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MiscMy Cirriculum Vitae Due to lab renovations, my latest CV is stuck on my lab computer which isn't in use at the moment, I'll update this CV as soon as it is available (Jan 2011) A brief rambling from me:Currently pursuing MSc in Computer Science at UCT. I have always been interested in visualisation and using computers to transform and process data into forms more easily interpreted by scientists in the field. I have thus always thought of Computer Science as an ‘auxiliary’ science (though some might disagree with this); a sledgehammer of power, wielded to smash through the boundaries of knowledge.Over my university career, I have trained myself to use this heavy tool as effectively as possible. I had a large undertaking of algorithmic practice and learning, taking part and (after a little time) placing well in various algorithmic competitions such as ACM (3rd in South Africa), ICFP (part of a UCT team, 2nd place internationally), Standard Bank IT challenge (3rd in South Africa) and others. In 2007 I was also fortunate enough to be able to work on the ‘Labyrinth’ program under the late Prof. Tony Fairall. A tool he used for his research as well as for educational purposes. The program produced many useful results and was a huge learning experience for me in terms of working with scientists on programs they needed to do their work more efficiently (or at all, in this case). The project is unfortunately on permanent hold at the moment. Part of my training as a computer scientist has focused on communication. If I am to use computers to help other scientific disciplines, I need to understand what it is that scientists need, so that I might create tools actually helpful. And whilst I have a passion for game design and game programming in itself, my time spend in game development has proven invaluable in terms of being able to understand what it is the end-user wants from the computer and translating that to something they can use (or have fun with, in the case of games). I have taken part in all international Global Game Jams (www.globalgamejam.org), with great success and I have worked extensively with UCT’s game courses, creating game code that students used as a base to learn the details of game programming and setting practicals. This is before I had even completed my undergraduate degree, a note I feel proud to mention. My Honours project was in Procedural Generation, which got my partner and myself the BSG Prize for best Computer Science Honours Project 2010. This project was later turned into a paper and accepted to the Afrigraph 2010 conference, which we attended to present our results. I started Masters at the begining of 2010, originally following on from my honours project, which was very games oriented. I did had a change of heart, and decided that computational applications were something I’d be happier pursuing (which turned out to be correct decision). Hence, my current MSc topic in Computational Astronomy, which I am hoping I can turn into a career in related computational fields, including PhD along the way. I have (and will be) attending various workshops on supercomputing and astronomy. I will be travelling to Nice, France in June/July/August to do some collaborative work there. Some music I've madeThese two aren't my best but I happened to have them lyeing around when I was makeing this page, I'll add more at a later stage.Richard Baxter - Down Time Richard Baxter - The Furnace These below are two of my better works :) Richard Baxter - There is Work to be Done Richard Baxter - Damage Control One I created recently (added 26 May 2009, made it a month or three ago)/> Richard Baxter - rebirth - a.k.a. "Happy Japanese Glade song :)" I also have 3 other songs on my MySpace account (I don't really like MySpace anymore but at least I can put my songs up there) Also...Email any questions, queries, complaints, interesting Gettier Cases, etc to:richard.jonathan.baxter@gmail.com or to my UCT account - which auto-forwards to my gmail account anyway :) |