==== Resume ================================================================ Kennon Ballou kennon@angryturnip.com ---- EDUCATION ------------------------------------------------------------------- Cambridge University Certificate in English Language Teaching for Adults (CELTA) October 2004 University of Birmingham (Birmingham, UK) MSc in Natural Computation with Distinction (2004) Research: Genetic Art, Multi-agent Epidemic Simulations, Parallel Genetic Algorithms University of Texas at Austin Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science (2001) GPA: 3.5 Relevant Classwork: C/C++, Systems Architecture, x86/MIPS Assembly, Operating System Design, Cryptography Research: Neural Networks, High-performance Computer Graphics Florida College (Temple Terrace, FL) Associate of Arts (1999) (Cum Laude) Dean's List Fall '96, Honor Roll Spring '97, Fall '97, Spring '98, Fall '98 ---- PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE ----------------------------------------------------- 06/03 - present Freelance IT Consultant / Programmer Data architecture in an RDBMS paradigm Web design and backend implementation programming in Ruby on Rails and PHP Application prototype implementation in Ruby on Rails and Python Linux system installation, administration, and support Specific Knowledges Used: Ruby on Rails, Ruby, PHP, MySQL, Debian Linux Recent Clients: - eWerk, Leipzig-based IT firm (http://www.ewerk.com) - Earnhart and Friends, Bowling Green, KY-based advertising and marketing firm (http://www.earnhartandfriends.com) Recent Projects: - http://www.studiocalico.com - http://www.brusheezy.com - http://www.vecteezy.com - http://www.fresheezy.com - http://www.earnhartandfriends.com - http://www.cssforsale.com - http://www.mixmastermandy.com - http://www.giantslayerrecords.com 10/07 - present Freelance Lecturer (Leipzig, Germany) Deutsche Telekom University of Applied Sciences Leipzig Taught "Introduction to Nature-Inspired Computation", an advanced undergraduate CS class - Student-created Wiki: http://www.magnetdust.com/inic 11/04 - present Freelance English Teacher (Leipzig, Germany) Deutsche Telekom University of Applied Sciences Leipzig Taught "Introduction to Nature-Inspired Computation", an advanced undergraduate CS course Taught Technical English courses to computer science and engineering students Developed technical english course material Administered testing and evaluation of students Eurogene GmbH, Leipzig Taught courses in scientific English Developed course material for English for microbiology Deutsche Telekom University of Applied Sciences Leipzig Taught courses in technical English to computer science and engineering students Developed technical english course material Administered testing and evaluation of students ICC Sprachinstitut Taught an IT English for Call Centers course Taught business English to professionals in various companies Taught English in one-on-one and small group sessions English Language Trainers Company, Halle Taught a weekly technical conversation class at a large corporation Taught a doctor in preparation for medical work in the USA Hochschule fuer Technik, Wirtschaft und Kultur Leipzig (HTWK) Performed an in-depth grammar, technology, and design analysis of e-Xplore Technical English, an online webcourse (https://webcourse.sz.htwk-leipzig.de/wc.html) 10/03 - 09/04 University of Birmingham, School of Computer Science (Birmingham, UK) Demonstrator Taught a group of about 15 undergraduates as a supplement to their Haskell module on a weekly basis Tutored weekly a student one-on-one with basic CS concepts Staffed a lab and helped with programming assignments Marked homework, coursework, and tests Taught whole-module revision lectures to 50+ students Modules: Haskell, Introduction to Computer Science 6/02 - Present Pleonast.com (http://www.pleonast.com) Developer and Webmaster Created and administered pleonast.com, a moderate-sized weblog community. As of 10/07, pleonast.com had ~12,000 users and ~5 million page views/month Completely designed and developed all scripts and graphics Developed a premium service (pleonast gold) Integrated premium service payment system with Paypal.com Specific Knowledges Used: PHP, MySQL, HTML, Apache, Linux, Paypal 4/03 - Present Angry Turnip, Inc. (http://www.angryturnip.com) Owner and Operator Administered Angry Turnip, a small web-hosting company Administered a linux web server Assisted with the installation