Alexander Saint Croix

Current

• Network Support Analyst at University of Minnesota
• Innovation Fellow at University of Minnesota

Past

• Technology Helpline and Training Consultant at University of Minnesota
• JSR-94 Rule Engine Implementation Lead at The Codehaus
• Twin Cities Chapter President at International Association of Software Architects

• Tech Support Lead at Academic & Distributed Computing Services, University of Minnesota
• UI Specialist at marchFIRST
• Independent Contractor at Sole Proprietorship (Sole Proprietorship)
• Undergraduate TA -- Multimedia UI Design at University of Minnesota
• Web UI Specialist at Arcane Logic

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5 more...

Education

• University of Minnesota

Recommended

7 people have recommended Alexander

Connections

96 connections

Industry

Computer Networking

Websites

• My Blog
• My Company

Alexander Saint Croix’s Summary

I grew up on the Internet frontier. I designed my first web site when I was 14. At 17 I was working with image morphography and interactive multimedia design.

In college I studied electronic art, human computer interface, cognitive linguistics, sentential logic and first order logical language design before I ever knew what a for-loop was.

At 19 I was designing flash games for Golden Books in Manhattan. Since then I've worked for Fortune 50 clients, mom & pop shops, small nonprofits, giant international corporations, service companies, industrial companies, world-class research institutions, and just for the fun of it. I loved that the most.

I got into the Open Source Java scene in late 2002 and got interested in rule engineering. The next year I gave the salutatory address for the University of Minnesota's College of Liberal Arts and went on to spend 18 months writing Open Source software and studying classical literature. I joined the Drools rule engine project, built their JSR-94 stack before privation sucked me back into the market. After a 90-day, 90 hours a week stint successfully developing e-commerce sites in OFBiz, I returned to the University of Minnesota's Office of Information Technology.

From there I helped the "U" craft new policies to encourage responsible and safe computing among students. We once had hundreds of student computers infected at any given time. No more.

In 2005 and 2006 I served as an Innovation Fellow at the U, identifying and testing strategically important technologies. My findings were all implemented.

Since January of 2008 I have served the University as a Network Support Analyst, and in June 2008 I officially became a grad student in our Computer Science program.

Alexander Saint Croix’s Specialties:

network analysis, aporetics, modal logic, algorithm design and analysis, artificial intelligence, safety-critical system design, software testing and QA, expert systems, knowledge architectures, business rule engines, Enterprise Java, MySQL, XML, user interface design, software architecture, software engineering, classical philosophy, non-euclidean geometry, Open Source Java projects, e-commerce, computer viruses & security, training, education and mentoring.

Alexander Saint Croix’s Experience

• Network Support Analyst

  University of Minnesota

  (Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Higher Education industry)

  January 2008 — Present (7 months)

  Diagnose and repair network and telecommunication service interruptions for the University of Minnesota as a member of the Office of Information Technology's Network and Telecommunication Services team.

• Innovation Fellow

  University of Minnesota

  (Educational Institution; 11-50 employees; Research industry)

  August 2005 — Present (3 years)

  Identify, research and implement mission-critical information technologies for the University of Minnesota.

• Technology Helpline and Training Consultant

  University of Minnesota

  (Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Higher Education industry)

  September 2004 — January 2008 (3 years 5 months)

  I wore as many hats as I could at 1-HELP. I did everything from technical training, documentation, classroom instruction, network and telecommunication support, operating system and network security, employee training, knowledge architecture, web design, video production, team leadership, and on-site operating system repair. This position was the best I'd had in all my years in the IT industry, because it left me free and energized to conduct personal R&D in my spare time. Plus, working for a Big 10 university, one of the top research institutions in the world, has perks that no other company could possibly offer me, such as an unbeatable academic culture, access to world-class research materials and graduate-level education opportunities. I left this position on January 18th, 2008 in order to transfer over and upward in the same department, during a period of major reorganization and realignment. My next position will allow me to use my skills to even better advantage.

• JSR-94 Rule Engine Implementation Lead

  The Codehaus

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  March 2004 — October 2005 (1 year 8 months)

  Develop and maintain the JSR-94 implementation for the Drools project, an Open Source RETE-based Rule Engine. The JSR-94 specification is a standard API for Rule Engines in Java. Drools provides a way for developers to remove volatile business rules from the software code and organize them so that they can be more easily managed and customized.

