor's in computer science from the University of Central Missouri.

His professional career started at Trans World Airlines, building airline reservation systems, followed by roles at American Airlines and early web innovations at Expedia (versions 1.0–3.0) during its Microsoft days. Highlights include contributing to the space combat game Allegiance (2000), returning to Expedia where he architected the global trip insurance and cruise systems, and then later went on to projects like internal navigation systems work for Princess Cruise Lines.

After earning a master's and PhD (focusing on autonomic mobile sensor networks), Mark leveraged corporate experience into a teaching role. Today, as a professor at Florida SouthWestern State College, he loves introducing new people to practical problem-solving. He often says that everyone can learn to program, although some people, once they learn what programming really is, decide they lack a passion for it as a career.

Philosophy: Work hard, stay flexible, be honorable, and learn continually. Degrees prove you can tackle novel problems and think deeply but don't measure a person's worth. Leadership is a servant role and true leaders listen, adjust, and work to help others open doors. Bring fresh ideas tactfully. Question the status quo but do it respectfully, honoring those that had to make the hard decisions to create it. Balance the desire to experience the joy of creating something new against the economic realities of software development.

Outside work: Sailing, tinkering, evolving home lab, IoT, and enjoying the ever-evolving field of software.