My Objective

I want to create experiences.

I want to create experiences that make people learn, experiences that make people laugh, experiences that make people feel. I have been devoting my free time to learning this trade - I took on a film studies minor where I could study how movies like Die Hard made me feel like a badass and how every single Pixar movie made me want to bawl my eyes out. By focusing on video game development I have been able to deliver these experiences in a straightforward way. I have spent countless hours programming small applications and games, focusing on user experience and UI design. My education in computer science has given me an opportunity to learn about the intricacies of computer systems, leading to more efficient and extensible code. After a few years of working on these skills, I am ready to put them to the test, and continue to refine my craft.

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Education

University of Kansas - Honors Program

Expected Graduation Date: May 2020

Major - Computer ScienceMinor - Film & Media Studies

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Work Experience

BK Technologies - Software Intern

January 2018 - Present
BK Technologies is a company that specializes in the development and manufacturing of two-way radios for public safety uses. The products they develop include portable, handheld two-way radios, mobile base stations, and computer applications. Their headquarters are in Melbourne, Florida, but their engineering office is located in Lawrence, Kansas - this is where I've worked since January of 2018. During my time here, I've worked on a variety of things, and have learned a lot.

A majority of my time at BK Technologies was spent working on their computer applications. Working on these applications gave me extensive practice in java (and a little bit of C#). One thing I enjoyed about my internship here is that there was largely no hand-holding - if you needed it, the full-timers loved to help, but by and large you were expected to learn most things on your own. This gave me a "trial by fire" way of learning the codebase, which I really appreciated. This gave me great experience in learning how a large codebase functions from the ground up - a skill that will no doubt be very useful in my future ventures.

At BK, I was not only working on the computer applications, I was also working on our autotesting software and radio development. The autotesting software was created using Pytest, which was a fun time for me, a guy that had not known Python before this internship. Thanks to this, I now have a deeper understanding of Python and its uses. The autotesting software also used a lot of advanced Python, which was a great learning experience.

The final thing I contributed to at BK was the radio software. BK Technologies is ultimately a radio company, and while the computer applications and autotesting system were important, their radios are the reason the company exists. I mostly worked on user interface and fixed bugs on the software side, but I was also able to help work on the new technology that is coming out. Much like the computer applications and autotest system, the radio's infrastructure is quite large. Working on these three different codebases gave a me fantastic experience in not only different coding styles, but also different design patterns.

Overall, my time at BK Technologies has been very informative and an invaluable learning experience. I not only obtained an insane amount of knowledge when it comes to programming, but I also learned how the scrum process model works in industry. The experience was a great one, and I sincerely thank everyone who made it happen.

Kansas Algebra Program - Teaching Assistant / Tutor

August 2017 - December 2017
The Kansas Algebra Program (or KAP) is a university-run organization that facilitates MATH 002 (Intermediate Algebra) and MATH 101 (College Algebra) classes for students. Not only do they offer the courses, they also have designated testing and a help room where students can come and ask tutors questions about the material. I worked at KAP for one whole semester, and that was enough time to refine my teaching skills and practice my communication skills.

At KAP, my official job title was Teaching Assistant, but that doesn't quite explain what I did during my time there. While at KAP, I was in charge of my very own MATH 101 (College Algebra) class with about twenty-five students. I was tasked with preparing lectures, grading homework, and being there for my students if they ever needed help with any aspect of the class. The workload was immense but highly rewarding - I taught the class three times a week for an hour, and grading homework took roughly another four to six hours on top of that. This was one of the reasons why I left KAP - the workload was just a bit too much for a student who was in charge of a club, in a jazz band, and was taking seventeen credit hours. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, though. Teaching gave me a great opportunity to practice my communication skills, and preparing lessons allowed me to exercise creativity to help students understand complicated topics.

Being a Teaching Assistant did not only include teaching a class, but it also meant I was responsible for tutoring in the Help Room as well. KAP's Help Room is a place where students can go to ask questions and get help on the homework and material for the class. As a tutor, I was responsible for knowing the material and being able to explain said material in a logical way to students who were confused. The process gave me valuable practice in explaining concepts to people who didn't understand them, something that is very useful in the field of programming.

