Resume for Michael J. Sepcot
Updated: July 2007
Experience
Leapfrog Online - Evanston, IL
July 2007 - Current: Software Engineer
- Develop, deploy, and maintain web-based applications and support programs.
September 2006 - June 2007: Web Developer
- Work with the application development team to develop and integrate advanced back-end code.
- Help to improve the standard development process for E-Commerce and CMS enabled web sites.
- Take the lead in translating comprehensive design layouts into PHP/XHTML/CSS pages.
SPSS, Inc. - Chicago, IL
January 2006 - September 2006: Associate Quality Assurance Engineer
- Write programs and work with development teams to increase the testability of products.
- Work with object-oriented technologies to improve the efficiency, breadth, and depth of the testing process.
- Participate in the evaluation, testing, and certification of state-of-the-art products.
May 2004 - December 2005: Web Developer
- Create and maintain corporate web pages across http://www.spss.com ensuring pages meet Section 508 compatibility requirements.
- Create, maintain, and document internal web applications using Macromedia ColdFusion, Microsoft SQL Server and Office products.
Hollywood Video - Elk Grove Village, IL
2000 - 2003: Shift Leader
- Chosen from among my peers to represent the Elk Grove Village store in a company wide effort to improve customer relations.
Education
Illinois Institute of Technology - Chicago, IL
August 2002 - December 2005
- Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with Honors
- Grade Point Average: 3.3/4.0
- HEALD/NEXT Scholar
Alpha Sigma Phi, Alpha Xi Chapter
- Chapter Marshall - 2004
- Chapter Fundraising Chair - 2003
- Pledge Class Treasurer - 2002
Job-Related Events
Essential Rails
September 2007 - Des Plaines, IL
Essential Rails was a hands-on, interactive workshop for people new to Ruby and the Rails framework. The goals of the class were to teach the following:
- Ruby essentials and syntax (and made especially easy for those from a C# or VB background)
- The Rails "stack" and the HTTP pipeline
- Open source tools and applications (Subversion, MySQL, SSH, and more)
- Rails conventions and (gasp!) configuration
- REST and what it means in Rails
- ActiveRecord and migrations
- ActionPack: ERb, forms, templates, partials, layouts, and helpers
- Test-driven development with Rails
- AJAX with Rails
- Hosting and deployment basics
- Real-life lessons learned
-- From the "What will I actually learn?" section of the Essential Rails web site.
Related blog post: Essential Rails Class Notes
Microsoft - Ready for a New Day: Launch Tour 2007
February 2007 - Chicago, IL
This event was designed for IT Professionals and Developers. It was meant to showcase the new features available in Windows Vista ™, 2007 Microsoft ® Office system, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. While there I attended the Executive Keynote and all of the Developer Sessions:
- Microsoft Office and Windows Vista: Better Together for Developers
- Building Differentiated User Experiences with Windows Vista
- Building Connected Applications with Windows Vista
- Connecting and Extending the Microsoft Office Client Applications
- Building Key Business Applications on the 2007 Microsoft Office Server Platform
Related blog post: Ready for a New Day Recap
Search Engine Strategies 2006 Conference and Expo
December 2006 - Chicago, IL
SES is promoted as the premier event for search engine marketing and optimization.
While there I took part in numerous presentations from search engine optimization fundamentals to working with dynamic web sites and social networks. Here is a quick list of the session I attended:
- Search Engine Friendly Design
- Landing Page Testing and Tuning
- Fun With Dynamic Web Sites
- Successful Site Architecture
- Images and Search Engines
- Flash and Search Engines
- CSS, AJAX, Web 2.0 and Search Engines
- Blog and Feed (RSS) Search SEO
Related blog post: Search Engine Strategies 2006 Recap
Web-Based Projects
SPSS Collateral Library - ColdFusion, CSS, HTML, SQL Server, IIS
- Developed a database driven application that provides salesmen with immediate access to hundreds of documents to help a customer make a decision regarding SPSS products.
- Used Windows Integrated Authentication settings in IIS for access to the administrative portion of the application. Authentication process tested with Internet Explorer 6 and Apple Safari.
SPSS CSS Style Changeover - ColdFusion, CSS, HTML, JavaScript
- Initiated and implemented a complete redesign of the corporate web site. This included completely redesigning the SPSS.com style sheet, taking advantages of the CSS 2.1 specifications to move the corporate site from a table-based layout to a CSS based layout reducing the load time and storage on the corporate server.
- Performed integrity checks with Internet Explorer 6 and Mozilla Firefox on the Windows platform and Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer 5.x on Apple OSX.
SPSS Events - ColdFusion, CSS, HTML, SQL Server, Microsoft Excel
- Created a form based event management system with integrated Direct Marketing campaign tracking for WebEx events.
- Added an administrative Data Pull page that exports registration information from a Microsoft SQL Server to an Excel spreadsheet.
- Globalized the Events section by creating template pages that load the appropriate country events and localized strings in response to user selections.
- Added live parsing of the SPSS Events RSS feed to the United States Events listings.
HawkTour - HTML, Flash, CSS, JavaScript, XML
- http://www.hawktour.net - Redesigned the team web site; including changes to the layout, content, and style sheet. Created a new Flash introduction on the main index (since replaced) and a Flash teaser movie to demonstrate the capabilities of the HawkTour project.
- Created a web-based demo using XML for data storage, CSS for styling, and JavaScript for DOM manipulation on top of an HTML shell.
Software Projects
HawkTour - Java, Object-Orientated Design
- Worked with a team to create a mobile - user guided - context aware, content delivery system utilizing the benefits of pervasive computing. Team leader for Mapping and Presentation teams.
- Worked extensively on the mapping system. Implemented coordinate system translations to convert between sections of an image to display and the available size of the drawing panel.
SSH Client - Python (Command Line, Windows specific)
- Developed a working SSH Client from the Internet-Drafts of the SSH Version 2.0 Transport Layer, Authentication, and Connection Protocols.
- Implemented the Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange method for secure session key generation and the RC4 (arcfour) Stream Cipher for secure data communication.
- Included an implementation of the SHA-1 Secure Hash Algorithm and the MD5 Message Digest algorithm.
- PDF copy of the Python SSH Client code
SPSS XML Differ - Java, Object-Orientated Design
- Created a language independent XML diffing program for SPSS generated XML files. By being language independent, the program allows for comparison between baseline XML files in one language and test files in another (i.e. English baselines and Traditional Chinese test files).
- Using object-oriented technology, I was able to create a basic XML differ that could be extended to compare XML files generated by any application allowing for its use across the company.
SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys 2.0 - QA Analysis
- Performed general user interface and installation/upgrade migration testing.
