Walter Kim

Past

Masters Student in Digital Media at Georgia Institute of Technology
Graduate Teaching Assistant for Intro. to Computational Media at Georgia Institute of Technology
QA and Level Design Intern at Hi-Rez Studios

Volunteer Webmaster at Games for Change
Multimedia/Hardware Tester at Sony Computer Entertainment of America
Founder, Editor at Ludonauts.com

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Education

Georgia Institute of Technology
University of California, Berkeley

Recommended

4 people have recommended Walter

Connections

93 connections

Industry

Computer Software

Websites

My Website

Walter Kim’s Summary

Currently looking for full-time work. I design and develop fantastic user experiences for web and iPhone apps. I'm proficient at functional and object-oriented programming, interaction design, information design, and usability analysis. On the web development side, I develop primarily in Django, but can work with a variety of languages, frameworks and tools.

I possess 5 cumulative years of programming experience, covering Scheme, Java, Python, Objective-C, C, JavaScript, and other languages. I also have a diverse background in the humanities and social sciences, affording me a rich vocabulary with which to understand and describe human behavior.

Walter Kim’s Specialties:

iPhone development, web design & development, information architecture, interaction design, game design, hi-fi & paper prototyping, project management, e-commerce strategy, presentations, documentation.

• Objective-C, C, OpenGL ES 1.1, Xcode, Interface Builder, Instruments
• Python, Django, TextMate
• XHTML/CSS, XML, JavaScript, JQuery
• Java, Swing, Eclipse, Processing
• Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator
• index cards, paper, whiteboards
• Basecamp
• Keynote

Walter Kim’s Experience

Masters Student in Digital Media

Georgia Institute of Technology

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

August 2006 — August 2008 (2 years 1 month)

Highlights:

• Master's Project: Designed and developed DebateWeb, a global repository for arguments and a platform for large-scale deliberation, built with Django. Received high praise for the defense.

• Analyzed and made recommendations for e-commerce businesses with respect to value chain, value disciplines, network effects, platform management, B2B, B2C, C2C, and revenue management with E-Commerce team.

• Designed, prototyped, and tested a highly usable alternative to Georgia Tech's campus map with HCI team, combining course, people, and transportation lookup. Acted as team leader, declared goal of making the best campus map ever (and it was). Professor recommended we take our prototype to Student Services so they could adopt our design.

• Designed and developed prototypes for multiple games and expressive computation projects.
Graduate Teaching Assistant for Intro. to Computational Media

Georgia Institute of Technology

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

August 2007 — December 2007 (5 months)

Assisted undergrads with written assignments and programming projects, graded and provided written feedback on their work. Projects included creating a short work of interaction fiction with Inform 6, a drawing program with Processing, an expressive mashup with the Switchboard Processing library, a chatterbot with AIML, a coherent recipe/program with Chef, and an Atari VCS game with Batari BASIC. Ran peer critique sections for each project and lectured on programming with Inform.
QA and Level Design Intern

Hi-Rez Studios

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Games industry)

May 2007 — August 2007 (4 months)

Performed QA testing and playtesting for daily builds. Deployed new builds to programmers, designers, and artists via Perforce. Provided feedback on game and level design. Learned how to design and script levels using the Unreal 3 editor, including Kismet and Matinee.
Volunteer Webmaster

Games for Change

(Non-Profit; Online Media industry)

May 2007 — June 2007 (2 months)

Provided technical support, content updates, and graphics editing for the Games for Change 2007 Conference website and wiki. Cleaned up lots of dirty Word-generated HTML.
Multimedia/Hardware Tester

Sony Computer Entertainment of America

(Public Company; SNE; Consumer Electronics industry)

April 2006 — June 2006 (3 months)

Tested firmware updates and browser functionality for the PSP, and PS1 and PS2 backward compatibility on the PS3. Prolific at reporting bugs. Recruited for secret emulation testing group in my first week. Also enjoyed playing a new game every hour, even the bad ones, as they provided plenty of grist for the design critic mill.
Founder, Editor

Ludonauts.com

(Online Media industry)

December 2003 — September 2005 (1 year 10 months)

Created, designed, edited, and wrote for the site, which was both a blog and series of essays on game studies and design. Somehow convinced a number of incredibly smart people in academia and industry to write incredibly smart things for it. The site has since been retired, but we earned the respect of influential game academics, journalists, and developers alike.

Walter Kim’s Education

Georgia Institute of Technology

M.S. , Digital Media , 2006 — 2008

Emphases in interaction design, user interface design, user experience, social media, media theory, expressive computation, game design, and interactive fiction.

Activities and Societies:

Computation as an Expressive Medium, Visual Culture and Design, Game Design and Analysis, Project Studio: MMOG, Principles of UI Software, Project Production, Human-Computer Interaction, E-Commerce (MBA), Games & Health Independent Study, iPhone & Web App Independent Study, Master's Project
University of California, Berkeley

B.A. , Legal Studies

Emphases in computer science, economics, and philosophy.

Activities and Societies:

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Data Structures and Algorithms, Java, Probability and Statistics, Introduction to Economics, Microeconomic Analysis, Macroeconomic Analysis, Law and Economics, Theories of Justice, Law Politics and Society, American Legal and Constitutional History, Foundations of Criminal Law, Legal Theory, Formal Logic, Modern Philosophy, Ethical Theories, Moral Psychology, Philosophy of Race and Culture, International Human Rights, Screenwriting

Additional Information

Walter Kim’s Websites:

My Website

Walter Kim’s Interests:

Entrepreneurship, interaction design, information architecture (IA), user experience (UX), usability, web design, collective intelligence, social media, social networks, ubiquitous computing, expressive computation, media studies, media ecology, critical theory, politics, ethics, law, philosophy, phenomenology, psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, sociology, screenwriting, creative writing