Hector Castro
2001 Hamilton Street, APT 1622
Philadelphia, PA 19130
215–839–6736
hectcastro@gmail.com
Profile
I enjoy working with others to develop meaningful and technically sound
applications. I believe in adhering to established industry standards
and best-practices. I want to look back every six months and realize
that I’ve made progress.
Skills
- Languages: Spanish, C, C#, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, R,
Ruby/JRuby, SAS
- Frameworks: Chef, Django, jQuery, Rails, Sinatra
- Web Technologies: AJAX, CSS, WebSockets, XHTML/HTML5
- Applications: Apache, Git, Nginx, Subversion, Tomcat, Varnish
- Operating Systems: Linux (Amazon Linux/CentOS, Ubuntu), Mac OS,
Solaris
- Cloud Computing: Amazon Web Services, Heroku, Rackspace Cloud
- Databases: Cassandra, CouchDB, MongoDB, MySQL, Redis, Solr,
SQLite
Experience
Programmer/Analyst, Wharton Research Data Services; Philadelphia, PA – June 2010-Present
- Automated existing data preparation and publishing processes.
- Rewrote a significant portion of documentation to improve
maintainability.
- Re-architected a core product’s full-text search with Solr and Amazon
Web Services.
Software Engineer, The Wharton School; Philadelphia, PA – August 2008-June 2010
- Met faculty and PhD research demands using a wide variety of languages
and platforms.
- Delivered several technical presentations to spread awareness of
emerging technologies.
- Helped drive open source software initiatives to decrease IT costs and
maintain quality.
Web Developer, E-Volare; Philadelphia, PA – April 2008-August 2008
- Visually designed and developed consumer-facing websites.
- Used AJAX to deliver websites that mimic the look and feel of
traditional desktop applications.
- Created and executed effective search engine optimization strategies.
Technical Support & Developer, XCENT; Bristol, PA – June 2007-April 2008
- Provided phone and e-mail support for multiple e-commerce web
applications.
- Developed custom features to enhance existing legacy applications.
- Setup a transparent proxy server to alleviate demands on the office
network.
Teaching Assistant, Temple University; Philadelphia, PA – January 2007-May 2007
- Responsible for 20–25 students in a laboratory setting.
- Assisted students in maintaining computer hardware, operating systems,
and web servers.
- Walked students through Java network programming assignments.
Volunteer, Code for America Hackathon; Philadelphia, PA – February 2012
- Drew requirements from the Philadelphia External Affairs & Community Engagement Office
- Developed theotherphiladelphia.org with three other team members
Board Member, PennApps Labs; Philadelphia, PA – May 2011
- Advised student initiated technology projects for the University of
Pennsylvania.
- Connected student developers with useful resources within the
university.
Volunteer, Police Athletic League; Philadelphia, PA – February 2011
- Helped administer a 24 Challenge tournament for sixth graders.
- Mentored kids who where struggling with mathematics.
Volunteer, Supernova; Philadelphia, PA – July 2010
- Organized space and coordinated sessions.
- Assisted with online session streaming.
Volunteer, HigherEdCamp; Philadelphia, PA – June 2009
- Assembled a mobile-friendly schedule based on Google Calendar.
- Developed a web application to display relevant Twitter updates.
Education
The Wharton School, UPenn, San Francisco, CA – Product Design and Development, January 2011
- Participated in an Innovation Tournament with a class of MBA students.
- Brainstormed and pitched several iterations of Internet based business
ideas.
- Managed the development of website prototypes on a short deadline.
Temple University, Philadelphia, PA – B.S., Computer Science, May 2007
- Graduated Magna Cum Laude with a 3.66 GPA (3.70 in major).
- Member of the Temple University Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
- Served as an ambassador to incoming students for the Computer Science
Department.