Stuff I've learned recently…

I teach this stuff. I didn't say I could do it.

About Me

First things first. Why “Kousen IT”? My last name is pronounced like the relative (cousin), so while I say “Cousin I.T.,” my wife pronounces my company name like it was a member of the Addams Family.

My name is Ken Kousen, and I am the owner of Kousen IT, Inc., a company that does software training and consulting. I teach training courses and do consulting and mentoring in the Java-related areas, specializing in topics that include Java, Groovy, Gradle, Kotlin, Android, and Spring.

My picture, from September 2019
Picture taken at Oracle Code One conference, September 2019

For those who don’t feel like visiting my company site, I am a Java Champion, Oracle Groundbreaker Ambassador, Grails Rock Star, and the author of the books Kotlin Cookbook (O’Reilly), Modern Java Recipes (O’Reilly), Gradle Recipes for Android (O’Reilly), and Making Java Groovy (Manning).

On the academic front, I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a BS in Mathematics from M.I.T., an MA and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton, and an MS in Computer Science from R.P.I. I teach roughly one course a semester at Rensselaer at Hartford.

Finally, the subtitle “I teach the stuff — I didn’t say I could do it,” is pretty close to the same quote by Robin Williams from Good Will Hunting.

11 responses to “About Me”

  1. curious Avatar
    curious

    Curious, why would a PHD in Aerospace Engineering want to shift careers to become an Internet Software Expert, Teacher … from what I hear, Aerospace Engineering is the place to be.

  2. kousenit Avatar
    kousenit

    That’s certainly a reasonable question and worth a decent response. Rather than answer in a comment, though, I think I’ll add a new post about this.

    Thanks again for your comment!

  3. sasi Avatar
    sasi

    Hi, ken, Nice to know about your carrer shift. I am exactly opposite to your situation..
    have to take a step.

  4. Kalyan Tilak Avatar
    Kalyan Tilak

    Hi Kounsen, its really good site to have some kind of knowledge on things which many developers don’t even care of. Really your qualifications and interests are damn good. Hope you would produce many more things which one can’t expect. The spring related answers are really good. Hope you can deliver more. See you.

  5. bibomedia Avatar
    bibomedia

    🙂

  6. Adam V Avatar
    Adam V

    Hi Ken,

    I want to thank you for keeping up a very interesting site. I’m a recruiter so I try to stay on top of technologies as best I can. Your Groovy and Grails writings are keeping me up to speed. Just wanted to say thanks! Also, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask… Do you know any SOA Architects with documented Groovy and Grails experience who would want to work a 6 month contract etirely from home? Thanks!

    Adam

  7. Carlos Adolfo Ortiz Q Avatar
    Carlos Adolfo Ortiz Q

    I hope to learn from your wise training in this blog. One is learning all the time.

  8. Hussain Sabir Avatar
    Hussain Sabir

    Hello Mr Kousen,

    I enrolled for the Spring Training sponsored by my company and I have been informed that you would be taking sessions of our Spring Framework. Just out of curiosity I searched and found your blog. “Very Impressive”.

    I look forward to speaking with you on the Training, scheduled from 26th April.

  9. Ken Kousen Avatar
    Ken Kousen

    Hey, thanks for visiting. I’m looking forward to the class. Be sure to say hi when we start next week. 🙂

  10. Alfredo Duran Avatar
    Alfredo Duran

    I’m impressed about your academic background. I think of you as a person that is very curious and has a thirst for knowledge. But I can’t help to think about the how you were able to study as much?. My wife said that you will have to be wealthy to be able to pay for an education like yours. I’m sorry to post this question here. You may deleted as you wish. How did you do it?

  11. Ken Kousen Avatar
    Ken Kousen

    The answer is easier than you think. The two BS degrees I got as a double major which I completed in four years, so effectively I paid half as much for each degree as everybody else paid for one. The MA and Ph.D. degrees came during my four years of graduate school, where I had a fellowship for one year and was a teaching / research assistant the remaining years. That meant I made very little money, but at least it was coming toward me rather than away. The final MS in Computer Science I got at night while I was an employee of United Technologies, who paid for the whole thing.

    So my parents paid for my MIT education, which resulted in two degrees simultaneously. Princeton paid me to work while a graduate student, so I didn’t pay for that, and UTC paid for my R.P.I. degree which I earned while still a full-time employee.

    As you implied, I never could have afforded it all otherwise.

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