Objective
To be part of a motivated organisation researching and developing interactive software with intelligent feedback that will both challenge me and call upon my abilities, education, and passion in interaction design and computer science.
Skills
- Programming: C/C++, Java, MATLAB, Python, Javascript, PHP, XML/HTML/CSS, Lisp, Scheme, Prolog.
- Topics: audio analysis, realtime graphics, databases, networking, web applications, cross-platform, probabilistic models.
- Operating systems: Windows NT/2000/XP, MacOS X, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD.
- Development tools: Visual Studio .NET, XCode, GCC/GDB, CVS/SVN/Visual Sourcesafe.
- Art/design: MAX/MSP/Jitter, Flash/Flex, Processing, Photoshop, 3D Studio Max, Maya, Ableton Live, Logic Audio, OpenMPT, ChucK.
Experience
Arizona State University (August 2007-Present)
Graduate Research Fellow, Arts Media and Engineering - Tempe, Arizona
- Studying embodied mediation of complex systems for sustainability.
- Developing realtime system for segmentation, indexing, and retrieval of environmental and natural sounds.
- Studying use of embodied and mediated learning in a formal education setting.
Arizona State University (August 2006-July 2007)
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Arts Media and Engineering - Tempe, Arizona
- Studied use of digital media in education with an interdisciplinary research group.
- Created an interactive art exhibit in collaboration with AME faculty and high school art students.
- Developed software for audio event segmentation in continuous recordings.
- Researched semantic archival and oral retrieval techniques for discrete audio events.
- Developed realtime audio database for feature analysis of user-generated sounds.
Honeywell Business Regional and General Aviation (2003-2004)
Intern, IT/DigitalWorks - Olathe, Kansas
- Acquired Six Sigma Green Belt certification through enhancing facility stockroom procedures involving legacy hardware and database applications. Interacted extensively with both co-workers and customers.
- Developed and deployed web applications for site-wide implementation.
- Aided in architecture and usability of Java web application for Bendix/King web site.
Education
Arizona State University (Fall 2007 - Present)
Ph.D. Computer Science and Arts, Media and Engineering
- Science Foundation Arizona Graduate Fellowship Awardee.
- National Science Foundation IGERT Trainee.
Arizona State University (Spring 2005 - Spring 2007)
B.S. Computer Science
- Graduated summa cum laude, 3.92 cumulative GPA.
- Dean's List honour roll all semesters.
Relevant Coursework
- Data Mining (Fall 2006) - classification, association analysis, clustering, and semi-supervised clustering. Emphasis on real-world applications.
- Artificial Intelligence (Fall 2006) - single agent search, heuristic search, adversary search, planning, logical inference, probabalistic propositional logic, Bayes network inference, first order propositional logic, and learning methods.
- Information Retrieval, Mining (Spring 2007) - search engines, crawling, clustering, collaborative and content-based filtering, XML, semantic web, information extraction, data integration, query optimisation, collection selection, and social networks.
- Experiential Systems for Complexity (Fall 2007) - exploration of using an embodied multimodal environment for collaborative interaction with models of complex systems.
- Sound Sensing and Analysis for Interactive Environments (Fall 2007) - fundamentals of recording, microphones and microphone arrays, acoustic ecology, analysis of the human auditory system, sound cognition, and frequency and time based mathematical sound modeling techniques.
Publication/Exhibition
- David Birchfield, Brandon Mechtley, Sarah Hatton, Harvey Thornburg, Mixed-Reality Learning in the Art Museum Context, to appear in Proceedings of ACM SIG Multimedia, Vancouver, BC, October 27, 2008.
- Gordon Wichern, Harvey Thornburg, Brandon Mechtley, Alex Fink, Kai Tu, Andreas Spanias. "Robust Multi-Feature Segmentation and Indexing for Natural Sound Environments." CBMI 2007.
- Connectivity Stage 1 Interlab - Suspended Animation: A Reflection on Calder. Arizona State University Art Museum 2007.
Activities/Honours
- National Science Foundation IGERT Award, 2007.
- Science Foundation Arizona Graduate Fellowship Award, 2007.
- Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative grant, Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, 2006-2007.
- International Game Developers Association 2007 GDC Student Scholarship.
- Actively participate in Phoenix chapter of the International Game Developers Association.
- Conference Associate at Game Developers Conference, 2005-2006.
- College Board AP Scholar with Honour Award, 2004.
- Have participated in and received several awards for various state science and mathematics competitions.
References
Available upon request.