Think Instead of the Box

Dan’s Resumé and CV

This page serves as my curriculum vitae. You can also download a one-page resumé here (PDF, about 100k).

Education

Graduated from Lower Merion High School. Spent a year at the University of Rochester before transferring to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to study design.

Planning to graduate in December 2011 with a B.S. in Design, Innovation, and Society, an interdisciplinary design (mostly product design) program based in the social sciences.

Through courses and independent study, I have:

  • Studied product design, design research, human factors, anthropology, management, philosophy, writing, and literature.
  • Completed various product and web design projects (see below).
  • Conducted small-scale design research through ethnographic study and cultural probes.
  • Written papers on the human factors of emerging paradigms in HCI, the evolutionary and psychological origins of anthropomorphism, existentialism (Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Sartre), Kantian aesthetics, the semiotics of dystopian fiction, and the philosophy of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
  • Written several short plays and completed several digital art projects, including culture-jammed Coke bottles (to be put online eventually).
  • Read voraciously about design-related areas including user experience design, design research, interaction design, information architecture, usability, accessibility, marketing, entrepreneurship, and, more vaguely, design theory.

Leadership Experience

I am currently an administrator (officer) in the new RPI Design Collective, helping to build the organization and prepare it for future years.

Since high school, I have been involved in the Technology Student Association and FIRST robotics, first as a member and now as an alumnus. While in high school, I:

  • Led and managed the 80-member Lower Merion Technology and Engineering Club, which included a TSA chapter and FIRST team (Dawgma 1712).
  • Organized the officer team and committees, expanded and improved the club’s activities, and helped turn the club into a nationally recognized and admired organization.
  • Helped build new co-curricular Technology Education programs within the club.
  • Led leadership training sessions in the clup and taught CAD as a teaching assistant and coach.
  • Gave leadership workshops at state and national TSA conferences in 2008.

As an alumnus, I have:

  • Built a new state-wide award program, the PA-TSA Inspiration Award, to encourage and recognize community-oriented activities among TSA chapters.
  • Advised national TSA as part of a task force on TSA’s technology strategy.
  • Conducted “expert reviews” of FIRST teams’ and TSA chapters’ websites, aiming to help students learn and improve their web design and development skills.
  • Led a workshop on divergent thinking and assisted in a “Leadership Academy” session at the national TSA conference in 2010.

Design Experience

My past product design projects at RPI include:

  • DrumKit Arduino, a concept for a modular, robotic drum set that brings together programming, music, math, and science and encourages students to explore and experiment in those dimensions. The process included ethnographic research in a 6th-grade classroom.
  • The “Usable Remote Control”, a re-thought interface for a universal remote. Most universal remotes available today are incredibly confusing, and they leave tech-savvy users (let alone everyone else) prone to mode errors. My design solved that problem. (Eventually, I’ll put documentation of this project online, but it’s on the back burner.)

I have worked on a number of projects as an independent web designer and consultant:

  • This website.
  • RPI Portal, a one-page site that overcomes RPI’s information architecture woes with a easy-to-use array of links to RPI departments, offices, and information.
  • Philadelphia FIRST, for FIRST robotics programs in the Philadelphia region.
  • The early stages of development for Feed the Muse, a fundraising website for independent musicians and artists.

Other Things

From January to August 2008, I interned at MilkBoy Recording in Ardmore, PA. I assisted MilkBoy’s recording engineers, ran sound at MilkBoy Coffee’s open mic night, and contributed to marketing campaigns for some the studio’s clients.

In June 2007, I volunteered at the archaeological dig at Tel Dor.