Chad Michael Timmins


A brief glimpse of myself beyond a piece of paper




There is more to life than increasing its speed


About Me



Who Am I?

Currently employed as a Software Engineer at Trulia, an affiliate of Zillow Group. My role on the property intelligence team tasks me with developing data pipelines and creating aggregate statistics on listings data including deploying and updating an internal API that serves millions of requests each day. I graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Electrical Engineering, however, I've developed an affinity for software design and development. I am a lifetime auto-didact dedicated to mastering any task or interaction and am continuously learning to improve my technical capabilities and remain current with new and emerging software technologies. I am driven by both passion and my continued accomplishments in the workplace.

What I Do For Fun

I like to think I'm not your average engineer and have an eclectic taste in hobbies. Outside of work, I love hiking and exploring the limitless beauty that is nature. Traveling foreign countries is a new-found love of mine and will take any opportunity to do so. I also thoroughly enjoy all kinds of music from a Chopin masterpiece to ear-bleeding sets from Zed's Dead. My passion for music spawns immense creativity and I am always looking for new ways to consume it.

What I Am Looking For

Although originally from a hardware background, my current role on the property intelligence team has opened my eyes to the immense potential of applications that deal with large amounts of data. I originally began with my focus on web/front-end development and that grew into a passion for all things software engineering related. Seeing an application come to fruition from each level of a software stack is both intriguing and mentally stimulating. I've come to realize the endless complexities that exist between the user, software, and hardware layers. I firmly believe my diverse background has helped me to develop my robust software engineering skills while still maintaining a deep appreciation of hardware design.

Skills

Languages Java, Python, Bash, JavaScript, HTML5/CSS3, C/C++
Distributed Computing MapReduce, Hive, HBase, AWS/EMR
Web & Frameworks Node, MongoDB, Express, Angular, Dropwizard, Jersey, Jackson, Handlebars, Underscore, Flask, Django, Selenium
Workflow Git, Maven, Grunt, Bower, Yeoman, Chrome DevTools

Work Hard

Play Hard

Nerd Out

Personal Projects

DrunKrawl

  • Developed a full-featured recreational activity planner in a cool 35 hours and 59 minutes at the CalHacks Hackathon. Essentially users can search nearby bars and collaboratively add them to a list to be completed during a bar crawl.
  • Used Node.js, MongoDB, and Express.js to implement backend. Integrated Yelp and Uber API's using server side authentication.
  • Used Angular.js and Leaflet.js to develop dynamic map feature plotting all nearby bars along with ratings
  • Automated build tasks and scaffolding using Grunt and Yeoman. Managed libraries and frameworks with Bower

Senior Design

  • Worked with UC Davis Enology Department and soil scientists to create wireless system for temperature and evapotranspiration monitoring (STEM) of grape vines
  • Developed hardware, firmware, and software for easy, reliable, and cheap monitoring of soil temperature and moisture
  • Developed Beaglebone XBee coordinator to collect data samples and upload to remote database
  • Built web application using Angular.js, D3.js, and Yahoo!'s weather API
  • Made executive decisions regarding direction of project and selection of hardware


Social Music Application

  • Implemented client-side JavaScript to authenticate user and pull favorited songs from user's SoundCloud profile
  • Experimented with server-side code on Raspberry-Pi in effort to create wireless music streaming device

Music Synchronized Light Show

  • Developed spectral analysis algorithm and audio capture software in Processing IDE
  • Used 32-bit ARM processor to drive multiple LED strips

He who knows the water best has waded through it

Experience



Associate Software Engineer

(9/15 - Present)
Trulia

  • Extended internal API to support location-based queries by developing and deploying geo-spatial search indexes.
  • Refactored monolithic repository for modular development utilizing best practice techniques and code organization. Leading migration to micro-service architecture.
  • Enhanced in-house deployment process by adding auto qa for new API routes.

Software Engineer Intern

(6/15 - 9/15)
Trulia

  • Built a web-based interactive query tool with Apache Zeppelin to explore and analyze data from Hive warehouse.
  • Created aggregate summary reports of Hive tables. Used bash scripts executing Presto and MySQL queries to analyze trend of historical data to detect errors from ETL processes.
  • Used D3.js to make interactive timeline of Jenkins jobs.

Full Stack Development Intern

(8/14 - 11/14)
Root, Inc. - Irrigation Monitoring Systems

  • Developed cross-platform mobile application with Apache Cordova framework. Used cross-domain AJAX requests to retrieve JSON objects from our API and provide real-time updates to user. Used Jquery Mobile and Twitter Bootstrap for UI, event handling, and page navigation. Used Google Maps API to implement crop-tracking feature. Maintained version control using git from command line.
  • Helped implement analytics framework for the optimization of irrigation patterns. Developed Python modules to query soil profile database and monitor weather stations.
  • Reverse engineered government website to create soil zone overlay for Root’s web application.

Electronics Technician

(6/14 - Present)
UC Davis - Memorial Union Games Area
  • Worked with a team of student mechanics and technicians to run the on-campus entertainment facility.
  • Utilized extensive repair, design and debugging skills through the implementation of media centers, entertainment systems and facility machinery.
  • Responsible for debugging and troubleshooting all electronics within facility.

Software Engineering Consultant

(7/14)
Beep - Wireless Music Streaming Device
  • Developed JavaScript API and browser-based test environment for easy simulation of patterns for the device's 24 on-board LED's.

Electronics Engineer Intern

(6/13 - 9/13)
BMT Scientific Marine Services - Off-Shore Marine Monitoring Systems
  • Developed spectral analysis tool to be used by Analysis and Consulting division. Used object oriented programming in Matlab to develop an intuitive graphical user interface to display and dynamically update spectral estimation plots. Developed own algorithm for spectral estimation based on Welch’s method of modified periodograms.
  • Developed drivers for data acquisition board (DAQ) to establish serial communication between Persistor microcontroller and Symmetricom chip-scale atomic clock. Used Metrowerks IDE in development of firmware for DAQ.
  • Designed battery combiner board in Altium. Created schematic to combine several battery compartments into a single output and transferred design to PCB layout.
  • Created and executed order for electrical flying leads (EFL). Responsible for the design of EFL’s to be used in marine monitoring system. Contacted various vendors and presented relevant information to the Project Manager.
  • Performed electrical tests and calibrated Linear Variable Differential Transformers (LVDT).