About

Work

Neal is the CTO of Help Lightning. The company has its own site: helplightning.com.

Bona fides

Education

• University of Alabama at Birmingham, Ph.D., Physics, 1999
• University of Alabama at Birmingham, M.S., Physics, 1996
• Birmingham-Southern College, B.S., Physics and Philosophy, 1994

Selected scholarship and software

• N. C. Evans and D. L. Shealy, Design and optimization of an irradiance profile shaping system with genetic algorithm method, Applied Optics 37.22 (1998).
• N. C. Evans, Genetic Algorithm Optimization Methods in Geometrical Optics (dissertation, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1999). PDF
• N. C. Evans and D. L. Shealy, Design of a Gradient-Index Beam Shaping System via a Genetic Algorithm Optimization Method, SPIE (2000). PDF
• Alexander Laskin, D. L. Shealy, and N. C. Evans, “Optimization-Based Designs,” chapter 7 of Laser Beam Shaping: Theory and Techniques, 2nd ed., ed. Fred M. Dickey (2014). Google Books
• Software: machine-learning-ga164-code-v — a genetic algorithm used with CODE V for optical design.
• Google Scholar

Selected past writing

These are not the Essays series. Older essays from other sites stay here.

• The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence — February 14, 2017
• Blockchain of Fools? — August 15, 2017
• Security is a State of Mind, Not an End State — November 10, 2016
• Monstrous Pictures of Whales and Realities — July 15, 2019

Dr. Stephen Falken was an inspiration to Neal when he was younger. Falken is a fictional character from WarGames: an artificial intelligence pioneer interested in the ethics of using thinking machines.