CATALIN ALEXANDRU NEGRILA

Location: Bellevue, WA
Email: catalin@negrila.org
Web: http://catalin.negrila.org

Profile
Passionate software engineer with 6+ years of commercial C/C++ development experience — 12 years, including the academic/hobby coding — in both team environments and single developer settings. Strong background in algorithms and object oriented cross-platform development. Fast and avid learner.

Education
BS in Computer Science equivalent (Systems and Computer Science Engineering Diploma), 1998 — 2003
Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania

Commercial Experience
02/2008 - Present : Microsoft, SDE 2

01/2004 - 01/2008 : FSCreations, Software Engineer
Educational software and content development company.

Participated in the full development cycle of one commercial application as sole Software Engineer (PuzzleView). Released multiple versions of two other software products (ExamView and QuizShow).

- Designed and implemented cross-platform public SDK;
- Object oriented, multithreaded, Windows/Mac OS X;
- Exposed proprietary hardware functionality to third party software developers;
- Implemented JNI layer on top of the native API;
- Assisted integration into production applications.

- Designed and implemented cross-platform GUI framework;
- Object oriented, Win32/Carbon (Mac OS 9/X);
- OS feature abstraction, cross-platform resources;
- Reduced application porting time from months to days;
- Integrated into production application.

- Researched emerging technologies and implemented proof of concept applications;
- Immersive 3D environments as aid to learning (OpenGL/DirectX);
- Rich Internet applications (.NET, Java, Flash, AJAX);
- Java VM to ActionScript VM bytecode translator;
- Proposed architectural solutions for reusing code across heterogeneous platforms;
- Wrote internal white-papers detailing the findings and recommendations;
- Organized meetings and formal presentations of the outcomes.

03/2001 - 07/2003 : FUNLABS
Game development company.

Released a game title (Revolution) as Lead Project Programmer. Credited with five other game titles (Secret Service - In Harm's Way, Shadow Force - Razor Unit, U.S. Most Wanted - Nowhere to Hide, Cabela's 4x4 Offroad Adventure III and Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2004 Season) in various engine and tools programmer roles.

Sr. Engine and Tools Programmer
- Designed and implemented full cycle art content pipeline;
- Reduced in-game art validation time from hours to minutes;
- Platform independent mesh and animation description language;
- Platform dependent content optimizing compilers.
- Extended the skeletal animation engine subsystem;
- Animation optimization (keyframe reduction, data packing);
- Mesh optimization (triangle stripping);
- Decals on blended and rigid meshes, correct mesh breaking.

Lead Project Programmer
- Proposed the use of CVS as art content management system to aid the build process;
- Managed two programmers in implementing game logic;
- Collaborated with a wide range of artists to meet project art needs.

Engine and Tools Programmer
- Developed 3DStudio MAX mesh and animation export plugin.
- Designed and implemented skeletal animation engine subsystem;
- Blended meshes, bone transformation caching, keyframed animation mixing and blending.
- Refactored and extended the 3D world editor (multi-level undo system, skinned Win32 GUI).

Academic/Personal Projects
Atlantis3D (object oriented 3D rendering framework, CSG, multipass shaders, OpenGL/DirectX) — 2006
Palm Desktop (BSCS graduation thesis, scored 9.5 of 10, Vista-like soft UI in DirectX) — 2003
HelliOS (minimal bootable IA-32 OS kernel and shell) — 2000
VBE Desktop (VBE 2.0 virtual desktop with automatic clipping regions) — 1999
ExpoCAD (basic 2D CAD system with GUI) — 1996
80386 Assembly Demos (ray-tracer, bitmap rotation, ant fractal) — 1996
Virtual Molecule (3D renderer of organic molecules, won Special Prize at national contest) — 1996
Hyper Probe (real-time voxel renderer) — 1996
Death Castle (2D action/adventure game, won 3^rd place at national contest) — 1995

Skills
Languages: C/C++, x86 asm (and some C#, Java, SQL);
APIs/SDKs: Win32, Carbon (Apple), DirectX (Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectShow), OpenGL, STL, WTL, MFC, flex/bison;
Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, MSDOS;
Tools: Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, Apple Xcode, Metrowerks Code Warrior (Windows/Mac OS X), Resorcerer (Mac), Watcom C++ (MSDOS), Macrovision InstallShield;
Exposure to: .NET Framework, SOAP, XML, COM, ActiveX, Flash/Flex, Silverlight.

Awards
3^rd place at the National Programming Contest, Bucharest - 1998;
Special Prize at the National Application Development Contest, Focsani - 1996;
3^rd place at the National Application Development Contest, Bacau - 1995;
3^rd place at the National Programming Olympiad, Buciumeni - 1994;
1^st place at the Regional Programming Olympiad, Bucharest - 1994.

Last updated: 01/25/2008