Computer Software Consultant and Contractor
Rochester, Minnesota Area
- Current
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- Software Architect Consultant at Electronic Arts
- Past
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- Senior Software Engineer at Criterion Software
- Senior Software Engineer at Mathengine
- Chief Technology Officer at Subjex Corporation
- Physics Simulation Researcher at Inwit
- Staff Software Engineer at IBM
- Education
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- University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
- University of Michigan
- Recommended
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3 people have recommended John - Connections
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- Industry
- Computer Software
- Websites
John Henckel’s Summary
Experienced in:
C++ and Java object-oriented development
3D physics and graphics
HTML, Perl, PHP, Java applets/servlets, and Javascript
SQL database design and programming
Natural language parsing and deduction
John Henckel’s Specialties:
1. Physics simulation and collision detection.
2. Artificial intelligence.
John Henckel’s Experience
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Software Architect Consultant
Electronic Arts
(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; ERTS; Computer Games industry)
April 2004 — Present (5 years 4 months)
Development and maintenance of EATech Physics Engine and Collision Detection library. EA Physics is used in many EA games such as Skate, Burnout, and FIFA. I optimized the spatial indexing code by using the PowerPC Altivec vector instructions on Xbox360 and PS3.
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Senior Software Engineer
Criterion Software
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Computer Games industry)
July 2003 — March 2004 (9 months)
Brought Renderware Physics up to product-level quality standards. Architected the Renderware 4 collision and spatial database system. Improved the time-of-impact algorithm. Designed and implemented a remote visualizer that is used to debug physics applications running on PlayStation2 and Xbox. Integrated new physics constraint solver technologies.
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Senior Software Engineer
Mathengine
(Public Company; 11-50 employees; Computer Games industry)
September 2001 — June 2003 (1 year 10 months)
Designed and implemented collision detection system for two major game physics engines: Karma (used by Epic Games' Unreal Engine) and Renderware Physics. Developed new algorithms for collision detection, contact generation, and time-of-impact calculation. Wrote cross-platform C code for PlayStation2, PC, Xbox, and GameCube. Implemented optimizations for real-time performance on game consoles.
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Chief Technology Officer
Subjex Corporation
(Public Company; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)
January 2000 — February 2001 (1 year 2 months)
Designed and developed a new high-performance natural dialog search engine, Subjex.com, with merchant/affiliate e-commerce tracking system using industry standard technologies: Linux, Java, and mySQL. Investigated and set corporate direction for new technologies such as XML, wireless protocols, and streaming media indexing.
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Physics Simulation Researcher
Inwit
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)
February 1999 — January 2000 (1 year)
Architected a platform independent 3D simulation and graphics library. Designed and implemented a general purpose physics simulator by integrating many advanced techniques: GJK collision detection, impact dynamics, jointed multibodies using Lagrange multipliers, and cloth and flexible body simulation using damped springs. Wrote papers on vector mathematics, collision detection, and simulation methods.
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Staff Software Engineer
IBM
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry)
August 1988 — February 1999 (10 years 7 months)
** CORBA Distributed Object Technologies for NT and AIX **
Wrote WebSphere Externalization and Persistence Services. Wrote the object server container and hashing algorithms. Gained proficiency in object-oriented design and programming, C++, Java, CORBA architecture and object services.
** Multimedia Technologies for the AS/400 **
Wrote serial communication code to control VCRs, laserdiscs, and cameras remotely. Wrote C routines to support image conversion, compression, and dithering in various image formats.
** Artificial Intelligence Technologies for the AS/400 **
Implemented several neural network algorithms and developed a new rule extraction mechanism. Wrote SQL database access code to support several expert systems tools.
John Henckel’s Education
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University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
MS , Computer Science , 1990 — 1993
Master's project: Theorem prover with natural language interface. Described and implemented a mapping from English to first order logic and a resolution based deduction engine in C.
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University of Michigan
BS , Computer Science , 1982 — 1986
Additional Information
John Henckel’s Websites:
John Henckel’s Interests:
Discrete mathematics, philosophy, parenting, physics-based animation, computers, kites, chess, Diplomacy, Koine Greek, 3rd world economics, web browsers, discussion groups, archery hunting, sailing, wakeboarding, snowboarding, wind surfing, RC helicopters and planes, Make magazine, wine making, and alternative energy sources.
John Henckel’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
