Peter Franza Email & Phone Number

As the Principal Software Architect at Harmonize, I've been entrusted with the responsibility of shaping the technological future of our products. My role is multifaceted and includes the following key responsibilities:• Leadership & Mentorship: Guiding and nurturing the development team, conducting regular code reviews, and creating an environment of continuous learning and growth.• Architectural Oversight: Creating and overseeing the implementation of robust and scalable software architectures, ensuring alignment with business goals and industry standards.• Innovation & Research: Leading cutting-edge research initiatives to foster innovation within the organization, exploring new technologies, methodologies, and techniques that propel us to the forefront of educational technology.• Integration & Collaboration: Spearheading integration efforts with corporate partners and representing HarmonizeLearning in various open standards consortiums, strengthening both our internal capabilities and our external partnerships.• Strategic Planning: Participating in technical decision-making processes without dictating them, working closely with management to align technology strategies with the overall vision of the company.My tenure at Harmonize has been marked by a passion for excellence, innovation, and collaboration. I believe in not just building software but constructing the technological backbone that can adapt, grow, and sustain the dynamic and ever-changing landscape of modern education.

As a member of the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) education standard working group, I have contributed both to the theoretical foundations and the practical applications of this groundbreaking standard:• Specification Development: Collaborated with industry experts and stakeholders to write and refine the LTI standard's specification, ensuring a robust, flexible, and forward-thinking framework that meets the needs of educators, developers, and learners.• Community Engagement: Actively participated in discussions, workshops, and conferences, sharing insights and gathering feedback to make continuous improvements to the standard and the supporting tools and libraries.• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Worked closely with educators, administrators, and technologists to ensure that the LTI standard is both innovative and practical, bridging gaps between various disciplines and creating a cohesive and effective standard.My work with the LTI standard working group has been driven by a commitment to enhancing the interoperability and flexibility of educational tools. Through collaboration, innovation, and a focus on real-world application, I have helped shape a standard that promises to revolutionize the way educational content and systems interact and integrate.

Remote

At 42 Lines Inc, I served as a Senior Software Engineer, specializing in full lifecycle development of custom software. My role encompassed the development of a custom Learning Management System (LMS) and other vital systems tailored to the needs of higher-education clients. Here's an overview of my responsibilities and accomplishments:Lead Engineer for the Harmonize Discussion Platform for Canvas LMS:•Product Lifecycle Management: Provided full support of product lifecycle, from conceptualization to deployment, ensuring that all stages were executed with precision.•Team Leadership & Mentorship: Oversaw and mentored the technical activities of the team, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.•Architectural Design: Designed and developed the core framework architecture, as well as numerous support modules, aligning with best practices and client requirements.•Customer Engagement: Conducted demonstrations and briefings to customers and senior management, effectively communicating the features and benefits of the platform.•Deployment Coordination: Collaborated with the operations team to coordinate product deployments, ensuring seamless integration into existing systems.Technologies Used:Wicket, CDI, RestEasy, JAVA, SQL, JPA, JAX-RS, HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, Hibernate, LTI, SCORM, Caliper, MySQL, JiraMy time at 42 Lines Inc was marked by a relentless pursuit of excellence, creativity, and efficiency. Whether leading a team, architecting complex solutions, or engaging with clients, I was committed to delivering software that met and exceeded the expectations of our higher-education clients.

Virginia Beach, Virginia

Created educational video games that blended a game engine (Unity3d) and web (GWT/HTML5/CSS/JS) seamlessly into a unified environment. • Full support of product lifecycle, while providing oversight and mentoring of technical activities of team. • Developed core architecture and system concepts. • Managed time, tasking and provided oversight of activities and mentoring to a development team of engineers, artists, content developers and subject matter experts. • Architected high availability delivery system.Company Lead Engineer for "Pi and the Lost Function" and "Mission: Recon" video game series. Design and built an intelligent tutoring agent that monitored and players performance and would intervene when additional instruction was required. The video game runs on the Unity3d (C#) game engine and used GWT/JS/HTML5/CSS3 to integrate in the 2D overlays.Created a web-based educational content delivery system that allows customers to consume educational material outside of the game environment. Using GWT/HTML5/CSS3 created an interactive delivery platform that reached desktop/iOS/Android platforms.Created a high availability central web service architecture that game clients could interact with. The game servers provided services such as roaming player profiles, cross product analytics, customer activity auditing and reporting and back office administration functions. The architecture also served as a licensing server and automated payment processing center.Created a suite of web-based content authoring tools using GWT/Java/JPA to allow SMEs to expedite the creation of educational assets. These assets could then be rapidly integrated into multiple delivery environments.

Chesapeake, Virginia

Lead Engineer for the OpenTMS Next Generation Web Client a project that took the existing thick client application and re-engineered it as a high performance web client. • Full support of product lifecycle, while providing oversight and mentoring of technical activities of team.• Designed and developed core architecture and system concepts.• Managed time, tasking and provided oversight of activities and mentoring to a development team of six software engineers.• Architected high availability delivery system.Lead Engineer for the Incident Tracking and Control System (ITACS) an enabling architecture for integrating security systems into a common operation platform.• Full support of product lifecycle, while providing oversight and mentoring of technical activities of team.• Designed and developed core framework architecture, as well as numerous support modules• Integrated real-time automatic vehicle location (AVL) hardware into the tactical display system.• Conducted demonstrations and briefing to customers and senior managementCore Engineer for the OpenTMS Intelligent Transportation System • Provided full lifecycle support for numerous efforts providing considerable expansion to the system capabilities.• Managed time, tasking and provided oversight of activities and mentoring to a development team of five software engineers.• Provided development support to numerous additional modules and software efforts.

Norfolk, Virginia

Lead Technical Engineer for the Joint Live Virtual Constructive Data Translator (JLVCDT/JBUS) plug-in framework that makes M&S protocol interoperability possible in a many-to-many protocol context.• Developed core framework architecture which is being used by Joint Forces Command Center and the Navy Warfare Development Command.• Developed plugins that enable support for the TENA, HLA and DIS simulation protocols.• Developed plugins that support VMF, OTHGold and USMTF protocols which allow live C4I devices to operate in synthetic environments.• Provided oversight of activities and mentoring to a development team of five software engineers• Conducted demonstrations and briefings to customers and senior management.Primary instructor for Alion’s JSAF developer’s course• Instruct a week long class of 10-15 students• Lead class through lecture as well as hands on experiments

Norfolk, Virginia

• Lead JSAF developer for the U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) Joint National Training Capability• Software Engineering support for a TPS-75 radar emulator utilized by the Air Force Control and Reporting Center Trainer• Software Engineering support for the design of the RF Hellfire Missile module of the Army’s Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (AVCATT) project.Designed, developed and maintained Internet and Intranet medium scale collaborative websites and web based project planning/tracking tools for BMH and its customers.