A Bit About Me

I'm the kind of person who likes to dig into the nitty gritty of a task and figure out what's going on under the hood. Well... figuratively that is. Real car hoods I have no idea what's going on there. But in software and design and games that's how I operate. Whether its poring over test cases trying to track down the source of a rogue bug that the rest of the team never even made happen, or writing out the algorithms to try to figure out the methods behind a game's RNG and how to manipulate it, that's when I'm in the zone.

This attention to detail has served me well over the years in my schooling and work experiences, and I believe helps me to contribute to delivering the best end results on whatever project I end up working on. I'm also perfectly content working alone on a specific problem or collaborating and communicating within a larger group to work together on solutions.

Education

I recently completed my degree at Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor of Science, with Distinction, in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology, with a minor in Computer Science. Through this program I was exposed to and learned not only a variety of development skills and about working + collaborating in multidisciplinary teams, but also an array of knowledge of the design process and finding solutions to problems for users across disciplines. User testing and related Design Evaluation techniques were quite comprehensively covered as well. There was also some exposure to various New Media including interactive film, body interface, and animation involved too.

Previous Work

In 2011, I completed a 12 month co-op with BlackBerry (then Research In Motion) working as a Software Test Associate on the WebWorks platform. WebWorks is a technology for both the legacy BlackBerry 7 operating system, the PlayBook OS, and BlackBerry 10 that allows developers to create web/html based applications with access to various native APIs that a traditional application would include. My role involved testing HTML5 support according to the W3C guidelines and logging encountered bugs with the development team. At the time and at present, the platform still scores the highest amongst mobile on the HTML5 test.

In 2012 I completed another 4 months at BlackBerry, as a Technical Writer on the Developer Documentation team. This exposed me to the link between developers creating development tools and the access to/support for those tools provided to external teams. My particular role covered the documentation of modifying and porting Android applications as well as the Adobe AIR for BlackBerry 10 APIs.

Finally, in 2013 I decided to give back to the School of Interactive Arts and Technology that I was receiving my degree from and acted as a TA for the first year course IAT 167 - Digital Games: Mechanics, Design, and Programming. In this role I collaborated with the professor and second TA in creating lesson plans and assignments designed to address the basics of OOP using ActionScript3, as well as leading labs every week. I received very positive reviews for this role, with one anonymous student feedback even suggesting I replace the professor in the future.

Other Interests

• I've recently become a bit of a hobbyist speedrunner for video games, primarily the N64 Zeldas and some classic SNES and DOS era titles. This probably has to do with how much more game breaking and insight into how the underlying code is working this era of runs rely on.
• While I may not be much for TV or Movies, I still am pretty dedicated to searching out music and getting way too obsessive over trivia and knowledge for bands I get attached to.
• I haven't followed hockey very closely in a few years, but if the Canucks or the Habs get on a roll around playoff time I definitely pay attention.