RIZWAN  F. KASSIM
rizwank@geekymedia.com
http://www.geekymedia.com
(310) 927-3293

Objective

Seeking a challenging position in a design/engineering capacity that blends my systems engineering and administration skills with my underlying architectural and design skills. I'm interested in being part of a growing company with the chance to help build system infrastructures from the ground-up.

Expertise

I'm an experienced systems engineer; having designed computer networks, systems and software since 1995.

Developing software of various sizes since 1998, and have been able to work both in larger application and smaller tool-oriented projects. I've managed enterprise level servers and designed software and processes for large companies. I'm a fast learner - often asked to explore new technologies or add new skill sets as current tasks demand.

I'm a problem-solver at heart - I've often been given problems to solve and been responsible from designing and implementing solutions. I have an understanding of business, both from helping start multiple small businesses, and from my courses at UCLA; and can provide a valuable link between technical disciples and business concerns.

I was raised with a very strong work ethic --- My approach to challenges isn't "It's not my problem," but instead "What can we do to fix it?"

Work History

Systems Engineer     July 2005-Present
All InfoTools
Worked two major contracts, one doing Web Engineering for Global Electronics Music Marketplace and one as a Software Developer for a software package for Maersk International in conjunction with VCT Vision.

GEMM Responsibilities:
Primary responsibility for server administration and uptime for an Linux Apache/MySQL server group serving 70M hits/month. Developing monitoring and data loading scripts in Perl. Configuring and tuning load balancers, Mail/DNS servers, and firewalls. Specified and ordered new servers and RAID stacks, personally handling physical installation, provisioning, and configuration. Often participated in business level issues or large technical issues and took on the responsibility of designing solutions, pitching them for approval and implementation. Responsible for MySQL server administration and tuning, as well as Linux and Apache tuning.

MAERSK Responsibilities::
Developed database schema for Enterprise Server Project. Wrote interfaces to database and configuration in ASP.NET 2.0. Led design and development meetings. Interacted and planned in conjunction with staff at VCT Vision. Wrote user login and configuration code and helped organize key feature lists for the Enterprise Server and the Enterprise Server Web Administrator.

Student Researcher     September 2004 - MARCH 2005
Center for embedded Networking Systems, UCLA - Dr. William Kaiser
Designing an autonomous, four dimensional tracking visual system for the CENS graduate students to use for their experiments in Embedded Sensor Networks. Capturing and Analysis via OpenCV. Images are coordinated with an adaptive algorithm was written in C++ to constantly find the 'optimal' location and move to it.

Web Engineer     JULY 2004 - AugUST 2005
UCLA Physics and Astronomy Department
Personally responsible for the daily operations of the UCLA Physics Courseweb Web servers. The core of the work included a significant amount of Linux/Windows 2000 server maintenance and configuration, as well as configuration of a Windows 2000 SQL Server. Responsible for adding to current Perl/PHP codebase and adding new features, and modules. The primary focus is on security of student information/class materials, and system uptime. Specified and ordered new Linux server platform. Worked closely with department networking and technical staff. Was the 'go-to' guy for myriad of associated smaller projects.

PROJECT URLs:
UCLA Physics Courseweb: Upgraded Perl code with new features as requested by professors, maintained security of student information. Refactored code to optimize future edits. [Restricted Access]

Internal version of WWWAssign: Upgraded features to WWWAssign (Perl backend and flat file database system), adding numerous features as requested by professors, including time restrictions and various anti-cheating mechanisms. [Restricted Access]

E-Physics: Designed and Implemented upgraded navigation and organization system using Drupal for Physics Education. A similar system was designed for the internal demonstration manual for TAs and Professors. [Restricted Access to Demo Manual]


Software Engineer    January 2004 - DECEMBER 2004
Desert Valley Medical Group - Victorville, CA
Responsible for login/authentication for 500 Windows 2000 systems. Worked with HIPPA compliance officer to ensure patient information security. Assisted in development of homebrew medical records system in C++ and Delphi.

Editor    June 2002 - February 2003
IndoAmerican Films
Lead Video Editor on Independent Films "American Addiction"
Responsible both for editing and maintenance/repair of editing systems, video and audio equipment.

Broadcast Engineer    June 2000 - April 2001
Comedy World Radio Network - Los Angeles, CA
Video Technician, repairing and maintaining live audio and video equipment. Worked with IT department providing support on system configuration and administration. Promoted to Broadcast Engineer - Directly responsible for Internet Streaming Servers and all audio/video editing, streaming, and logging machines. On call for emergency issues. Designing custom media archival and storage system. Directly managed another engineer. Developed custom internet/host chat system with scripted software and interfaces applying third party software. Documented processes and cabling configurations with a key role in designing the growing $20M studio environment.

Technology & Design Intern    June 1999 - AUGUST 1999
Play Incorporated
Designed graphics and overlays for internet television programs. Maintained editing suites. Assisted in active debugging and testing of next-generation animation/graphics suite.

Founding Director & Chief Engineer    January 1999 - February 2001
UCLAtv - Associated Students of UCLA - Student Media
Created student-run television station from ground up. Managed 15 student producers, developed new programming, specified and installed all equipment used at UCLAtv. Designed security systems and edited show segments.

E-Journalism Tutor     January 1998 to April 1998
Silverado High School - Victorville, CA

Student Technician     September 1996 to June 1998
Odyssey Instructional Television

Graphics Designer     June 1994 to DECEMBER 2001
Display By Choice

Education
B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering, University of California - Los Angeles, 2005
Additional Coursework in Software Engineering, Systems Design and Economics
Independent Research work at the Center for Embedded Networking Systems, UCLA.
Notable Development Projects Completed:
Specific Patches for Wine
Image (de)compression software for PGM, RLE, DPCM, Variable Length-Huffman and LZW compression
WAV file generator with variable frequency and sample output.
Pre-processor and assembler for virtual processor
Virtual memory and CPU scheduler
VHDL Modeling of a Master/Slave Flipflop
Java servlet implementing a database driven version of IMDB
Business plan and technical design plan for an RFID operated 'Dog Door'
Full gate level design of a 4-bit pipelining processor with ALU

Skills

Development: C++, perl, SQL, C sockets, sh scripting, Windows Batch Scripting, ASP.NET 2.0, C#, Python, PHP
Systems Engineering : Linux, Windows Server, OS X Server, Apache, MySQL, MS SQL, Enterprise RAID
Design : Networks, Dataloading and Processing, Audio/Video Editing, Server Architecture
Emphasis on Independent Design, Problem Solving and Business Issues

Honors

Winner - Eta Kappa Nu / Symantec Programming Competition - 2004
Winner - UCLA ACM Programming Competition - 2004
Selected for Leadership Training by Rotary International - Rotary Youth Leadership Awards
ASUCLA Outstanding Student Employee - 1999/2000

Volunteering
Presenter - IEEE Streaming for Broadcast Engineers Tutorial - NAB Xstream 2002 - Las Vegas, Nevada
Co-Organizer - Enigmacon 2005 - Charity Convention for the South Asian Tsunami
Head Logistic Coordinator - Mosaic Children's Camp at USC - 1999,2000,2002
Open Source
Co-Developer and Documentation Lead - MacroQuest versions 1.0 and 2.0
Patch Submissions - WineHQ. 1 2 3
Re-wrote pathabbr to be compatible with Cygwin.
Wrote development mini-guides for public use. 1 2 3 4 5
CERTIFICATIONS
Microsoft, Microsoft Certified Professional
Society of Broadcast Engineers, Certified Video Engineer & Broadcast Networking Technologist
References
Available upon request