Navigating the graduation-to-workplace jump start was a learn-as-you-go approach for the Center for High Throughput Computing (CHTC) web developer Cannon Lock. Five years ago after graduating from UW-Madison with a degree in Computer Science and Statistics, Lock joined the Morgridge Institute for Research - Research Computing group, which is a partner with the CHTC. Ever since, Lock has been learning on his feet and leaping from project to project. He was flung into the world of high throughput computing head on. And it wasn’t exactly easy.

“The transition was pretty challenging at the start because you don’t know what you don’t know. The CHTC is pretty fast moving and also involved in a lot of different things. It was a challenging start to work on a massive range of projects without a huge amount of experience.”

Lock describes his approach to navigating this new world:

“So it’s learning as you go and trying to react quickly on your feet to different projects as they come along. And I think it’s also still a learning process. Every single year you get a little bit more confident in the pieces that you’re working on. Now I know at least what I don’t know.”

As a web developer, Lock’s work spans across teams and software applications, including the longstanding HTCondor Software Suite and the newer Pelican Platform. A typical day is “a lot of moving on your feet,” but that flexibility is what makes working at the CHTC interesting, reflects Lock.

“There’s gonna be two hours of just something that came up, potentially, like an email that came across that you have to respond quickly to. But those keep it fun. I think that makes my day a lot more interesting, it would be pretty boring if I woke up every day and I planned out every day and that’s exactly what I did.”

‘“I think the best part about working at CHTC is I get to do a bunch of diverse stuff. Everything we do is so new. I get to work on so many different pieces. Talking to my friends in more corporate settings, I think you’re more slotted into one piece, but since we’re a smaller team, I get to do different pieces in the whole life cycle of the web application. So I get to learn a lot, but I practice what I’m good at consistently. It’s not just different teams, but it’s also different projects, so I get to work with different people, and then with different people comes different areas of expertise for them. So it’s really fun to work with other people with what they’re good at and learn from them in that capacity.”

Currently, Cannon is building an OSDF web client, a website you can use to access and move research data all in one spot without needing any special tools or technical setup.

“I’m pretty excited about the OSDF web client. The tricky bits just happen to be a lot of server components, which I had to integrate with Pelican as well, building up the bedrock. And then I went through and implemented all the UI pieces on top of that, so now you can actually interact with the system. And I was pretty happy with how it came out.”

For the OSDF Web Client project, Cannon’s student web developer intern Austin Schneider joined in the work.

“Austin did a lot of the user interface pieces there. So I was really excited to see another big project for him to put on his resume.”

CHTC came with a lot of new challenges for Cannon, especially taking on a mentor role to his interns.

“One thing that I’ve started to get better at is just having interns. I think that was really tricky at the start. My previous leadership was just running guys out a landscape crew. This was way different because it’s a lot more intellectual guidance, and also balancing time.”

So far, Cannon has mentored three interns, and enjoys watching them succeed after their work with the CHTC. The flexibility and wide scope of both the projects and work provides interns with the opportunity to learn and solidify their interests.

“It’s exciting to hear what everybody goes and does afterwards. I think I’m three for three on everybody getting jobs. One of my recent interns from MATC just got started at UW-Madison right now. And I think it’s cool, because CHTC does so much different stuff. There’s a lot more leeway to learn and do this well rather than just get it done.”

In addition to mentoring his interns, Lock values working at a non-profit. “Growing up I had many family members who worked as teachers, health workers and police officers. I appreciated that the work they did had so much potential for positive impact and I hoped to find a similar position. I see a non-profit as the most efficient way to impact society. By removing the need for profit there is more potential to focus on the mission statement of the organization. I see that ideal in action at the CHTC where there is a true commitment to researchers and science. When I work, I am working to fulfill that mission statement and not fill the pockets of the person at the top.”

Outside of work, Cannon enjoys walking his dog Bean. “My biggest hobby is walking my dog. She’s got a bunch of energy, so I probably walk her for like an hour a night. Other than that, I like to go biking. I like to shoot basketball at the local park. I play games with my friends. “I think my best fun fact is that I swam across Lake Winnebago. How long did it take me, like, three hours?”