• Twin Cities Chapter President

  International Association of Software Architects

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

  February 2004 — September 2004 (8 months)

  My main responsibilities include marketing the IASA to local software architects, organizing monthly architecture discussion groups and meeting with representatives from local companies to discuss the organization and secure sponsorship.

• Tech Support Lead

  Academic & Distributed Computing Services, University of Minnesota

  (Educational Institution; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  December 2001 — January 2003 (1 year 2 months)

  Our job at the tech helpline was to address any and all computer-related technical problems for the 250,000+ members of the University community (student, staff, faculty & alumni).
  
  We supported every modern operating platform, dealing mostly with software and networking problems. However, we were also required to diagnose hardware failures and occasionally provide on-site hardware maintenence.
  
  I played a leadership role--managing the office on weekends, training new student recruits and performing on-site network maintenence throughout campus. It was the perfect job while I was a student.

• UI Specialist

  marchFIRST

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Internet industry)

  October 2000 — March 2001 (6 months)

  I loved working at marchFIRST. I specialized in UI design and the interaction between Java and Flash 5. Our team of 90 developers, designers and writers built a web site in Flash for building web sites in Flash. The project was for Proctor & Gamble. It was an incredibly high-energy environment.
  
  marchFIRST gave me a taste of what it was like to work in an enormous, successful international company, to be a part of a massive team of genuinely talented people.

• Independent Contractor

  Sole Proprietorship (Sole Proprietorship)

  (Sole Proprietorship; Myself Only; Internet industry)

  January 2000 — October 2000 (10 months)

  During this period of time I worked on a handful of projects for local Minneapolis firms and for Manhattan firms. I augmented existing teams of designers and developers and assembled my own teams on occasion.
  
  Most of the work involved multimedia game engine design, but I made an important transition to e-commerce portal development during this period.

• Undergraduate TA -- Multimedia UI Design

  University of Minnesota

  (Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Higher Education industry)

  February 1998 — July 2000 (2 years 6 months)

  My duties as an undergrad TA primarily involved training students in the use of multimedia, graphic design and statistical software.
  
  In terms of multimedia training, I specialized in Macromedia products (Director and early Flash), ECMA Script, various audio and video composition packages and various scripting languages used to enmesh the disparate systems.
  
  I also trained students in the use of raster and vector graphic packages such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw and their various clones.
  
  Aside from teaching, my job was also to care for and guard the laboratory facilities. Not glorious, but very important.

• Web UI Specialist

  Arcane Logic

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  January 1999 — December 1999 (1 year)

  During this time I honed my skills with interactive multimedia applications, graphic design and client-side programming for the web. I developed branding strategies and innovative rich media web sites for a wide variety of clients.

Alexander Saint Croix’s Education

• University of Minnesota

  Bachelor of Liberal Arts, English Creative Writing, Art, August 1997 — December 2003

  * Undergrad TA in Multimedia UI design when I was a freshman in 1998
  * Founded an underground experimental theatre troupe (in which Dain Sundstrom was actually a cast member--lol) between 1999 & 2000
  * Senior project in poetry, "Letters to the Front", was selected in 2003 for special display at the English department graduation banquet by Dr. Michael Dennis Browne.
  * Excelled in metal and concrete sculpture
  * Planning to pursue graduate studies in philosophy and creative writing

  Activities and Societies:

  Elected to MPIRG local board in 1998, Graduation commencement speaker in December 2003

Additional Information

Alexander Saint Croix’s Websites:

• My Blog
• My Company

Alexander Saint Croix’s Interests:

Aporetics, modal logic, nonstandard analysis, non-euclidian geometry, philosophy, Java & XML, Gödel, Gauss, Riemann, rule engineering, knowledge architecture, scientific computing, numerical computing, artificial intelligence, graphics and user interfaces, Open Source software development processes.

Alexander Saint Croix’s Groups:

I love to create informal groups and associations, student groups, and Open Source project teams.

•    Open Source member

Alexander Saint Croix’s Honors:

Delivered graduation address for University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts (December 2003)
Innovation Fellow, University of Minnesota (2005-2006 Academic Year)
Innovation Fellow, University of Minnesota (2006-2007 Academic Year)

Alexander Saint Croix’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• new ventures
• expertise requests
• reference requests
• getting back in touch