Axel Ancona Esselmann
San Francisco, CA • Axel@AnconaEsselmann.com • LinkedIn • www.anconaesselmann.com
EXTENDED RESUME
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EDUCATION
Academic Honors:
President's list: 2 semesters
Dean's list: 3 semesters
Graduate-Level Course Work
Software Engineering
Global Team Lead for a full stack restaurant-reservation application.
Delegated programming tasks, led code reviews and set Sprint goals for two teams of three, a remote team of graduate students from Fulda University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and a local team of students from San Francisco State University.
Designed and wrote the Content Management System, which enabled the team to move the project from prototype stage to completion within six weeks.
Kept the project on schedule by leading local and remote Scrum meetings and setting checkpoints for an under-performing programmer.
Developed educational material and led workshops covering the full web stack and the MVC-pattern.
Information Retrieval
Developed a python based search engine for indexing and searching large sets of text documents using tf–idf.
Investigated how to improve relevant document retrieval for Clinical Decision Support [1] using open source projects Indri and MetaMap.
Advanced Object Oriented Programming
Led UI-Development for a usage-statistics plug-in for the open-source medical record system OpenMRS.
Designed and Developed an interactive graphing tool with Javascript and SVG.
Undergraduate-Level Courses
Operating System Principles
Wrote a multi-threaded shell using object oriented principles in C.
iPhone Application Development
Swift and Objective-C courses taken not for credit through Stanford's iTunesU catalog.
Software Development
Developed a simple virtual machine, interpreter and debugger in Java.
Numerical Analysis
Used python to interpolate data, solve large systems of linear and non-linear equations and to find approximate solutions and error bounds for integrals and differential equations.
Algorithm Analysis, PHP Programming, Programming Languages, Data Structures (Java), Machine Language (MIPS), Object Oriented Design (C++), Theory of Computing, Discrete Mathematics, Linear Algebra, Multi-Variable Calculus, Classical Physics
IOS DEVELOPER (2014 - current)
BuildIt (2016)
An addictive SpriteKit game for IOS 8/9 written in Swift 2.3
Invented concept, designed and developed application, beta-tested (internally) and prepared for final submission to the app-store in a span of six weeks while concurrently attending San Francisco State University full-time as a senior.
Designed and developed RESTful LAMP back-end and API for secure login, account creation, In-App purchase-retrieval and user-content-sharing. (view demo)
Designed and built responsive, reusable and customizable Interface Builder-compatible UI controls with custom Gesture Recognizers and animations with UIKit and Core Graphics.
Designed and built Core Data schema for shipping and storing application content and for saving and sharing of user-generated game content.
Deployed application for internal TestFlight-testing and prepared for submission to the App Store with iTunes Connect.
Coordinated beta-testing and A/B testing with five internal testers.
Developed freemium monetization strategy with advertisements and in-app purchases.
Designed and developed in-game level editor for game-content-creation on the device.
Designed game-mechanics and gameplay with focus on replay value (multiple difficulty-levels, custom levels).
Created game content, including Core Audio sound effects, SpriteKit graphics and hundreds of levels.
Socipelago (2016)
An exploratory prototype for creating social marketplaces, each with their own virtual currencies and currency policies. Written for IOS in Swift.
Invented application concept and designed and developed application prototype.
GlobalVillage (2014 — 2015)
A prototype for fusing together a personal-history-based system of trust found in small-town communities with technology to prevent being victimization in a globalized world. Created for IOS 7/8 and written in Swift 1.1.
Invented application concept and designed and developed exploratory application prototype.
Designed and implemented database, server API and IOS application-layer for friending-system that allows users to connect by scanning QR-Codes and to send messages.
FULL STACK WEB DEVELOPER (2011 - current)
Traces (2015 — 2016)
Visualize GPS tracks and generate beautiful vector-art.
Designed and implemented dynamic UI using AJAX for viewing and styling gps tracks. (view source)
Wrote unofficioal API to retrieve activities with GPS data from third party application runkeeper.com.
Wrote geospatial conversion tools that convert GPS tracks in GPX format to scalable vector art with Mercator projection in SVG format or to the KML format used by Google Earth.
Designed and implemented MySQL database-schema for storing and retrieving geospatial data with adjustable resolutions.
Achieved high degree of code coverage with PHPUnit tests.
View Demo
Go to Application
Product Page
Cages (2014 — 2015)
Animal husbandry application for breeding laboratory mice.
Worked with UCSF-neuroscientist to generate use-cases and UI wire-frames.
Designed and developed responsive UI using AJAX, including interactive family-tree. (view source)
Designed and implemented database schema capable of retrieving hierarchical data.
Achieved high degree of code coverage with PHPUnit tests.
View Demo
Go to Application
Product Page
OpenDiscourse (2015)
A prototype for a discussion site. A prototype with randomly generated content.