I ended up leaving KAP for two reasons:

1. The workload was getting to be too much to handle.
2. I got an offer to work at BK Technologies.

While my time at KAP was short, it was filled with fantastic people and a billion learning experiences. KAP helped me strengthen my skills as a speaker, as well as helped me expand my knowledge of linear algebra, a concept that shows up very frequently in the glorious world of Computer Science.

Mí Día from Scratch - Host

December 2015 - August 2017
Mí Día from Scratch is a high-end mexican restuarant in the Dallas area, focusing on Santa Fe, Tex-Mex, and classical Mexico City cuisines. I started working at the Plano location right before they opened in 2016, and worked there through my senior year of high school to my sophomore year of college. I worked as a host, meaning I was in charge of choosing where to seat guests, as well as performing various duties around the restuarant.

Being a host taught me a lot about communication and patience. The restuarant was quite popular, especially during the summer, and wait times would frequently reach up to two hours for a table. Due to my position, I was responsible for telling guests how long they should wait, and many times people were not happy about the time I gave them. I would patiently listen to guests complaints about the wait time and inform them I couldn't do anything about it. This patience was a skill that would come in handy at my next job working as a college algebra teacher and tutor.

Working at Mí Día was also a leadership opportunity. Because I was a part of the original crew that helped open the restuarant, I was given the role of teacher for many new hosts. This responsibility was a great honor, and I did my best to make my managers proud.

When I moved to Kansas to pursue my college career, I did not entirely quit Mí Día. Instead, I would work whenever I was back home, whether it be for a short time (weekends) or a long time (school breaks). From year and a half of working as a host, I learned plenty of soft skills that would help me no matter where I went in life. I learned how to effectively communicate with people who know nothing about the industry, I learned how to teach others all aspects of a complicated job, and I also learned how to manage my time well, and make sure that things moved smoothly and effectively.

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Achievements

KU Film & Media Studies Tensies Awards - Best New Media Project

November 2018 Over the span of my fall semester in 2018, I worked on a game called Cannoneer. Cannoneer was a project built for my Game Theory/Design class, and my professor enhoyed it so much, he urged my teammate and I to submit it to the KU FMS Tensies Awards (basically the University of Kansas Film & Media Studies Department's version of The Oscars). We did, and the project ended up being a huge hit! The judges raved about the game (one got angry at us because he couldn't stop playing for over an hour), and we ended up leaving the awards ceremony with the prize for Best New Media Project! It was an insanely cool experience, especially because we were able to make a speech when we received our award! For more information on the project, you can click here or just navigate to the page through the Projects tab.

Jayhacks Code-A-Thon - Second Place Team

February 2017
In February of 2017, I joined the inaugural Jayhacks hackathon (later HackKU) to create a game with a small team - that game was Terminal. The game was an asychronous cooperative game where one player uses a controller to play a platforming game, while the other player uses the keyboard to type commands into a terminal, manipulating the world the platformer played in. I go into much more detail about this game in the Terminal page on this website, so I would recommend checking that page for more information.
At the end of the hackathon, Terminal's team ended up taking home second place and a pair of Beats headphones! The experience and success at this hackathon gave us the skills and confidence to continue on with bigger and better projects in the future.

KC Federal Reserve Code-A-Thon - Grand Prize Winner

November 2016
In the November of 2016, with very little experience in programming, I joined a team of five in the annual Kansas City Federal Reserve Code-A-Thon. The team and I had 24 hours to create ElectionIQ, a web service that assisted people with the process of navigating through the election cycle. The website could help the user register to vote, learn who was on their ballot, and find out where they could go to cast their vote. The website utilized Google's Civic Information API to get the relevant information to the site.

The reason why this isn't on my Projects page on this website is because I didn't do much programming here. I did a little bit on the bug-fixing side of things but overall I didn't contribute much to the codebase. However, that does not mean I didn't do anything. Instead of coding, I worked on all the promotional material for ElectionIQ, including the video:

ElectionIQ Video

At the end of the competition, we were selected to be one of three finalists who got to go to Kansas City and present their projects in front of a room full of executives from the KC Federal Reserve. This was a great opportunity to work on my public speaking and network. Thanks to our application, media, and presentations, our team left the code-a-thon with first place! The experience gave me a glimpse into something I would be doing a lot in the future: working on a team. It also gave me a goal: next time I joined a hackathon, I would do more programming. And at the Jayhacks Code-A-Thon, that's exactly what I did.

