Research Center

ALEX

Hometown: Orland Park, IL 

Major / Minor: Computer Science major

Extracurricular Activities @ U of I: I am involved with GameBuilders, a special interest group associated with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in UIUC's Computer Science department.  In short, members of the group create computer/video games to show off at Engineering Open House.

Favorite Class @ U of I:  CS 242:  Programming Studio

Hobbies: All aspects of video games and music have truly interested me for the majority of my life.  I enjoy playing, reading about, and making games and always discovering new music.

Favorite Quote: N/A

Hero/Role Model:  I really appreciate Shigeru Miyamoto and his work.

Favorite Restaurant in C-U: Dos Reales, Papa Del’s and Za's come to mind.

Favorite Music: I love various types of music, but a consistent favorite band of mine has been Radiohead.

I truly enjoy punk rock and its various offshoots (post-punk, punk-jazz, etc.) as well as indie music.  I appreciate classic material from The Stooges, Television, The Velvet Underground, Rush, Frank Zappa, R.E.M. and The Beatles.  However, most of the time I listen to more contemporary material by bands like Sonic Youth, Pavement, Built to Spill, Pixies, Dillinger Four, Converge, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Modest Mouse, Talking Heads, Fugazi and Husker Du.

In general, I am always looking for something new to listen to whether it be free-jazz material from John Coltrane or alt-country music from Wilco.

Favorite TV Shows: I don't watch very much TV but some shows that I enjoy are Seinfeld, Stella and The Clerks Animated Series (which was so awesome that it lasted for 6 episodes).

Best college advice:  Grow.

Project Work @ RC: This summer I am investigating and working with Virtual World software.

What brought you to the RC? Soon after my interview with State Farm I started to realize not only that the Research Center would be a great place to work but also that my efforts would be focused.  I wasn't given a vague description of what I'd be doing, but rather, I was matched up with a project lead whose project criteria matched my interests right away and knew what I was getting into.  I appreciated this level of focus and could tell that it was indicative of the internship program in general.

Best thing about working at the RC: I enjoy the comfortable, friendly environment that the Research Center provides.  Additionally, the material that I am researching is particularly interesting to me.

Most surprising thing you’ve learned about State Farm: The wide scope of the company's research projects.  Before working with State Farm, I had no idea that they conducted gaming and simulation research.

Life Aspirations: Working in the gaming industry, specifically programming or designing games, has been a goal of mine for years.