Developed random content generator for rapid front-end prototyping. (view source)
Designed and developed light-weight javascript library for convenient DOM manipulation. (view source)
Set up continuous integration with Jenkins, Codeception and PHPUnit.
SpriteKitJS (2011)
A simple 2D Game Engine for web games written in JavaScript.
Developed object oriented, sprite-based 2-D game engine in JavaScript. (view source)
Developed collision model for movable and immovable game objects.
Designed and developed obstacle-avoidance/shortest-distance path-finding-algorithms.
Back End Frameworks and Tools
Composition (2013 — 2015)
A modular Content Management System for modern web and mobile applications written in php. This site uses the Composition framework.
Designed and implemented MVC based framework architecture.
Created templating engine for keeping content types separate and easy internationalization. (view demo)
Designed and developed database layer with object relational mapping. (view code example: user creation)
Created API for Content-Type specific application responses.
Designed and developed JavaScript and CSS linker that eases file-composition and facilitates re-usability.
Designed and developed account creation and authentication framework with activity-based access control that protects user data through hashing and salting of passwords and through automatic throttling and rate-limiting of login attempts.
(View code example: User)Wrote PHPUnit tests (view source) with high test coverage for critical sections of the framework.
Wrote tools that significantly ease the writing of unit tests for database code for applications based on Composition.
Wrote deployment and update tool for mirrored production and development servers.
MyMark (2014)
A markup language that lets content creators write human-legible text that gets automatically converted into rich HTML pages.
Designed and implemented grammar for markup language.
All static content, including sections of this document was created with MyMark (view the marked up text file)
phpQR (2012)
A QR code generator written in php. Supports QR-code versions 1-40, numeric, alphanumeric and binary data modes, and returns either PNG or SVG vector output.
Developed QR-code generator compliant with the 2005 ISO standard.
Implemented Reed–Solomon error correction coding using generator polynomials and Galois Field arithmetic.
Developed object oriented library for drawing SVG vector graphics.
OPEN SOURCE TOOLS
LiveUnit (2013 — 2016)
A continuous test-runner for Test Driven Development with PHP or Python.
Invented concept, designed user-interface and developed application.
Designed architecture to be open for extension to other languages with unit-testing-packages and to be easily customizable through user-settings.
Wrote multi-threaded services for running tests.
TabBookmarks (2014)
A Mac OS X service for creating bookmarks of tabbed finder windows.
Developed Mac OS X service with AppleScript and Automator.
Toggle Tests Service (2013)
A Service for Mac OSX to toggle between Test code directory tree and Source code directory tree.
phpRefactor (2014)
A tool for refactoring PHP. This plug-in for Sublime Text makes renaming of PSR-0 compliant classes a breeze.
Open Source Content
LoremIpsumator (2015)
A random content generator for rapid prototyping written in PHP.
IOS UI Controls (2015 - current)
Controls for IOS written in Swift that are customizable through Interface Builder.
JavaScript UI Controls (2014 - current)
Web App controls written in JavaScript.
SERVER AND DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR
Administered MySQL databases on local and remote machines.
Restored from and created backups with mysqldump.
Wrote PHP scripts for redeploying database with test data after each build on development server.
Administered local and remote servers running Apache 2.2.
Resolved problems using apachectl.
Resolved problems through examining apache-log-files.
Created Virtual Hosts.
Wrote mod_rewrite rules for prettifying URLs, enforcing HTTPS and hosting multiple sites with different domains on the same server.
Created and installed self-signed SSL-certificates.
Bought and transfered domains and changed nameservers.
Installed from source:
PHP with support for mcrypt, MySQL, imagick,
MySQL and PostgreSQL.
Has taught fellow students at SFSU:
How to set up LAMP/WAMP/MAMP development servers and their incompatibilities with each other.
Basics of working with repositories.
Connecting to and working with remote machines.
UNIX Skills
File-System Management
Can create, copy, edit and delete files and folders on remote machines and knows how to set appropriate permissions for local and remote users and services.
Created backups and restored from backups and has written scripts for reinstalling and updating development systems.
Wrote cron-jobs for log-rotation, backups and other scheduled maintenance-tasks.
Set up Continuous Integration with Jenkins, Codeception, Selenium and PHPUnit.
ssh
Generated and installed RSA keys.
Wrote PHP and Python scripts using ssh for completing routine tasks on remote machines.
Created aliases in config file and mounted remote machines as drives to simplify work-flow.
curl
Created scripts using curl to communicate with RESTful servers.
Build-Systems and Package-Management
Homebrew, apt-get, MacPorts, Composer, Make
Repositories:
git
Uses git for version control and deployment to production servers.
Comfortable using command-line-tool to initiate repositories, create branches, tags, merges, commits and make and respond to pull-requests.
Has created hooks as part of custom build-systems.
subversion
Has set up, committed to, and pulled from subversion repositories.
