Golam Ashraf Email & Phone Number

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Lead architect of content intelligence, content pipeline, and student/teacher engagement systems. Lead developer of the Unity student learning app. Manage the globally distributed technology team. 1) Manage mission-critical technical deliverables in alignment to key business goals that have kept the company growing since 20182) Provide technical leadership to the curriculum dev team, delivering app widgets, question generators and quality assurance tools, that make up the backbone… Show more Lead architect of content intelligence, content pipeline, and student/teacher engagement systems. Lead developer of the Unity student learning app. Manage the globally distributed technology team. 1) Manage mission-critical technical deliverables in alignment to key business goals that have kept the company growing since 20182) Provide technical leadership to the curriculum dev team, delivering app widgets, question generators and quality assurance tools, that make up the backbone of learning content consumed daily by students and teachers across North and Latin America3) Development of gamification eco-systems that boost teacher and student engagement4) Development of backend tools and algorithms to support usage analytics, performance reports and content pipeline Show less

Bangalore, India

Worked on animation/game tech supercharged STEM projects with schools, colleges, vocational institutes, and creative studios. My services included game development, learning content, and delivering inspiring technical workshops. Some of my projects:1. Designed and developed a Garbage Segregation game in Unity, for a Change Maker competition, commissioned by Inventure Academy Bangalore. Team awarded 2nd place. Jan 2018.2. Introduction to Game Development and Mechanics, a 40-hour… Show more Worked on animation/game tech supercharged STEM projects with schools, colleges, vocational institutes, and creative studios. My services included game development, learning content, and delivering inspiring technical workshops. Some of my projects:1. Designed and developed a Garbage Segregation game in Unity, for a Change Maker competition, commissioned by Inventure Academy Bangalore. Team awarded 2nd place. Jan 2018.2. Introduction to Game Development and Mechanics, a 40-hour hands-on module designed with Unity and taught for National Institute of Design Bangalore for their Game Design Masters program.3. Procedural Generation with Unity, a workshop launched at Singapore Science Centre, using math to create shape and motion. 4. Math in Entertainment, a technical workshop launched at GAFX 2017 conference. Connects vectors, matrices and trigonometry to problem solving in graphics.5. Coding Visually, an introduction to fundamental concepts in Computing, that can get any artist started with scripting. The workshop was delivered to a packed hall of inspired artists at GAFX 2017, using Maya and MEL.6. Coded a vehicle movement and traffic control api in Unity, in support for an AI traffic simulation challenge launched at GAFX 2017.7. Curated and judged the technical hackathon challenges at GAFX (2017 and 2018)8. Consultant to the Digital Arts Centre project for rural Fine Arts colleges, funded by Government of Karnataka. I curated the 3-year curriculum and mentored the trainers. (2016-2018)9. Designed a Bachelor of Arts program for animation and games at Middle East College, Oman. Show less

Bangalore, India

Movie CreditsHow to Train Your Dragon 2, 2014Penguins of Madagascar, 2014Role• Curriculum development• Teaching conceptual, pipeline and programming topics• Studio-needs analysis and strategic planning• Education team developmentKey Outcomes: • Strengthened Training delivery framework with new processes, educator toolkits, assignments, measurement, and reinforcement • Trained ~140 new employees and re-trained 40 recent hires• Curriculum… Show more Movie CreditsHow to Train Your Dragon 2, 2014Penguins of Madagascar, 2014Role• Curriculum development• Teaching conceptual, pipeline and programming topics• Studio-needs analysis and strategic planning• Education team developmentKey Outcomes: • Strengthened Training delivery framework with new processes, educator toolkits, assignments, measurement, and reinforcement • Trained ~140 new employees and re-trained 40 recent hires• Curriculum design/delivery: o Tools: Houdini (FX & CFX), Maya (CFX), Premo (Animation), Torch (Light) o Programming: MEL (Modeling & CFX), o Concept: Physics of Light & Materials (Light), Teaching Workshop (TDs) o Art: Foundation Drawing (Surfacing) • Skills mapping and education roadmaps for departments • Tools development in Maya: assisted CFX and modeling departments in conceptualization, and implementation of workflow acceleration and procedural generation tools. Developed rectification tools for feather transformation and skin deformation for shot specific needs. Show less

Singapore

Designed innovative undergraduate computer science courses on Game Development, Animation, and Interactive Media -- balancing algorithms, tools, and artist workflows. Led funded research in Computational Character Design and Real Time Special Effects. Modules:o CS4213 – Game Development: game production, graphics pipeline, spatial partitioning and bounding volumes, collision algebra, visibility culling, GPU architecture, game AI: planning/learning/evolution. Students coded a path… Show more Designed innovative undergraduate computer science courses on Game Development, Animation, and Interactive Media -- balancing algorithms, tools, and artist workflows. Led funded research in Computational Character Design and Real Time Special Effects. Modules:o CS4213 – Game Development: game production, graphics pipeline, spatial partitioning and bounding volumes, collision algebra, visibility culling, GPU architecture, game AI: planning/learning/evolution. Students coded a path planning AI for a monster vs human faceoff in Ogre.o CS3248 – Design of Interactive Media: principles of HCI, 2D and 3D content creation, procedural animation with ActionScript, client-server applicationso CS4343 – Game Development Project: design principles: balance/fun/flow, game engines: Ogre/XNA/UDK/Unity, challenges: graphics, interaction, computational puzzles, agent behavior. Students formed teams and proposed game algorithms and designs.o CS4342 – 3D Modeling and Animation: Maya Basics, scene graph,computation architecture, model representations (polygon, parametric, subdiv,implicit), deformation (FFD, skeleton), animation techniques (kinematics, dynamics), particle systems, and procedural modeling. Students did a challenging procedural modeling-deformation-animation project, implementing a Tree Monster with MEL code. I created tools, and code examples that helped students overcome the project challenges.• Organized several project showcases involving academia, industry and general public from 2007 - 2011. Our projects attracted appreciation from industry, and helped us forge strong bonds for our student attachments and job placements. Students have won placements at Ubisoft, Lucas Animation, Electronics Arts, Capcom, Double Negative, Microsoft, and many other leading international companies all over the world. Show less

Singapore

Pipeline and Visual FX R&D programmer. The group has spun off into Sparky Animation Singapore, a successful TV animation company. Developed fur grooming/animation/rendering tools for accelerating artist productivity. Developed a spring-mass dynamics-based spider web to support a sequence involving a giant spider chasing and trapping a chimpanzee. Developed a distributed processing system that could accept generic computation packets and map it over machines connected by LAN. Developed a backend… Show more Pipeline and Visual FX R&D programmer. The group has spun off into Sparky Animation Singapore, a successful TV animation company. Developed fur grooming/animation/rendering tools for accelerating artist productivity. Developed a spring-mass dynamics-based spider web to support a sequence involving a giant spider chasing and trapping a chimpanzee. Developed a distributed processing system that could accept generic computation packets and map it over machines connected by LAN. Developed a backend database system to monitor tasks and track progress. Show less

Ph.D., Computer Engineering

Dissertation: Metadata Assisted Framespace Interpolation High level motion-events-driven warping and consistent interpolation of human.

B.A.Sc. (Hons.), Computer Engineering

Specialization in Image Processing, Computer Graphics and Animation. Winner of the Caldecott Productions award for best Honors Year.

Isc, Science, Computers, English

Found my love for writing, computing, music and theater under stalwarts like Mr. John Mason, Mr. Abhijit Sircar, Mr. Maurice Menezes, Mrs..