John Carlos Peña

 

603 Watts St. Apt 4, Durham, NC 27701. 203-240-3188. jcp20@duke.edu

EDUCATION

2005 - Present

Duke University, Durham NC

B.S. Candidate with Distinction in Computer Science, B.A. Candidate in Philosophy

Campbell’s Soup Scholarship recipient while at Duke

EXPERIENCE

2007 – Present

Summer 2008

Visualization Technology Group  Duke University, Pratt School of Engineering

Research Assistant, Programmer

·         Developed interactive virtual reality programs and interfaces for the Duke Immersive Virtual Environment (DIVE), one of only seven facilities of its kind in the world

·         Researched and programmed projects requiring a virtual reality-based visual component, including a virtual dart-throwing game, a 3-Dimensional painting program, a model of the human brain, and a car driving simulator

·         Ran a weekly open house to demonstrate the DIVE’s capabilities

·         Responsible for maintaining the DIVE lab and a separate visualization technology lab

2007 - Present

Game Everything, Durham, NC

Web Designer

·         Hired as the third member of an early stage Startup company

·         With a team, designed a prototype web-based framework for people to create games based on their everyday life

·         Team won the People’s Choice Award at the Duke Startup Challenge in 2008

2005 - Present

Office of Information Technology   Multimedia Project Studio,  Duke University

Intern

·         Assisted students with multimedia technology including web design, digital music composition, digital film and photo editing, and computer programming

·         Monitored and maintained computers lab at two university locations

Summer 2005, 2007

Pepperidge Farm, Inc  Norwalk CT

Information Technology Intern

·         Developed C# and .Net interfaces for a MySQL Server Database

·         Developed firmware for a widely distributed handheld device

·         Tested and debugged mobile device drivers

Summer 2006

Urban Forestry, LLC  Canandaigua NY

·         Worked over 70 hours a week managing an organic farm and greenhouse, harvesting and selling crops at a local farmer’s market.

·         Maintained a blog and crop listing for the local community

PROJECTS AND EXTRACURRICULARS

2007 - Present

One Laptop per Child Program  Duke University

Chapter Co-Founder and Head of Software Development

·         Founded and led a chapter of the One Laptop Per Child program

·         Coordinating (as of Summer ’08) a pilot program for OLPC in a Durham elementary school and researching a thesis around it’s development

·         Developed educational applications and games for children using Python and GTK

2005 - Present

The Chronicle Independent Daily  Duke University

Associate Photography Editor, Photographer

·         Photographed and edited for one of the nation’s top-10 college newspapers

·         Member of edit board responsible for selecting photographs for the daily paper

SKILLS

Software:   Programming in Python, Java, PHP, C, and C# languages. Experience building applications with XHTML/CSS, MySQL, Django, and Apache and unit testing with JUnit and PyUnit

Tools and Platforms:  OpenGL, GNU/Linux, Photoshop, Eclipse, Emacs, Mac OS X, MATLAB, Ableton Live