Objective – A full or part time contractual work with innovative startups in a creative, energetic environment. Special interest in intelligent systems, data mining and analysis, concept formation, and machine learning.
Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison, BS in Computer Sciences, May 2008
Kingston University in London through SFSU Study Abroad Program, 2005-2006
San Francisco State University, Computer Sciences, 2003-2005
Relevant Courses: System Analysis & Design 2 (UML and Human-Computer Interaction), Computer Vision, Cognitive Science, Computer Graphics, Intelligent Web Design (search engines, cognitive modeling, chance discovery, data mining, etc.), Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, Databases, Operating Systems, Statistics, Network Programming, Linear Programming and Optimization
Notable Projects
- Wrote a robust, real-time data mining and analysis tool in java that harvests and dereferences over 200K short urls per hour from Twitter’s search API. Stores statistical data for historical reference and online presentation with < 2 minute lag time (mostly due to Twitter’s rate limiting).
- Software Group leader on UW-Madison IEEE Robotics team responsible for team management, framework evaluation, mapping and navigation systems, and oversight of other projects.
- Independent Research project on autonomous navigation and simultaneous localization and mapping in mobile robotics. The vehicle used probabilistic reasoning to correct odometry data based on environment landmarks while simultaneously building a map of the environment used for autonomously navigating an obstacle course. Practiced low-level C optimization, memory management, network optimization including implementation of application-level message fragmentation, sequencing, and synchronization.
- Robust Client-Server proof-of-concept application written in C using HTTP protocol with direct access to the UNIX TCP stack. Used multi-threaded, producer-consumer model with pthreads.
- Implemented simple feed forward, back propagation neural network library in C++, customizing algorithms in preparation to port to CUDA, a framework for highly parallel streaming processors on nvidia hardware.
- Created from scratch a shape-detecting tool using image processing algorithms and feature classification heuristics. Wrote custom algorithms optimized for this particular application.
- Wrote a tech demo game using versatile ogre3d graphics engine utilizing particle systems, lighting effects and built with extensibility in mind in case of further development. Custom wrote basic physics and AI.
Employment / Internships
| midVentures August 2008 – present Chicago, IL |
Currently serve as CTO and partner of midVentures, a startup providing life cycle business and technology services from idea to product for entrepreneurs. Act as project manager, lead developer, and/or interim CTO for numerous new companies. Orchestrate or consult for projects spanning 1-6 months. Acquire and coordinate talent for all technical and creative positions. Architect infrastructure, data model, and application frameworks. Evaluate tools, technologies, and services. Develop integration components with APIs such as Twitter, Amazon Web Services, and Facebook. |
| PEAK6/OptionsHouse July 2008 – Jan 2009 Chicago, IL |
Worked in the core technologies group responsible for development of application infrastructure with OptionsHouse, the options brokerage arm of PEAK6, a Chicago hedge fund and capital management group. Integrated a Java Messaging System as an inter-server communications platform using SwiftMQ and successfully carried out a zero downtime rollover to the new technology. Developed a framework for distributed stress testing, integration testing and benchmarking with realistic traffic simulations covering numerous use-cases. Defined metrics to measure performance of each critical application component. I identified and attacked bottlenecks, optimizing infrastructure by leveraging low-level knowledge of Linux and highly multi-threaded applications. Wrote an intelligent, application-specific, real-time, continuous database diff tool to synchronously compare live production Oracle and Postgres databases. |
| Zac Witte Design 2003 – present |
Founded a web development firm catering to small organizations. Though mostly independent work, I sometimes manage sub-contractors on larger projects. Work includes dynamic Flash applications and content management systems in PHP and AJAX. I still maintain a steady and growing national clientèle. |
| Institute for Policy Studies Feb 2007- Present |
A long term, contracted project, to develop a custom, highly relational content management system for this Washington DC think tank with a multi-phase rollout plan. It is built from scratch on a PHP/mysql platform using innovative new AJAX patterns, all in an extensible, object-oriented fashion. |
| Think Innovative Media 2002-2003 |
Multimedia development internship gave access to Macromedia courses in Flash, Director, and Authorware. Proved to be an important member of the web team. Learned team skills and practiced communicating in a professional setting. Remained on the team as a paid contractor upon conclusion of internship. |
Skills
- Programming Languages: C, C++, Java, PHP, C#
- HTML, AJAX, XML, CSS, JavaScript (jQuery), Flash (incl. AS2 using OOP patterns), familiarity with Qt (cross-platform GUI library in C++)
- Database Applications: MySQL, PostgreSQL, general SQL programming
- Development Tools: Eclipse, Dreamweaver, CVS, SVN, Accurev, Perforce, vi, linux using gcc + gdb + make/autotools, numerous other IDE’s
- Java-based technologies incl. XML (SAX and DOM handling methods), swing, servlets, and sockets.
- Fluent in Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux including numerous distro’s, shell scripting, and basic server administration.
Other Accomplishments & Activities
Member of Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
IEEE Robotics Team, Software Group Leader (UW-Madison)
Innovative Schools Scholarship
Dean’s List
