Mark D. Vassell
Software Engineer
markvassell@gmail.com
(314) 546-3894
Objective
To leverage the knowledge and skills I possess to bring a unique perspective to the organization that I'm associated with.
Education
University of Missouri - Columbia
Jan 2017 - Current
Master of Engineering Computer Science
GPA: 4.0
Course Work
CMP_SC 7070 | 3 Credit Hours
This course introduced the basic numerical methods that are widely used by computer scientists and engineers. I learned how to use the MATLAB platform to find the computational solution of various problems arising in many real world applications.
CMP_SC 7440 | 3 Credit Hours
This course teaches how to understand the nature and types of viruses and how they are threats; teaches techniques used to prevent, detect, repair and defend against viruses and worms; teaches program binary examination tools to detect malicious code; and ethical issues surround computer security violations.
CMP_SC 7530 | 3 Credit Hours
This course covers principles that integrate computing theories and information technologies with the design, programming and application of distributed systems. It also goes over distributed system models and enabling technologies; virtual machines and virtualization of clusters, networks and data centers; cloud platform architecture with security over virtualized data centers; service- oriented architectures for distributed computing; and cloud programming and software environments.
CMP_SC 7610 | 3 Credit Hours
Basic concepts and techniques of interactive computer graphics including hardware, software, data structures, mathematical manipulation of graphical objects, the user interface, and fundamental implementation algorithms.
CMP_SC 7740 | 3 Credit Hours
The goal of this course is to enable students to develop substantive NLP applications. Focus on current structural and statistical techniques for the parsing and interpretation of text.
CMP_SC 7830 | 3 Credit Hours
This course will study the science and engineering of the World Wide Web. We will study the languages, protocols, services and tools that enable the web. Emphasis will be placed on basics and technologies.
CMP_SC 8001 | 3 Credit Hours
This course was treated as part two to Cloud Computing.
CMP_SC 8085 | 3 Credit Hours
This course tackled the challenge of how to correctly present materials more efficiently teach students concepts.
CMP_SC 8130 | 3 Credit Hours
This course introduces computational concepts and methods of genomics to students. The course covers genome structure, database, sequencing, assembly, annotation, gene and RNA finding, motif and repeats identification, single nucleotide polymorphism, and epigenomics. Graded on A-F basis only.
CMP_SC 8180 | 3 Credit Hours
This course uses a problem solving paradigm to investigate common principles, data structures, algorithms, challenges, and solutions in computationally modeling (constructing) 3D structures of proteins, RNAs, chromosomes, and genomes.
CMP_SC 8680 | 3 Credit Hours
This course introduces students to a central problem in computer vision - how to recover 3-D structure and motion from a collection of 2-D images, using techniques drawn mainly from linear algebra and matrix theory. The main focus is on developing a unified framework for studying the geometry of multiple images of a 3-D scene and reconstructing geometric models from those images. The course also covers relevant aspects of image formation, basic image processing, and feature extraction.
CMP_SC 8740 | 3 Credit Hours
This course considers open and compelling problems in contemporary research in the processing and analysis of text, focusing on both the underlying theory and its practical application. The goal is to help students understand the nature of these problems, the current approaches to them, the strengths and weaknesses of those approaches, and other possible ways forward.
University of Missouri - Columbia
Aug 2012 - Dec 2016
Bachelor of Science Computer Science
GPA: 3.0
Work Experience
Boeing Research and Technology (BR&T)
May 2018 - August 2018
In this internship I was given the opportunity to develop my own solution to integrate weather data and weather simulations into an Unreal Engine 4 environment. I created a C++ plugin that connects to an external weather server, loaded Digital Elevation Model (DEM) into UE4, simulated weather conditions, researched what technologies could be used to generate my solutions, and provided full documentation of my work.
Boeing Business and Supply Chain Systems (BSCS)
May 2017 - August 2017
My main role was to drive change and encourage innovations. I managed the innovations tool. The innovations tool is a place where employees can submit their ideas on how tasks in the company could be improved. When the idea start to make waves in the online community, I would meet with the innovator and walk through their idea with them. I brought up things that they may have missed, the possible drawbacks, and the possible benefits.
My second role was to do disaster recovery planning. I reviewed the plans, updated any pertinent data, and got approval from the application team. I came up with a proposal on how to automate this process. The proposal include automatic updates (update application information from the database where the information is stored), automated scripts to send out emails for approval from the application team, and automated reminders when plans need to get reviewed. This would in make all the plans consistent and stay in regulation with the government policies. If implemented on the 2000+ applications the company has, there would be an estimated savings of $2.6 million yearly. My teammates and I presented this information to the VP and she in turn got it to the CTO’s desk.
Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute - University of Missouri - Columbia (FAPRI MU)
Jan 2017 - Dec 2018
Helped to develop the application for the USDA ERS conversion from excel models to R.
Developed and Maintain the Risk Simulator web tool created with MYSQL, PHP, HTML5, JavaScript, Bootstrap, Ajax, and jQuery
University of Missouri - Columbia
Jan 2017 - May 2017
Held office hours and graded assignments for INFOTC 1040 Python
Aug 2016 - Dec 2018
Missouri Evans Scholarship House
Works closely with individual Evans Scholars along with the Executive Board and Chapter Advisors to ensure the success of all the Evans Scholars.
Projects
Dolus: Defense using Pretense against DDoS in Cloud Platforms
Jan 2017 - May 2017
Use software defined networking on internet exchange points to detect attack closer to the source and re-route the attacker's traffic to an virtual machine that mimics the original application.
Here is a link to the ICDCN paper: Dolus Defense by Pretense
Presentations: Dolus for DDos Dolus for APTs
Journal Publication (Future Generation Computer Systems): Intelligent Defense using Pretense against Targeted Attacks in Cloud Platforms
Panacea's Cloud
May 2015 - August 2015
Developed a system to improve coordination and communication in disastrous situations. Integrated wearable technologies with a command center to improve triage.
Here is a link to the IEEE paper: Panacea's Cloud
Here is a link to the presentation: Panacea's Presentation
Events
Black and Veatch Hackathon
June 2016
Presented with the challenge of Designing a smart city. Went beyond the requirements and designed a maintenance system for smart cities. The system consisted of a UI that monitors the IoT devices that communicate with each other in the smart city with a notification system for when a failure is detected. Placed third in the competition.