> work history

  1. Escape Room Tech - Breakout Como, 2018 - Present

    I design, build, and maintain escape room props which players interact with to solve puzzles so they can escape. I work with Arduinos, Particle boards, Raspberry Pis, and other electronics to create systems that are usable, repeatable, and able to withstand the abuse of interactiivity with the general public. I also run rooms for customers and troubleshoot our computer and A/V equipment. It's a pretty general position.

  2. Electronics and Software Support - Part-Time Contract Position, March 2020 - April 2020

    I provided support for the development of a prototype water quality device. I'm actually under an NDA for this so I'm not sure how much I can say but I did debugging and development for software on a Raspberry Pi based system, electronics design, and technical documentation for other developers and designers.

  3. User Collaboration Team - Roll20, 2019 - 2020

    On the User Collaboration Team, I created interactive character sheets for tabletop roleplaying games that players could use on Roll20's virtual tabletop web application. These sheets automate calculations to make the players' lives easier and must be very usable and accessible. Most of the work was in HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript, though I also helped with the transition to use SCSS and PUG as the new standard.

  4. Containerized ETL Engine - CARFAX, 2016 - 2018

    Our team replaced an aging, OpenVMS-based data ingestion system with a microservice system built on Docker containers that maintained compatability with the existing Java-language business rules engine. Our new system could process and load mass amounts of data from thousands of diverse sources in a wide variety of formats. We also designed and maintained internal web applications for our power users to manage the data flow. I also got involved in Linux system administration, as we were largely responsible for our own server cluster which ran CentOS and was deployed with Chef.

  5. Web Development - Freelance, 2014 - 2015

    I spent some time on my own doing small web projects for clients. I worked mostly in straight up HTML and CSS, but I also did some Wordpress customization.

  6. Natural Language Processing - CARFAX, 2012 - 2014

    I got to learn about machine learning juuuust before it was cool. Using those techniques, we built a system that standardizes raw text input from service technicians. We also made a browser-based dashboard with Grails and JQuery that allowed users to edits and improve our training data set, which would then be automatically used to build better categorization models.

  7. Business Rule Development - CARFAX, 2010 - 2012

    I had hardly touched Java before CARFAX hired me. I learned on the job while developing business rules that analyze and cleanse incoming vehicle history data. During this time, I also volunteered for a special team that improved an system for automatically correcting mistakes in data entry.

  8. Workstation Deployment Automation - Missouri S&T IT Dept, 2007 - 2010

    This was my first software development job. The scripts I built with Perl (I know) and Batch (...I know) were used to deploy software on student, professor, and employee workstations across campus. It was also my first time really developing with other people (class projects hardly seem to count). I worked closely with both students and full-time employees and I lead transitioning our deployment system to Windows Vista. I know how that sounds, but look at when this was happening!

> extracurricular activities

  1. Makerspace Board Member - Columbia Gadget Works

    This is a volunteer position where we work to create a welcoming and useful space for all sorts of hackers and makers. I also do my own tinkering on projects involving microcontrollers, robotics, radio, and CNC machines.

  2. Sound Guy - K-BAE Podcast

    I started out just helping to find budget-friendly-but-still-good-quality recording equipment but now I'm like their sound guy. Each week I take their recordings, process and filter the audio, and hand it back to them for final editing. The content is fun but it can be pretty NSFW, so do beware if you decide to look them up.