Department of Conservation and Recreation
Conserve. Protect. Enjoy.
Department of Conservation and Recreation
Andy Patel, DCR's web developer.It should surprise no one that a member of DCR's Public Communications Office (PCO) speaks five languages, but even that number pales in comparison with his mastery of coding languages. This versatile fellow, Andy Patel, is “fluent” in 21 varieties of programming languages, three database applications and too many software packages to list here.
Patel, a native of Gujarat, India, first worked part-time at DCR for six months in 2007. His job then was to ensure that the agency's 12,000-asset website complied with state accessibility and look-and-feel standards - no simple task. He left DCR and Virginia for a stint in Arkansas, but the irresistible lure of Virginia proved too strong. He returned in mid-2011 to work full-time as DCR's web developer.
"On a typical day, I pore over thousands of lines of code, sometimes tens of thousands of lines of code, and improve it, usually by condensing it," said Patel. "I'd say the toughest task I've faced was YODA - Your Online Database Application. YODA’s kind of like a city in that it’ll never be done. In fact, it's in its fifth version."
YODA has more than 50 distinct applications and does everything from tracking vehicle maintenance and prescribed burns to fetching website content. In that respect, YODA is essentially a scratch-built content management system.
Patel says that what he most likes about DCR is the variety of work and the freedom to be creative. He said, "I like talking to people, learning about to what they need, and developing applications that make their jobs easier and improve their productivity."
When he's not coding, he enjoys fixing things at home and watching movies from "Hollywood and Bollywood," adding, "I'm not really a book guy."
Perhaps, but he is a math guy. In 2007, he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a minor in mathematics at VCU.
He and his wife, Ankita, recently moved from Richmond to Williamsburg. He’s now a full-time teleworker but still treks 53 miles from former capital to current capital for meetings and other staff get-togethers.
Asked what he most wants to achieve, Patel responded, "My goal, really, is to free co-workers from mind-numbing work so that they can concentrate on more fulfilling efforts. Long-term, I'd like to do that for the whole commonwealth."