KU Cardboard Boat Regatta - First Place Sailor

October 2016
This is probably my greatest accomplishment.

In October of my freshman year of college, I joined a few of my friends in the creation of a cardboard boat to race in the now annual KU Cardboard Boat Regatta. Over the course of a month, we designed and built a functioning boat out of nothing but cardboard, duct tape, and paint. Once the project was complete, I was in charge of sailing the boat, named The Reginald after a bug that was found inside. I sailed the boat to victory, garnering us the first place prize and a place in the Lawrence Journal-World.

Jokes aside, the competition was a great learning experience. This was my first experience of crunch time, which is something I am now very familiar with. I also learned that cardboard boats are surprisingly expensive, information that has been extremely valuable in my day-to-day life.

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Leadership

ACM - Webmaster

August 2018 - Present
Due to the recent nature of this leadership role, not much has been done. However, I am in charge of leading a small team of freshmen and sophomores in the creation of a website for the Association for Computing Machinery club at KU. I act as a sort of moderator, guiding the younger students in the right direction as they create the website. I also teach the basics of HTML, CSS, and Javascript in this role.

Once the website is up and functional, a link will be provided here.

HackKU - Events Chair / Videographer

October 2017 - June 2018
For last year's weekend-long hackathon, HackKU, I was not a participant but in fact, an organizer. I functioned as HackKU's Events Chair, meaning that I was responsible for coordinating events and talks for participants to attend. This was a fun adventure, as I not only got to exercise my creativity in coming up with possible events to entertain competitors, but I also got to communicate with industry professionals in helping them set up talks.

This was all done before the hackathon, but during the hackathon I had a different role. During the hackathon, I was in charge of making sure events went smoothly, that all talks were on-schedule and well-attended. I was also the on-campus liaison for the event sponsors, meaning that if someone needed something, they came to me. This gave me an opportunity to communicate and create friendships with the higher-ups in certain companies. In addition to all of this, I was in charge of preparing and delivering the opening speech.

Events were not the only thing I was in charge of - I was also in charge of capturing the moment. With the assistance of a close friend, we created a promotional video for the hackathon that included videos of competitors programming; people partaking in the festivies; and interviews from the organizers, volunteers, and sponsors. Check out the fruits of our labor here:

HackKU Video

ACM - Programming Club Co-Chair

August 2017 - May 2018

Last year I functioned as one of two Programming Club Co-Chairs for the Association of Computing Machinery club at KU. Programming Club was unique, as it was a subset of ACM. Where ACM focused more on professional development and industry talks, Programming Club, which met after ACM meetings, focused more on the art of programming. This featured talks, presentations, workshops, and projects. My job as Programming Club Co-Chair was to work with my other Co-Chair in the planning and execution of these meetings. These meetings happened every other week for an entire year, meaning I planned about 15 or 16 meetings. This experience not only gave me valuable communication and public speaking skills, but it also gave me a much deeper appreciation for programming and those who do it. I loved it so much, I decided to continue on the board of ACM with the role of Webmaster, info of which can be found above.

Jazz Band - Lead Trombone

August 2016 - Present
I am not just a soulless programmer, destined to spend my life hunched over a computer screen, never being able to talk to people in person. I also play trombone! I've been in a jazz band since I was in seventh grade, and when I came to the University of Kansas I didn't let my hectic academic schedule interfere with what I love. I have been and am currently the lead trombone in the University of Kansas's prestigious Jazz Ensemble II. Not only does this mean that I get to play the high notes, but it also means that I am generally the leader of the trombone section.

I love jazz band because it is a fantastic creative outlet. Above all, improvisation is the best part of jazz band. Improvisation combines the creative thought process of What will sound good? with the technical thought process of What notes are in the chords? It sounds so cliché, but improv truly gives me an unobstructed outlet to express myself through. I believe that it is the purest form of music - the melody being played is only slightly influenced by the music behind it; the melody comes directly from the performer's heart. And yes, I realize how pretentious that may sound, but it's the reason that I continue to play. The ability to make music that you come up with is a privilege, and I am so lucky to be able to use it.

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