Experience

Frog Design

Principal Technologist
June 2005 – present

frog design provides strategy, design, technology, and manufacturing expertise to clients in a broad range of industries. I work closely with clients and internal teams to unify business needs, creative vision, and the nitty-gritty of technology. I strive to ensure that we take appropriate advantage of technological advance.

• Responsibilities include initial project definition; strategic technical analysis; ideation and prototyping; design validation and usability testing; implementation team leadership and oversight.
• Leading the iPhone development practice.
• Developed an approach to rapid prototyping in early concept development, improving the testability of designs and providing guidance for implementation.
• Designed and implemented an interactive networked data visualization for a digital billboard in Times Square.
• Managed offshore development of a next-generation consumer electronics device.
• Projects include mobile UI and applications, educational tools, novel television UIs, technical architecture for connected device ecosystems, and technical approach to long-lived home appliances and medical devices.
• Opportunistic application of a broad range of technologies.

Collaborative Drug Discovery
December 2007 – February 2008

Collaborative Drug Discovery helps academic, nonprofit, and commercial drug researchers share and mine experimental data. CDD uses test-driven development, pair programming and other agile techniques with the ruby on rails framework. I worked to improve usability while focusing on feature development and bug fixes, as well as delineating an approach to the integration of genomics features.

Wireless Generation

PDA Technical Lead
Jan. 2005 – April 2005

Wireless Generation develops PDA applications that enhance the K-6 teacher-student experience. Millions of students have been assessed using their products. I took charge of the flagship DIBELS product, adding features and fixing bugs while preparing the code for a move from Palm OS to cross-platform.

• Prioritized new feature development for tight schedule (dictated by the school year).
• Led refactoring of tangled code base in preparation for cross-platform implementation.
• Worked with managers toward holistic, iterative design/development process, improving quality of UI implementation.
• C++ on Palm OS and Windows CE, plus PL/SQL and java.

Thinkmap, Inc.
Senior Interface Developer, Consultant
July 2000 – Dec. 2004

Thinkmap (formerly Plumb Design) offers a Java-based SDK for developing dynamic data-driven interfaces, using physical simulation and advanced animation techniques. I worked to develop the flagship software, as well as working with a design team to develop applications for clients.

• Developed a custom GUI framework for flexible visual design and rapid development, closely integrated with Thinkmap core. The emphasis was on performance, code size, and understandability, including the ability to define GUIs through XML/CSS.
• Integration of cross-platform java software into the Mac OS X operating system.
• Ongoing development of core library, including improvements to the physical simulation engine, graphical richness, performance, and overall architecture.
• Client projects included mobile applications, educational tools, scientific visualization, product catalogs, financial analysis, knowledge management, and network security.
• Primarily java development. Also JSP, struts, XML, HTML, javascript, Flash, C++.

Collective.net
June 2003 – February 2004

• Rearchitected java-based web application to improve flexibility, understandability, and speed. Enabled a front-end overhaul.
• Cocoon, hibernate, java and JSP with a PostgreSQL database.

Awards/Performances/Installations

Visual Thesaurus
October 2003

Communication Arts Interactive Annual Award of Excellence. The Visual Thesaurus is a 3D interactive reference tool. It creates an animated display of words and meanings: a visual representation of the English language. The Thinkmap visualization places your word in the center of the display, connected to related words and meanings. You can freely browse related meanings to explore further. It is targeted at an educational audience as well as adult end users.

Vernacular
April 2003

"Vernacular Live from Electronic America is a software android driven by the idea that new media interface culture inspires new means of information exchange. Functional as a standalone application, a Net-based tool, and a multi-media performance instrument."

Vernacular is a Mac OS X application featuring 3D graphics, spatialized sound, and a physical simulation engine. The initial version premiered at EAI's Web Projects Launch in April 2003. It is freely downloadable from EAI. Since the exhibition it has been under continued development, displayed around the world. More information is available in the software section.

• Designed and implemented, under artist direction, application featuring 3D graphics, varied media support, spatialized sound, and physical simulation.
• C++ and Objective-C with OpenGL, Cocoa, and CoreAudio.

Voyzeck
March 2003

This production of Voyzeck required custom software and hardware to incorporate performers' brain waves into the music.

• Created a suite of audio processing applications and software instruments for live performance. Interfaced with custom input devices, digital and acoustic instruments.
• C++ and Objective-C with OS X libraries. MIDI, custom serial.

Skills

Languages – Objective-C, C/C++, python, ruby, Java, scheme, XML, HTML, javascript, ActionScript.

APIs – Cocoa & Cocoa Touch, OpenGL, Java Swing/AWT/servlets/J2ME, POSIX, .NET, Flash, Flex.

Architecture – GUI development, object modeling, rapid prototyping, animation, physical simulation, signal processing, networking, threads, embedded systems.

Interaction analysis – Interface design, usability analysis, user testing, iterative development, wireframes.

General purpose – Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Powerpoint, Keynote, Word.

Education

Wesleyan University
B.A. Religious Studies
Spring 1999

Major in comparative religions: a cross-disciplinary field encompassing anthropology, philosophy, and critical theory. Coursework included a variety of computer science.