CipherIt Hackathon (2020)

During the 36-hour KnightHacks Hackathon competition, I and my team developed CipherIt, an encryption program that allows the user to encrypt and decrypt strings of text and images. We utilized various encryption algorithms and worked collaboratively using Git and Github. CipherIt offers Caesar, Atbash, Vigenere, and Numeric encryption methods, and we coined the term "Pyctography" to describe the image encryption and decryption options. This was my first hackathon, and I gained valuable experience in team collaboration and coding techniques. The published project can be found on Devpost.com. CipherIt is an encryption program that provides the user with four main options:

Encrypting a string of text the user inputs.

Decrypting a string of text the user inputs.

Encrypting an image the user inputs.

Decrypting an image the user inputs.

We coined the term "Pyctography" to describe the latter two options, and this is reflected within our program. In its current state, CipherIt offers Caesar, Atbash, Vigenere, and Numeric encryption methods when encrypting and decrypting strings of text.

Self-Balancing Machine Learning (2020)

I trained AI to learn how to stand up straight in a virtual physics engine (Unity) through machine-learning, using only humanoid appendages and joint/hinge rotations. ML/AI paper on the research and experience of the training can be found here.

I learned that optimizing the physical interactions within a virtual environment is one of the more challenging aspects of teaching AI. Through my training, I discovered that giving the agents full control of their lower body was ineffective and instead implemented a system where the ankles, knees, upper legs, and hips were limited to a maximum of six fixed degree decisions, dependent on the angle of the waist. This modification greatly reduced the number of decisions the AI could make, from 52 million to approximately 1,300, significantly speeding up the training process.

Employee Database (2020)

I completed this project during my junior year of college in Object Oriented Programming (COP 3003). I created a program that allowed for the creation of a new product, including its name, manufacturer, and type, which would then be stored in an SQL H2 database. In addition, I added a production tab that allowed for the input of a quantity of newly-stocked items. The program logged the date, serial number, product number, product ID, and username of the employee who inputted it. Through this project, I gained valuable experience in working with SQL databases and UI programming using intellij. Link to the Github project.

VRBlitz Roblox Virtual Reality (2020)

I developed VRBlitz, an experimental building game in the virtual reality framework of Roblox during my Sophomore summer of college. Here's the link to the roblox game: VR Blitz. Learning LUA, the language used to create Roblox, was a great experience for me. I now consider myself proficient in the language and find it to be relatively easy to comprehend.

I encountered a unique challenge when developing my VR game on Roblox. With little to no virtual reality documentation available, I had to reverse-engineer the API in order to attach the player's head to the position and rotation of the VR headset. Additionally, I wanted to create a personalized experience for VR players, so the game's head model became the actual head of the player using the headset, and the hands and head were changed to match the user's skin tone. This added a level of immersion and personalization for the VR experience.

	I have created code that mirrors the movement and rotation of the VR user's headset and hand rotations, as well as buttons pressed for specific hand gestures. My code, which excludes the many other methods being utilized to replicate these movements and rotations across the network to all other clients, spans approximately 750 lines in total.

FGCU Horror Research (2020)

I, conducted a study on the immersive qualities of horror in virtual reality environments as a researcher at Florida Gulf Coast University's Virtual Reality VIPER department. I tracked various factors such as heart rate, player movement, and vocal reactions of participants as they walked down a haunted path, to evaluate the impact of constant variables such as sound and visuals on the overall VR experience.

FGCU Drone Research (2021)

At Florida Gulf Coast University, I developed a fully physics-based drone simulator to aid in the education of ideal users, such as construction workers, on how to properly operate a drone. I incorporated a self-balancing algorithm similar to that used in modern drones, allowing for a realistic simulation of the controls and behavior of a real drone. The simulator also tracked the proximity of potential hazards and alerted the user when the drone was in danger of colliding with an entity. My research earned me the #1 runner-up for best undergraduate research at Eagle X.

Arduino Assembly Traffic Light (2020)

I successfully designed and implemented an assembly Arduino program that incorporated a specialized traffic-light cycle with three distinct phases: green, yellow, and red. The program also featured a unique breadboard button mechanism that allowed for the instant transition of the light from any phase to red, simulating the pressing of a pedestrian crosswalk button on the side of the road. I completed this complex project for my upper-level assembly course (CDA 3104).

I set up the first portion of the interrupt to detect the button press and also arranged the LED's in port B. I created a basic lightloop method that called three other methods in sequential order: greenlight, yellowlight, and redlight. At the end, I looped the lightloop method again to create an endless cycle. I wanted to make the program as small and efficient as possible, so I had each light change the bit values within Port B, where the LED's were connected to, in just two lines. For example, to turn on the green light and turn off the yellow and red lights, the line would be "LDI r20, 0b00000001" and then simply output it to update it within Port B.

Blix Multiplayer Game (2019 - Present)

Blix is a work-in-progress sandbox multiplayer game that lets users host and join servers with a variety of different types of game-modes. Build what you want, play what you want. The sky is the limit! (The sky is not actually the limit.)

Blix is a multiplayer first-person shooter game developed using the Unity engine and written in C#. The game is a sandbox voxel building experience available on Steam for PC. In addition to providing a FPS experience, Blix also aims to be a platform for other custom game modes, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Infection, Battle Royale, Capture the Flag, Parkour Speed Run, Mafia, and many more. The game utilizes Unity DOTS technology, which allows for multithreading functionality. If you are interested in learning more about the game, or want to stay up-to-date with the latest developments and media, join our Discord community. We welcome you to the world of Blix and invite you to be a part of our vision for the future of multiplayer FPS gaming. View its roadmap here.

I challenged myself to create a horror game within a mere 48 hours. I sought to test out publishing projects onto Itchi.io and allow players to test and play the game. My efforts were met with positive reception, receiving several reviews and even having a gaming commentator review it. Here's the project, Floors, on Itch.io. A basic AI tracks down the player, ending the game. The user's objective is to collect 10 items randomly placed around the map before the monster discovers their location.