MX Technologies : February 2023 - Present
MX Technologies, Inc.
Staff Software Engineer, Front-end
MX Technologies, Inc. is a financial technology company that aggregates and enhances financial data to provide institutions and their customers with actionable financial insights. I work on the Developer Experience team, helping clients and developers using MX to manage and monitor their interactions with MX APIs.
American Robotics : August 2022 - January 2023
American Robotics
Staff Software Engineer, Front-end
American Robotics is a drone-as-a-service company for site surveys and inspections. While there, I augmented legacy applications with automated testing (unit, integration, e2e, a11y), and created GitHub Actions workflows for automating builds. I was laid off in January of 2023 as part of a 65% reduction in force.
Classkick : July 2021 - August 2022
Classkick
Senior Engineer
Built software with Classkick to help teachers teach and learners learn. They're a fully-remote team helping teachers around the world give real-time feedback to students.
Forbes : July 2014 - June 2021
Forbes Media, LLC
Director of Engineering, Platform Products
I spent seven years at Forbes creating web experiences, mentoring student interns, building an amazing custom content management system, and leading a team of engineers.
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April 2021 - June 2021
Director of Engineering, Platform Products
I led an extended team of fifteen engineers across various software projects and internal tools that ran forbes.com. I collaborated and compromised with stakeholders to deliver features and meet deadlines.
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October 2019 - April 2021
Engineering Manager
My day-job shifted from writing code and managing engineers to exclusively management. I helped the growth and advancement of four fantastic direct reports through the development of our custom content management system.
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May 2016 - August 2019
Senior Engineer, Intern Wrangler
I led a remote Forbes dev team consisting of full-time and student intern developers. We worked out of the MAGIC Lab on the Rochester Institute of Technology campus. We've used Angular, React, AngularJS, and vanilla JS.
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July 2014 - May 2016
Engineer
I built one-off web experiences / landing pages for Forbes' 30 Under 30, lists, and advertising partners. I helped write an experimental mobile-first progressive web app. I grew as a mentor.
RIT : August 2010 - May 2014
College Professor
Rochester Institute of Technology • School of Interactive Games and Media
I have enjoyed almost four years as a college professor. I have taught many sections of twelve different courses, not counting independent studies and seminars, while maintaining outstanding evaluations (just ask ratemyprofessor.com!). I was also recently recognized among the top 10% best-reviewed professors in the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences.
Summer Program Director
Rochester Institute of Technology • Kids on Campus
Kids on Campus exposes local 5th through 12th grade students to computing. I have directed all Kids on Campus operations for the past three summers, after working as an instructor in the program for five summers.
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June 2013 - Present
Chain Gang Chase view details >
Independent Developer, Project Management
Chain Gang Chase is a game project currently under development for the OUYA platform. I accomplished the front-end web, back-end web, and Java game development during a 20-day solo sprint in June 2013, have since run a successful Kickstarter campaign, and am working towards launch in May 2014.
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Summers since 2010
Just Press Play
Mobile Application and Data Visualization Developer
Just Press Play is a game-layer that augments the academic experience for students in RIT's School of Interactive Games and Media. I created the achievement scanning mobile app and the achievement visualizer portion of the user profile page.
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January 2011
Fractal Sudoku view details >
Scaling Graphics and Solution Algorithm
For fun, the geek in me made Fractal Sudoku as an experiment in creating a sequence of related Sudoku puzzles. Each minor grid expands and acts as a seed for the puzzle at the next level. Each level adds a power of 9 more puzzles to the game.
Graduate Student : September 2008 - August 2010
MS in Game Design & Development
Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences • Rochester Institute of Technology
During this time I made a few games, robustified my programming abilities, worked on many teams, wore many hats, and generally learned a multitude of useful skills.
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December 2009 - June 2010
Shmup You! Fighting Spirit
Game Designer, 3D Artist, Gameplay Scripting, UI, and Menus
On a team with two others, we created our capstone game for Xbox 360 in C#/XNA. I helped iterate on the game design making rapid prototypes and also designed a system for adapting game text to different output resolutions.
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June 2009 - October 2009
Picture the Impossible
Lead Webgame Developer
Picture the Impossible was a city-based game that was played in Rochester during Fall 2009, made by RIT students, faculty, and Rochester's Democrat and Chronicle Newspaper. I was the sole Flash developer responsible for five web games, each with seven weeks of serial content.
