Justin White: Creating the map to innovation

Man with beard and cap smiles at right of image; woman with sunglasses on her head smiles to the left

Justin White

Senior Developer

What area do you work in within the VPFA portfolio?
I work in the Location Innovation Lab (aka Campus GIS & Mapping) under Safety and Risk services.

What is your current position, and what are your job responsibilities?
My current title is Senior Developer, although my duties range far beyond the borders of a traditional IT developer. My primary role is developing innovative new software applications that incorporate map/location technologies. These applications are generally web-based, but I also develop applications that run on mobile devices, including iOS and Android. Beyond application development, I am responsible for architecting application solutions, designing and maintaining databases and the data they hold, administering Windows and Linux servers, and interfacing with customers and partners. I am a bit of a jack-of-all-trades.

What has been your career path; how did you end up in your current position?
Interestingly enough, I started my career as an accountant! I worked for several years at an accounting firm in my hometown doing tax returns, payroll, corporate accounting, and business valuations. I quickly realized that I was much more interested in computers and writing software. I found I could leverage my business background and computer experience to this end. I found myself in a unique niche where I could write programs specifically for business systems as I understood both sides of the equation.

What obstacles have you overcome in your career?
The biggest obstacle in my career has been keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of technology. I have spent countless hours reading technology books and anything I can find online to stay relevant and up to date. This is doubly difficult when you are trying to get your work done. But in the end, I am blessed and have been pretty lucky. My obstacles have been relatively minor. I try to constantly give back by trying to teach others what I know and be patient with learners.

What is your work history and education that enabled you to attain your current position?
I honestly believe my work history has allowed me to get to where I am in some unique ways. I started as a dishwasher at 14 and worked my way up to kitchen manager at Macaroni’s Ristorante in Ashland, where I stayed until I was 19 years old. During a year off from school, I ran the main lodge kitchen at a ski area in Kirkwood, California. These experiences, especially at a young age, gave me a strong work ethic and taught me how to manage employees and handle a large and varied workload. I had to wear many different hats and deal with the stress of overseeing large operations where failing had real monetary consequences.

Shortly after starting school again, I spent a summer and winter dealing blackjack at Caesar’s in Lake Tahoe, California. This job was an incredibly unique experience that gave me an opportunity to interact with a diverse set of people across a broad range of different socio economic, ethnic, and religious backgrounds.  I often tell people that I sometimes felt more like a psychiatrist than a card dealer during my time there!

After college, I was an accountant for three years and then worked briefly at a private company in Nevada implementing the business solution program, SAP. From there I moved to Colorado and worked for Micro Motion, a manufacturing company where I developed business solutions. Upon returning to Oregon, I worked for the city of Eugene where, among other things, I implemented a maintenance management system for Public Works that is still in use some 10 years later. I first began working with the UO in a part-time research support capacity, writing apps to support projects and showing students how to do it. I took the leap to become a full-time team member at the University of Oregon five years ago this June and am loving every minute of it.

How has working at UO enabled your professional goals and interests?
Working at the UO has been an incredible opportunity. I love being involved in as many facets of IT as possible. Universities thrive on innovation – working quickly, not being afraid to fail, and creating new technologies. I have opportunities to work with servers, databases, cloud solutions, application architecture and more, in addition to writing software code. I get to tackle things that, in other places, would be spread across a large team. 

What do you like about your current position?
I honestly think the best part of this position is the people I work with. Beyond our core team, being a part of Safety and Risk Services, and ultimately VPFA, has been awesome. It is cool to be surrounded by individuals who I feel are genuinely looking for solutions to challenging problems. I truly enjoy all the aspects of co-creating innovative applications together with my colleagues. I’m proud of the finished products but I thoroughly enjoy the journey of working closely with my coworkers who will be using these tools on a daily basis. Behind every killer app are a ton of great ideas and thoughtful feedback from our partners.

Beyond the people—as I alluded to earlier—I really enjoy the sheer variety of tasks that I get to perform. I am lucky in that I never burn out working on just one thing because I generally do several different tasks each day. I also really look forward to what I call “guerilla programming”: developing solutions to unique problems rapidly and sometimes under ridiculously tight deadlines. Examples of this included developing applications to display storm damage during winter storm events or being involved in planning for UO reopening under COVID restrictions.

Please share some insight into what your job involves.
I think one of the coolest parts of my job is that I get to collaborate with students, faculty, and staff at the university. 

One of the most rewarding applications that I have been involved with was with and for UO students: My Class Map. This app was a collaboration between the Office of the Registrar, Information Services, and our team that resulted in an incredible product. I know that throughout my entire college career, that first week of classes was nerve racking. The thought of showing up in the wrong place was terrifying. The first day we launched, nearly 20k students used it and as far as we know, we did not route anyone to the wrong room! The thought of helping that many people all at once was incredibly gratifying.

I have also had the opportunity to save the university money, which is just a great feeling. Working alongside our partners at CPFM, we were able to build a mobile application to interact with their maintenance management software, AiM. The application, Anvil, allows users to input information in the field and ultimately saves the university a great deal of money. In addition to efficiencies and time savings for staff, the university avoided many of the added costs of purchasing off-the-shelf software and the associated licensing and maintenance fees.

What advice do you have for others; what secrets would you share for someone thinking of applying to the UO?
Innovation is appreciated at the UO. Prepare to bring your “A” game, but at the same time do not be intimidated! This is genuinely the nicest group of people I have worked with and we love out-of-the-box thinking. 

Share a little about yourself personally:
•    Family: Sarah, Spencer, and Reesa
•    Favorite food: Thai
•    Best movie you’ve seen: Train to Busan

If you could only take three items with you to a deserted island, what would they be?
Lamb by Christopher Moore, a guitar, and a fishing pole.

How do you want to be remembered?
As a good dad.

If you could have the answer to any question, what would it be?
Why is the sky blue? Oh, wait…

(February 2021)