Virtualization and Porting:
VMware Fusion: Installed and worked with Windows and Linux virtual machines on Mac OS X.
Wine: Ported windows application to Mac OS X
Has installed multi-boot environments with OS X, Windows and Ubuntu.
Mac OS X expert
Troubleshoots computer issues for friends, family and co-workers.
Diagnosed and restored corrupted partition tables.
Diagnosed and replaced faulty SATA cables.
Recovered deleted files and restored accidentally formatted drives.
Resolved problems remotely using tools like TeamViewer and LogMeIn.
Writes small productivity tools for OSX with Swift and Cocoa, AppleScript, Python, PHP and Bash.
SKILLS AND INTERESTS
Creativity Software
Adobe Illustrator
Created graphics for IOS game.
Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop
View my flickr portfolio
Wrote JavaScript actions for Photoshop for creating star trails from still images.
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro
Consulted for and is credited by an independent film maker.
Edits videos as a hobby. (view example)
Adobe Audition
Recorded and edited audio effects for IOS game.
Avid Sibelius and Kontakt Player
Composed, arranged and recorded scores for strings and percussions. (listen to example)
Hobbies
Aspiring Big-Wall Climber
Long-Distance Trail Runner
Arduino Enthusiast
Built light-activated camera trigger for Canon DSLRs.
Carpentry and Woodwork
Cartography
Created topographic GPS maps for Garmin GPS devices usingGlobal Mapper.
EXTENDED WORK HISTORY
Wilderness-Trip Leader, Camp Stevens (Summers 2013 - 2015)
Planned and led off-site wilderness trips for Camp Stevens, a non-profit summer-camp based out of Julian, CA.
Built community through team building and creative activities with the goal to pass as much ownership as possible to the participants.
Taught participants how to be confident and safe in the respective wild places. This included teaching campers how to cook their own meals, how to pack a backpack, how to take care of one's own needs, and how to pack a kayak for a week-long trip.
Developed relationships with participants and their parents weeks before the trip.
Obtained wilderness first aid and lifeguarding certification and acquired commercial drivers license for passenger transport.
Planned and prepped meals for each trip and taught participants how to cook their own meals in small cook-groups.
Obtained permits for the respective locations and developed emergency protocols in case of injury, fire, severe weather and missing participants.
Facilitated conflict resolution and helped participants work out their differences with each other.
Ensured the physical and emotional safety of participants and administered wilderness first aid.
Built high-functioning groups capable of taking care of each other's physical and emotional needs.
Facilitated reflections after each activity and at the end of each day to encourage learning and personal growth.
Prepared foster kids with little or no experience with the outdoors and difficult backgrounds for each of the trips. This included working with their social workers and foster parents months in advance.
Facilitated daily feedback sessions with co-trip leader.
Documented planning, preparation and the trips themselves to pass on knowledge to future trip-leaders.
Invented team-building activities taking advantage of the unique setting and equipment of each trip.
Repared, purchased and updated equipment, making the cooking and climbing experience for the participants safer and simpler.
Sea Kayaking
Planned and led week-long trips on Catalina Island where groups of 10 to 12 participants aged 11-16 would kayak from Two-Harbors to Avalon and overnighted on beaches along the way.
Facilitated team-building, sea-cave exploration, cliff diving, snorkeling, fishing, spear-fishing, and island and wreck-exploration.
Rock Climbing
Taught staff how to set up outdoor climbs for groups of clients.
Planned week-long trips to Holcomb Valley, California with a progression of climbs appropriate for the group.
Taught participants how to belay each other with ropes.
Taught staff how to oversee participants belaying each other safely.
Backpacking
Dealt with emergencies ranging from altitude-sickness to hernia.
Developed a two-year partnership with a National Forrest Ranger to incorporate day-long back-country-service-projects into the trip experience and to learn about respecting and taking care of California's natural treasures.
Planned week-long backpacking trips for beginners and ten-day backpacking trips for more experienced participants in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California.
Team Building and High Ropes Course Facilitator (2006 - 2015)
Building high-functioning groups of adults and teenagers through mental and physical challenges.
Developed original team-building-challenges.
Maintained high ropes course and safety equipment.
Garden Program Leader (Summers 2010 - 2012)
Developed original activities for teenagers to learn about food and sustainable food production.
Counselor Training Leader (Summers 2008 - 2012)
Taught conflict resolution skills to groups of counselors aged 16 to 19, taught how to give kind and constructive feedback, and taught how to lead groups of children for week-long summer-camp sessions.
Outdoor Education Teacher (2006 - 2008)
Taught and led week-long outdoor education sessions for sixth-graders and developed original activities.
Supervised groups around the clock.
Conference Center Host (2006 - 2008)
Hosted groups of adults and college kids.
Occasionally prepared meals for up to 140 adults.