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February 2009
Oh No! Banjo
Gameplay Interface Designer
As a project for a seminar in Alternate Controllers we created a Banjo-based rhythm game, in which there are fret and string buttons (instead of a single strum bar). I was responsible for the gameplay interface design, and aided with the banjo construction.
Freelance Career : August 2008 - Present
Freelance Flash Game Developer
Workinman Interactive, LLC • Nickelodeon Games
I freelance for Workinman Interactive. On these projects I worked in ActionScript 3.0 using Workinman's existing in-house game engine. I wrote the gameplay scripting and communicated specs to in-house artists, who worked in parallel to create art assets for the final game.
Freelance Web Developer
Democrat and Chronicle Newspaper • Rochester, NY
After Picture the Impossible, I continued working with the Democrat and Chronicle Newspaper. I helped create a series of data-driven web games that are tightly integrated with the DandC's drupal back-end framework.
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April 2012
SpongeBob SquarePants : Second Hand Swag
Game Designer, Flash Developer • Workinman Interactive
In Second Hand Swag, Patrick catches trophies thrown out of SpongeBob's window. I enjoyed scripting a tall swaying stack of trophies that reacts to player movement—move to fast, and the upper trophies will fall off the stack!
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January 2012
SpongeBob SquarePants : Valentine's Day Virus
Game Designer, Flash Developer • Workinman Interactive
For Valentine's Day Virus I studied an algorithm for procedural maze generation. The algorithm uses depth-first search with backtracking and visits each cell knocking down walls until all cells have been visited. The result is a "perfect maze."
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June 2010
SpongeBob SquarePants : Hurricane Havoc
Game Designer, Flash Developer • Workinman Interactive
In Hurricane Havoc, players control SpongeBob who floats from island to island on a blown bubble while avoiding jellies. While randomly generating islands, I had to be sure that the gaps between them were challenging and actually possible.
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February 2010
Invader Zim : Good Gir Gone Bad view details >
Game Designer, Flash Developer • Workinman Interactive
Good Gir Gone Bad takes place on a circular level that seamlessly wraps back upon itself. I had a lot of fun using polar coordinates and creating a dynamic camera system that makes sure both Gir and Dib are visible at all times.
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October 2009
SpongeBob SquarePants : FrankenPatrick
Game Designer, Flash Developer • Workinman Interactive
FrankenPatrick is a simplified spin-off of the Gears game I created for Picture the Impossible. Players drag and drop colored gears to create a gear chain that raises the inanimate FrankenPatrick up and up and up. Upon reaching the top of the tower, lightning strikes, which brings the monster to life.
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August 2008
iCarly : Hacker Attacker
Flash Developer • Workinman Interactive
Hacker Attacker was my first-ever shipped title. Players draw "firewalls" to block incoming viruses from hitting iCarly's video data stream. As more viruses get through, the video bandwidth is decreased. The game is over when the feed becomes static.
Undergraduate Student : September 2004 - August 2008
BFA in New Media Design & Imaging
College of Imaging Arts & Sciences • Rochester Institute of Technology
During this time I studied New Media Design—the coupling of visual design aesthetics and technology of the digital age. My senior-year design portfolio is still available at jp-design.net, though a small handful of the links have not aged well. The resumé there, while accurate, is also out-of-date.
RIT Print & Postal HUB
Student Manager, Graphic Designer, Print and Production Worker
Along with class and study time, I worked 20 hours each week at the on-campus printing facility. This included customer service, digital print production, workflow efficiency, and finishing work.
High School Student : September 2000 - September 2004
WKTV Television, Utica
Production Artist, Studio Camera, Broadcast Audio
My part-time job during high school was at the local NBC affiliate television station. I was the production artist and studio camera or broadcast audio operator for evening and weekend news broadcasts.
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July 2004
Travel to France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Vatican City
People to People Student Ambassador Program
This trip was an excellent primer for the Art History courses I would later take in college. I had the opportunity to see many of the works discussed with my own eyes. You may see what my camera saw at p2p2004.jp-design.net.
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July 2003
Travel to Australia, New Zealand
People to People Student Ambassador Program
In preparation for this trip, I earned an open-water SCUBA certification. Photos for this trip are online at p2p2003.jp-design.net. "No worries," a common aussie phrase, has become part of my vernacular.
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July 2000
Travel to England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland
People to People Student Ambassador Program
Preparing for this trip taught me the value of hard work, as I earned most of the funds through lawn and yard work, odd jobs, and bottle and can deposit returns. I built my first-ever website, p2p2000.jp-design.net, to show photos from the trip.