Personal Details

Address:Given on request Date of Birth:31st of August 1978
Telephone:Given on request Nationality:British
Email:Given on request Available:N/A

History of employment

NRICH (November 2019 - Present)

I am currently a web app developer for NRICH, a maths education project based at the University of Cambridge. I develop new maths games and environments in JavaScript, as well as converting old resources which were made in Flash and no longer work to use modern technology. I am striving for high standards of accessibility and usability.

University of Exeter (February 2017 - December 2018)

I supported a psychology research project about mindfulness at the University of Exeter, which was funded by the Mind and Life Institute and involved programming and design for a virtual reality scenario using C# and Unity.

Cambridge City Council (May 2015 - May 2019)

I was elected as a councillor for Market ward in the 2015 elections, on behalf of the Green Party. This was a flexible part-time role, I spent about 18 hours a week on this on average. It involved reading a lot of reports, meeting residents, and public speaking.

Royal Society of Chemistry (June 2013 - May 2015)

Multimedia Innovation Specialist, researching and prototyping technological approaches to chemistry education. This included futuristic hardware like the zSpace, LeapMotion and Durovis Dive, but also some practical projects that went into full production. The Screen Experiments project is one such example, I also developed an interactive water cycle activity for the Cambridge Science Festival and Big Bang Festival, and an augmented reality molecule treasure hunt with an accompanying HTML5 game.

Midsummer Energy (September 2012 - June 2016)

Full stack development of the Easy PV web app, using JavaScript and PHP with AJAX. This is a tool for solar PV installation planning, which uses the HTML5 canvas with the Kinetic.js library for roof graphics.

Medical Research Council (December 2012 - January 2013)

Development of “Listen up” experiment, converting Matlab code to PHP with AJAX. The Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit wanted an research experiment to be prepared so that it could be run on an iPad as part of an installation at the Science Museum in London.The experiment used HTML5 audio to play two similar sounds, and tested the participants' ability to distinguish between them.

Jagex (October 2006 - March 2012)

I was a Senior Developer and worked on nearly every facet of MMO game development using both server-side and client-side scripting. I led several projects, and three focus tests, as well as being a scrum master for several sprints. I developed and curated one of the tutorials, two of the starting towns, an endgame zone, and some subsystems such as mining and raids.

I represented Jagex on the Tiga Examination Committee, which is responsible for accrediting academic awards given by the organisation.

Deep Red Games (December 2004 - June 2006)

Lead Designer on a Hotel Tycoon game which wasn't released, providing design direction and structure. I focused on specifying the basis for the artificial intelligence of characters in the game, as well as top-level locations and scenarios for the game.

Earlier I was a designer on Tycoon City New York. Here, I shared with a small team the task of designing and scripting in Visio all missions and annual parades. I liaised with the programming team to set up the AI systems.

Argonaut Games (May 2002 - October 2004)

Gameplay Programmer on Lego Bionicle and Catwoman. I worked on many game systems, including player character control and combat on both titles which required a deep understanding of the animation system. I also led development of the opening level in both games, the most significant in terms of user experience and visual impact.

H2G2 / The Digital Village / Phase 3 Studios (October 1999 - February 2002)

I was a Software Engineer on Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy game for PC. Using C++ with in-house libraries, I had responsibility in physics, input handling, front-end and menu UI, the media management system, memory optimisation (dynamic asset loading using potentially visible set culling with portals) and artificial intelligence systems.

Before that, I was a Software Engineer on H2G2.com, helping to migrate the old Perl version of the online guide to a C++ engine, which was able to use XML translators to serve web browsers and mobile devices with in-house and community-created content. I worked on the software architecture, XLST, SQL stored procedures, and ISAPI filters.

Education and qualifications

University of Essex (1996 - 1999)

BSc Hons Computer Science with Software Engineering (2.ii)

Richmond upon Thames College (1994 - 1996)

A Level grades: Maths (B), Computing (C), Art (D)

Languages

  • JavaScript
  • node.js
  • jQuery
  • Kinetic.js
  • D3.js
  • AngularJS
  • PHP
  • C#
  • C++
  • Python
  • Unity

Interests in Computing

  • Gameification
  • Education and the digital divide
  • Procedural generation
  • User experience
  • Design patterns
  • Data visualisation
  • Tech for refugees

Other interests

  • Painting and drawing
  • Board games, computer games and puzzles.
  • Playing guitar.
  • Tennis and badminton.
  • Meditation, yoga and mindfulness.

Other

I have a full clean UK driving license.

References

References available upon request.

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