Gedalia Pasternak's Resume

	Gedalia Pasternak e-mail: gedalia at gmail dot com Portfolio
OBJECTIVE	Interesting technology, Computer Graphics and Game Development
EDUCATION	The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art Bachelor of Science in Engineering, May 98 Concentration in Computer Science and Mathematics, Dean's List
EXPERIENCE
December '02-Present	Boston Dynamics Software Engineer/Senior Software Engineer Senior Engineer on DI-Guy – a Scenario creation tool and character animation SDK, considered an industry standard in the visual simulation market. Responsible for many different tasks including OpenGL visualization improvements, UI design (using MFC and QT), designing new systems, and optimizing everything from rendering to cpu usage to memory usage. Became responsible for rendering engine’s special effects system (particle systems, materials, lighting/shadows), collision detection code, culling code, DIS/HLA networking module, and our VegaPrime scene graph plug-in. Technical lead for a Use-of-Force Trainer built as part of a National Institute of Justice project, designing infrastructure to interface with an infrared camera and a decommissioned gun fitted with a laser. Result similar to “Duck Hunt” with a 9mm. Technical lead for a first person Hazmat training game, designed to train first responders. For both projects assessed needs of content developers and helped provide native interfaces for game logic. Initially worked (’02-03) on Digital Biomechanics -- a high accuracy physics simulation tool used for developing robotic control systems and evaluating equipment designs. Worked on Matlab plotting tools and made improvements to 3D data visualization functionality. Responsible for identifying bottlenecks and optimizing the simulation engine with vtune, as well as stabilizing a multi-threaded multi-process communication framework.
February '01-July '02	Turbine Entertainment Software Graphics Engineer One of the developers of client technology of Asheron's Call 2, a Massively Multiplayer game published by Microsoft. Responsible for a number of core systems, including the character animation system, player controls and physics, the camera system, and parts of the special effects system. Worked closely with the game system team to develop the interfaces that allowed them to control the animation and camera system for flexible presentation to end-user. Built tools and file formats that allowed the technical artists to get dozens of creatures up and running efficiently. Added numerous features to client-server character synchronization code, appearance system, landscape engine, and physics engine. Developed system to automatically document Turbine's multimillion-line multi-language code base with Doxygen.
October '00- Present	Expression Facial Animation Toolkit Webmaster Published Expression a real-time Facial Animation package as an open source project. Site has been featured in flipcode.com and opengl.org and received over 25,000 hits since inception. Software used in a Stanford Computer Animation Course.
July '00-November '00	Improv Technologies Game Developer Worked on Catalyst Game Development Kit. Technical tasks included writing data exporters for 3D Studio Max and Maya, exporters included mesh representation, skeletal animation and morphing animation data. Built Actor Studio a tool for animators to preview skeletal and facial animation as well as use the Catalyst Animation System to blend and layer animation data. Refined and documented the Animation System's API. Also worked with artists to refine the content pipeline for demos, and assisted marketing with marketing message and Evaluation Procedure.
March '99-June '00	Altiverse Systems Senior Software Architect / Vice President of whatever falls on the floor. Led a small R&D team for a startup developing a large scale distributed real-time 3D platform. From the initial brainstorming sessions, wrote majority of a sixty page Product Specification. For Technical Specifications, assessed existing software tools and technologies, as well as did high level design of new technologies. Wrote prototype code, most notably the design and implementation of a real-time facial animation system based on a physical muscle model of the face. Design tasks include using 3D Studio Max to build proof-of-concept animation pieces to demonstrate potential interaction features and user interface elements. Also contributed to the company's business plan and long term strategic planning, and conducted market research. Wrote job descriptions and task lists. Evaluated potential employees, specifically artists and programmers.
June '98-March '99	R /Greenberg Associates Freelance Technical Director/Programmer Projects included a promotional piece for Disney Cruise Lines and two commercials for Pontiac. On Disney I was responsible for coding the look and motion of particle systems, simulating various elements including pixie dust, shooting stars and a particle logo treatment with R/GA's proprietary renderer. On Pontiac built a photorealistic compact disc, which included coding a procedural shader that simulated the anisotropic rainbow reflections on its surface, in Softimage (C and Mental Ray API). Also assisted with compositioning in Eddie, as well as modeling.
Summer '97	Studio Archetype (merged with Sapient) Summer Intern Developed applications for the IBM web site; projects included an interactive Java version of the IBM Home page with a dynamically generated hierarchical menu system well as a web based rendering engine and image composition package written in C++ and using OpenGL.
Summer '96	Wanderlust Interactive HTML Coder Web design and site management for Wanderlust's company site as well as for the site of their first game using Microsoft Frontpage, Photoshop and GIF Builder.
Summer '93	NYU Medical Center Radiology Department, Computer programmer Helped develop software in statistical programming language ('S') that analyzed data received from a medical imager.
Summers of 95, 94 and 92.	Tara Publications Graphic Designer Various projects, included desktop publishing using Pagemaker, image manipulation and retouching using Photoshop. The set up of multiple music books using HB Engraver and Finale.
Vollentering/Leadership
	Webmaster for Temple Beth Shalom of Cambridge synagouge. Member of the Board Of Directors Temple Beth Shalom of Cambridge '06 Co-Founder Boston Jewish Outdoors Club a 200+ member group helped organize and lead a large number of events from 2004-.
COURSE WORK
	Computer Science/Engineering: Data Structures, Compiler Design, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Computer Vision, Interactive 3D Graphics, Circuits, Digital Logic Design, Computer Architecture. Math: Calculus 1,2,3, Probability, Analytic Geometry, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, Discrete Math, Numerical Analysis Physics: Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Optics and Modern, General Relativity Design/Graphics: Intro to 3D design, Guided Design, Drawing I.
KEY SKILLS
	Computer programming, hardware, ability to work in a team environment, 2D and 3D visualization problems, image processing, 3D math, linear algebra, aesthetic sensibility.
COMPUTER SKILLS
PROGRAMMING	C/C++: Commercial projects: Asheron�s Call 2 a massively multiplayer online game, a real-time facial animation software, a 2D image compositor, both OpenGL based. Academic projects: a compiler for a C++ like language, a basic Macintosh 3D renderer, robotics simulations, and image processing utilities. Java: Approximately 4,000 lines of code, mainly user interface and graphics generation. Others: Assembly, CGI, COM, Limbo, HTML, Mac API, MaxScript, Motivate, Mental Ray, OpenGL, Prolog, PASCAL, Windows API, S, UnrealScript, UML, XML
SOFTWARE	After Effects, CodeWarrior, Eddie, Finale, Freehand, Frontpage, MS Office, Pagemaker, Photoshop, Softimage, 3D Studio Max, Visual Studio
PLATFORMS	Yes. (Macintosh OS, DOS, Windows (3.1, 95, 98, NT), UNIX, Solaris, IRIX)
RECENT HONORS
	Four Year Full Tuition Scholarship to the Cooper Union National Dean's List
ACTIVITIES	Drawing, Sculpting, Philolexian Debating Society, Blade Night Manhattan.
REFERENCES	Available upon request.

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