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damianball.com
Portfolio
2011
August
University of Idaho Photoclub
examsuite site As a member of the UI Photoclub, I created a general website to show recent photos and general contact/schedule information.

Visit the Photoclub Website
July
University of Idaho JEMS Instructor (Juniors in Engineering, Math, and Science)
examsuite site I was invited to teach engineering, math, and science at a summer camp for senior high school students. This year the students built model cars and controlled those cars using arduinos programmed in C. Was responsible for teaching Computer Science and Computer Engineering. Integrated servos, motors, LEDs, and light sensors into a custom model vehicle.

Visit the JEMS Website
May
Linguistic Analysis of News Articles for the 2008 Presidential Election
In order to better understand media bias for elections, I implemented a program that harvested all of the major news organization's published articles from 2003 to present, built a dictionary of words for a given article, and recorded the frequency of specific words that had gender and emotional value. Used statistical analysis to determine if certain media groups treated candidates differently, depending on gender.
January
Exam Suite
examsuite site I designed and implemented a multi-user, MySQL backed, web-based application that allows users to create, organize, and store questions for exams. Users can generate randomized exams using the stored questions. Users can pay for yearly access through www.examsuite.com which maintains the database of user accounts separate from Exam Creator. A federated service allows Exam Creator to validate user access.

Together with: Brandon Arp

Visit the Exam Suite Website
2010
December
Quadratic Sieve Implementation
examsuite site As part of an assignment for a cryptography course, Brandon and I implemented a quadratic sieve. The program was written in Java and required a sparse matrix for space efficiency.

Together with: Brandon Morton

Download a copy of the paper (PDF)
October
Towerlights
examsuite site For one of the largest and most unique displays of campus pride the University of Idaho has ever seen; I used skills with programming, network communication, arduinos, design, and human interaction to synchronously light up windows to music in a residence hall at the University of Idaho.

Together with: Brandon Morton and Tim Tate

Visit the Towerlights Website
September
UIACM
uiacm site As president of the University of Idaho's chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery I was able to help integrate dynamic content and move the site from a static html driven environment to a php hosted solution.

Credit: Tim Tate (site layout and design)

Visit the UIACM Website
January
Law Office of Ian Wheeles
examsuite site For the Law Office of Ian Wheeles I selected a Drupal template and implemented the core features of their website. Outside of the web implementation, I also managed their e-mail system and provided technical consulting.

Visit the Law Office of Ian Wheeles Website
2009
July
Waters of the West - GK12
examsuite site WOWGK12 is a program designed to educate future K-12 teachers about effective ways to teach science. I designed a website that explained the program, housed and displayed data on current and past participants, and provided a mechanism for simple updates. Drupal and a host of modules provided by the Drupal open source community were used to achieve the requirements. Attended regular meetings as necessary with the client during development and as needed in the support phase.

Visit the WOWGK12 Website
May
Ramsey Theory
examsuite site Ramsey theory is concerned with preserving characteristics of integer sets as those sets are separated into distinct subsets, frequently called colors. My research into Ramsey theory used evolutionary computation to evolve potential solutions to a Ramsey number that is unknown.

Download a copy of the paper (PDF)
2008
April
Exam Creator
examsuite site I designed and implemented a multi-user, MySQL backed, web-based application that allows users to create, organize, and store questions for exams. Users can generate randomized exams using the stored questions. Users can pay for yearly access through www.examsuite.com which maintains the database of user accounts separate from Exam Creator. A federated service allows Exam Creator to validate user access.
2007
March
Gocognitive PRRS
My goal was to help researchers in the psychology department to collect data on password recollection schemes for user authentication. I developed a web-based software that allowed participants to register accounts, enter into a test sequence, complete experiments, and return when prompted by the software.
2006
November
Gosh Darn Independent (GDI) Week
examsuite site GDI week is a week-long event hosted by students in the University of Idaho Residence halls. The week centers on inter-hall competition and friendly study breaks. For this week, I designed and implemented a site that allowed participants to register for the week and receive a unique identifier/badge. Badge IDs were logged at events and the website displayed attendance/point data by person, hall, and event.
September
Residence Hall Association (RHA) Vice-President of Marketing and Communications (VPMC)
As the VPMC of the RHA and the bearer of an incredibly long title, I was tasked with producing a consistent media presence and message. I designed the website layout and designed/managed the production of the RHA magazine, Graffiti.

Download the Nov 2006 Edition of Graffiti (3.46Mb)
2005
August
Instructor sites (joeball.org)
examsuite site For this project the client was a teacher and department chair at a local high school. His project was first conceived as a method to remove costs of printing class materials, such as newspaper articles, and allow students to access materials from home. The site was later expanded to encompass other forms of interactive digital media, like video and audio. By winter break, more capabilities for an instructor website were being used by this course than any other in the school. Similar sites were created for other teachers by request.
July
Sport Clubs
examsuite site The University of Idaho has a well know reputation for excellence in student sports and recreation. In fact, many students decide to attend the UI because of its exceptional extracurricular student programs. In order to highlight some of these programs, Gordon Gresch, director of Sport Clubs and Facilities Manager of the Student Recreation Center, asked me to design a website that would improve the UI Sport Club's web presence. The design was launched during the Fall 2005 semester and received exceptional feedback from students, club representatives, and administrators.
April
Hepatitis Resource Network
examsuite site The Hepatitis Resource Network is a 501-3(c) non-profit organization that manages research studies on viral hepatitis as well as conducts continuing medical education (CME) activities for doctors across the nation. The HRN was in need of a design that was easy to navigate and a backend that made the website easy to maintain. CSS, PHP, and MySQL were the solutions to style design, code management, and database integration, respectively. The HRN also wanted doctors to register for CME activities online, so a SSL solution was created which allowed doctors to enter their personal information an then be forwarded to PayPal to process their payment.
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A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges ~ Benjamin Franklin
About me
Growing up I used a Commodore 128 until I was given a custom built computer, on which ran Windows 3.1. After discovering the Internet at an early age, I spent my time programming in QBasic, working with MS Access databases, and making websites. I received a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics from the University of Idaho, where I am working on a Master's of Science in Computer Science. I am currently researching biological sequence analysis and looking to carve out my own career and make a difference in the world.
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