Professional Experience
Universal Solutions, Inc.
I worked at Universal Solutions, Inc. during the summer after my Freshman and Sophomore years of college, and also during winter break. I worked mostly with Special Olympics New Jersey, which is one of Universal Solutions' clients. I performed system administration tasks such as running the system backups and updating the computers in the office. I was also asked to write a few small programs to do tasks such as return the ten largest files in a specified directory.
In addition to system administration, I also helped troubleshoot technical problems that Special Olympics employees would have. To this end, I developed several PowerPoint tutorials that would address common technical problems.
Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department
http://lgst.wharton.upenn.edu/
I have been working in the Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania since the Fall of 2007. The job description called for someone to do web updates, basic print design, and administrative tasks, but because of my computer science background, my boss also asked me to look into creating an online application system for the Zicklin Center's Young Scholars Program. The department had been working on this program for some time, but they did not have anyone on staff that could implement this project. I did not have any web development experience prior to this project, however I researched current web technologies and decided that it would be best implemented using PHP and MySQL. I taught myself PHP and how to work with MySQL databases in order to create the online application system, and this sparked my interest in web development. Since then, I have been given more web development projects from the Legal Studies Department, and I have also worked on projects on my own, as a part of other organizations, and as a freelance web developer.
In addition to my web development projects , I update the department's many websites, manage the Zicklin Center's Library and design flyers and brochures for the department.
Freelance Web Designer/Developer
As a freelance web designer I have designed many web sites which can be found in my portfolio. I create my designs in Photoshop and then convert the designs into clean, standards-based code that is cross-browser compatible. I utilize HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Flash when coding my web sites.
I am also a freelance web developer and have developed many web applications which can also be found in my portfolio. When developing a web application, I first sketch out all of the application's features and the information structures that are necessary to implement the application. I then begin coding the application using mainly PHP/MySQL.
My interests lie in Human Computer Interaction and how to create usable, aesthetically pleasing web designs and applications. I utilize skills that I have learned while pursuing degrees in Computer Science, Psychology, and Fine Arts to make this possible and to develop web applications that have "the entire package" meaning that they are aesthetically pleasing, easy to use and understand, and easy to modify and develop further.