url: http://cflewis.com

Current position

Graduate Student on the Computer Science PhD track at the Expressive Intelligence Studio, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Areas of specialization

Procedural content generation for video games, online communities, data classification.

Key skills

• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. 

• Proven independent research skills. 

• Natural team leader, able to understand and motivate others. 

• Ability to deliver high-quality products under demanding time scales. 

• Accurate, paying close attention to quality and detail. 

• Ability to diagnose problems and offer viable and creative solutions. 

• Excellent computer skills, including fluency in common object-orientated languages and scripting languages. Expert knowledge of Mac OS X as well as strong understanding of Windows, Linux, UNIX implementations and Microsoft Office. 

• Good organizational skills with the ability to prioritize tasks and plan the most effective use of time. 

• Flexible and willing to learn new techniques. 

Education

Master of Engineering with Honors, Computer Science with Study Abroad

Awarded a First Class Honors degree classification. Year abroad was taken at the University of California, Davis. An official transcript is available.

Master’s thesis: “Hand gesture recognition as an interface to illustration software". This system allowed for computer illustration using physical hand gestures. Users could paint on-screen by drawing in the air, and select painting tools by holding their hands in various shapes. Available online at http://chris.to/files/thesis.pdf. 

Publications

Lewis, C. Zenet: Generating and enforcing real-time temporal invariants. In Proceedings of International Conference of Software Engineering (ICSE 2010). 

Lewis, C. Runtime Repair of Software Faults using Event-Driven Monitoring. In Proceedings of International Conference of Software Engineering (ICSE 2010).

Teaching

CMPS 80K - Foundations of Interactive Game Design (Teaching Assistant with small group teaching)

Work Experience

    Programmer, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

My primary role was to develop and deploy web applications written in CGI/Perl, using a Model-View-Controller paradigm of my own design. I was also tasked with supporting academics in their research, primarily by finding suitable software to fit given requirements and administering Macintosh workstations. I contributed to Access Grid, an open-source video conferencing system written in Python.

My work required me to communicate with other departments in the university, as well as external consultancies. I identified that much of the communication between webmasters throughout the university was redundant, and created a monthly meeting of the webmasters to allow us to effectively collaborate and avoid duplication of work.

Consultant, Red Rock Consulting, Wellington, New Zealand

    Provided Oracle mission-critical database development and support to the Ministry of Health's Client Claims Payment System (CCPS), which administers millions of dollars worth of payments to health care providers each year. I was relied on to create and administer PL/SQL database packages which handle complex business logic to provide these payments accurately. I was also responsible for developing the relevant windows the CCPS database front-end. All of the packages that I oversaw also required accurate documentation and front-line support, which I managed and prioritized alongside other work requests and support issues that the Ministry file with the team.