of multiple web sites Handled all technical and customer support requests Developed several interactive web sites for personal use Specific Knowledges Used: PHP, SQL, HTML, Apache, MySQL, Redhat Linux, Business Administration 3/02 - 8/03 Retire Quickly Corporation, Inc. (Tampa, FL) Programmer/System Adminstrator Designed and implemented complete backend code for four high-traffic websites Designed and implemented complete web-based internal billing, accounting, and customer service systems Designed and implemented representative commission calculation system for a moderately-sized multi-level marketing company Installed and administered multiple high-performance Linux servers Specific Knowledges Used: PHP, SQL, HTML, Apache, MySQL, Redhat Linux 5/01 - 8/01 Texas Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (TICAM): Center for Computer Visualization (CCV) at The University of Texas at Austin Research Assistant Worked with a small (3-person) team tasked with creating a game application to demonstrate the capabilities of a new visualization lab Designed and began development on a bat flight in a cavern simulation designed to run on an SGI Onyx/2 and then a Linux rendering cluster Used the SGI OpenGL implementation Used isocontour visualization in an adaptive octree mesh framework Implemented view-frustum and occlusion culling Implemented a hierarchical 3D function compositor Specific Knowledges Used: C++, X11/QT, OpenGL, SGI, 3D Math 2/00 - 8/01 Audiogalaxy.com, Inc (Austin, TX) Programmer Worked in a small (3-person) web team to create a web application and follow its growth up to very high (45,000,000+ page views/day) traffic Designed and implemented efficient and dynamic web pages and scripts for a high-traffic web-based application (The Audiogalaxy Satellite, now sadly defunct) Designed and utilized tables in a high performance relational database system Designed and implemented web-based user interfaces using HTML and Javascript Refactored existing code bases to handle extreme performance demands Specific Knowledge Used: PHP, SQL, HTML, Javascript, Apache, MySQL, Linux Published Articles: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/6/21/171321/675 5/99 - 8/99 Custom Care Pharmacy (Tampa, FL) Technical Support Supervisor Provided full range desktop and operating system support for an entire small company, including hardware maintenance, basic operating system task training, and operating system installations Set up and maintained a Linux server Set up and maintained a Windows NT server Administered a 30-40 node, mixed OS TCP/IP LAN Assisted in long term technical strategy planning Specific Knowledge Used: Win95, WinNT, Redhat Linux, TCP/IP, Ethernet Summers 97/98 Shell Oil Company (Houston, TX) Web Development Intern Implemented and supported an intranet web site for a pipeline division, using MS Frontpage 98 and Adobe Photoshop 5.0 Initiated an overhaul of a proprietary database using MS Access 98 to interface through ODBC with an Oracle database Assisted with intranet maintenance Implemented and supported an intranet web site for Shell's US Exploration and Production division Assisted with a major Novell to Microsoft NT whole network upgrade Specific Knowledge Used: Win95, Visual Basic, SQL, Access, Excel, Frontpage, Oracle, Photoshop ---- AWARDS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2004 CELTA "Pass B" award 2004 Received an MSc with Distinction 1999 Graduated Cum Laude with an Associate in Arts degree 1999 6th place impromptu speaker in a national speech tournament 1996 National Merit Commended Scholar 1995 Eagle Scout Award from the Sam Houston Area Council of the BSA ---- HOBBIES / EXTRACURRICULAR --------------------------------------------------- FAA Private Pilot (ASEL) Guitar, bass, and flute playing Playing and managing amateur soccer Backpacking, camping, and hiking Reading - anything from science fiction to historical non-fiction Extensive PC experience: I began using them when I was six Graphics programming using Direct3D and/or OpenGL Board, card, and RPG gaming Game programming, especially virtual world modeling and artificial intelligence Lead coder and admin on DurisMUD, a long running online multi-user game (http://www.durismud.com) Computer and video gaming of all sorts, from RPGs to sports to RTSs Was member of Florida College Forensics, 1999 Florida state champion speech/debate team Was member of Florida College Brain Bowl team