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Hi, I am Aeson

Aeson Akhras

Software Engineer at Envision Center, Purdue University

I am a passionate software engineer, interested in systems, low level, and gameplay programming. I am currently working at the Envision Center at Purdue University, where I develop simulations for researchers, professors and other clients using the cutting edge of technology. I graduated from Purdue University with a Batchelors in Computer Science.

C
C#
C++
Unity
OpenGL
Python

Experiences

1
Software Engineer
Purdue University Envision Center

May 2019 - Present, West Lafayette, Indiana

Responsibilities:
  • Utilizing Unity, C#, and other technologies to deploy interactive simulations to Desktop, Web, and the Meta Quest.
  • Collaborating with stakeholders to define project goals and providing ongoing consulting during the designing and developing of interactive software for training, educational, and research purposes.
  • Leading a team of undergrad students, creating a simulation to train users on pre-trip inspection for their CDL license. Ensuring code quality, maintainability, providing mentorship, delegating tasks and ensuring the project is on time.
  • Creating engaging virtual labs that enhanced student learning, including a project that allowed students to explore and analyze fluid flow data. Working with subject matter experts to reduce the processing power needed to analyze fluid flow and developed a pipeline that will efficiently transform data from their software to a Unity WebGL frontend.
  • Designing and developing an interactive atomic electron orbital visualization using WebGL and ray marching.
  • Developed a VR simulation for scientific research on electrical safety. Features include collection and export of eye and body tracking data and a frontend to allow researchers to change parameters of the experiment.
  • Updated existing projects in Unity based on client feedback. Worked on various new features and performance enhancements, speeding up some elements of the projects by up to 200%.
  • Worked on various other projects including OSHA and pharmaceutical training, and a virtual lab on smoke plumes.
Undergraduate Teaching Assistant
Purdue University

Aug 2019 - May 2020, West Lafayette, Indiana

Helped students with labs and questions on topics of the class.

Responsibilities:
  • CS 252 (Systems Programming) - Assist running labs covering topics such as memory allocation, shell scripting, multithreaded programming, and web server programming.
  • CS 250 (Computer Architecture) - Assist in running labs, answering questions, and debugging circuits and ARM assembly code.
  • CS 390VRT(Virtual Reality Applications) - Assist students in creating projects using both Unity and Unreal Engine 4. Created tutorial slides to teach other students Unreal Engine 4.
2
3
Software Engineering Intern
DMI (Digital Management, LLC)

Jun 2019 - Aug 2019, Carmel, Indiana

Responsibilities:
  • Worked on a team to redesign the front end of an internal website based on specifications given from UI/UX designers.
  • Implemented features using Microsoft Azure services, such as Active Directory and Blob Storage.
  • Designed and implemented an image uploading system that requires administrator approval before any image change is reflected on the website.
  • Updated backend using C#. Updated frontend using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Vue.js.
  • Wrote unit tests for frontend code using Mocha and Chai.

Portfolio

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The Cure: Peculiar Pestilence

This was a Game Jam that I worked on with people I met at GDC! This was a submission for the “Week Sauce” April 2022 Game Jam. I was a part of the programming team, we used Unity. The game entails determining the symptoms that the patients have and going to the medicine room to create potions to heal them! More information can be found Here on Itch.io page! Here are some of my contributions / responsibilities:

March 8, 2023 Read
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Dice Tower

This game was developed for a submission to the “GMTK 2022” 48-hour game jam. Initially we had an MVP and playable game, for the submission deadline. After the deadline passed I wanted to add more polish so that it met our original vision for the game. I continued to work but kept the additional work to under 20 hours, to help keep in line with the Game Jam spirit! What is shown here is the project after the additional work had been done.

February 15, 2023 Read
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AEngine

As an aspiring game developer I wanted to explore OpenGL and see what went into an engine by making my own! While it is very simple I have added a lot of features that would allow for a simple game to be created. This demo was created using C++, OpenGL, and GLM. Here is a video of the engine in action! I have made a small game to demonstrate that it can handle things such as:

February 14, 2023 Read
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Pollinator Protection

This project is meant to teach elementary school students about pollinators and their importance in the environment. This was a project that was developed and deployed in beta by employees at the Envision Center before I joined. My task was to take feedback from the client and implement it. Overall I improved the performance and accessibility of all of the modules that I worked with. I also added some new features.

February 7, 2023 Read
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MiFluids

This project is a virtual lab that I am currently working on which will be used to teach students about fluid flow. The lab was created using Unity for the visualization component and using Python to process the data coming from the fluid simulation software. This virtual lab is meant to run inside of browsers in real time. However, realistic fluid simulations are very costly and can sometimes take minutes to hours to calculate, and require higher end hardware.

February 6, 2023 Read
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Hydrogen Atom Visualization

This is a very interesting project that is currently in progress. It is developed to draw the different orbitals of an electron in a hydrogen atom. To create the visualizations, volumes are initially generated in c++ and exported to a WebGL front end. The front end uses ray marching to draw these visualizations. An explanation of what the visualization and colors mean are described below. Opacity: This is the probability that the electron will be found within the area, the brighter the more likely it is that the atom will be found there.

February 5, 2023 Read
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CDL Pre-trip Inspection Training

This is a multi-year project which is being developed to teach users about the pre-trip inspection portion of getting their CDL license. I am leading a team of mostly programmers to develop this using Unity, and we are about midway through the development effort. My main duties involve deciding architecture of the game and developing some of the high level systems, while delegating work to my part-time co-workers. Some of the systems that I have worked on include:

February 8, 2022 Read
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Ray Tracer

This was a project for my Advanced Graphics course. I do not normally like including school work in my portfolio but I think that this is a very important piece of work that I am proud of. This was created from scratch using C++. I used the GLM library for math, RapidJSON for the scene description files, and wrote a custom .BMP exporter for the frames. This project went through many iterations.

February 8, 2021 Read