Tyler Powers | Projects

SucculentVJ, present

Live, interactive tool for audio-visual performance

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gr4yscale labs, Belgrade

Three.js, GLSL, React, Redux, Web Midi

  • Generative geometry creation, object placement, scaling, and rotation creates unique scenes
  • Post-processing effects chain
  • MIDI control with a custom map for AP40 MIDI controller hardware
  • Node-based signal chain for parameter control

Loop, 2019 Jan

Social app with location-based feed and robust messaging features

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Otherworld, San Francisco (Remote)

Swift, iOS, Python

  • Improved project maintainability by identifying tech debt and creating roadmaps for refactors
  • Implemented features related to image processing of camera / video content, navigation, feed, media presentation, messaging, deep linking, analytics
  • Reduced compile times from 5 minutes to 45 seconds by modularizing the codebase and implementing dependency injection
  • Worked closely with the project manager to improve our process, tools, and techniques related to sprint planning, task breakdown, and project tracking
  • Coordinated with server engineers to design APIs for new features
  • Improved readability for future developers by identifying confusing taxonomy and ambiguous types
  • Optimized performance by profiling and testing, improving user experience

Tieto GPU-based Particle System, 2018 Jun

Realtime interactive particle simulation

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UNSTATIC Tech, London (Remote)

C++, OpenGL, GPGPU, Simulation

  • Implemented a particle simulation on the GPU using GLSL / OpenGL and pingpong textures technique
  • Presets system to load / store parameters affecting global foreces, emitters, particle lifecycle, attractors / repellers, color, post-processing
  • Post-processing effects chain
  • Websocket-based control of presets system

Artemide, 2018 Jan

Architectural lighting control platform

UNSTATIC Tech, London (Remote)

C++, OpenGL, Javascript, React, Redux, GLSL, WebGL, NodeJS, Linux

  • Developed C++ applications that generate data for architectural lighting control
  • Designed software architecture for the C++ side of the platform, established patterns and refactored to improve maintainability and readability
  • Developed generative algorithms and computer graphics routines used to feed data to lamps and LED walls
  • Developed GUI with React + Redux, embedded into the C++ app with Chromium Embedded Framework
  • Worked with lighting designers to execute visual concepts for specific customer needs
  • Developed various servers in nodejs to clean and transform data from disperate sources (such as public transporation) that the C++ apps could use conveniently
  • Developed web interface for customers to control visuals generated on the C++ side
  • Deployed applications to Linux-based servers which controlled lights on skyscrapers
  • Migrated C++ codebase to CMake to ease cross-platform build process
  • Implemented communication between web-based GUI and C++ application with websockets

Ancient Lives, 2017 Mar

Realtime interactive media installation for British Museum

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Mentally Friendly, London, UK

C++, Openframeworks

  • Resurrected a codebase which did not compile on the latest Windows and Visual Studio
  • Upgraded all dependencies (OpenFrameworks and OF addons)
  • Adding requested features related to configuration and content management
  • Created an installer for British Museum to package multi gigabytes of content + application into a single binary for distribution to their partner museums.

Senso, 2017 Mar

Application to help assist patients in hospitals to receive personalized healthcare

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Helen Hamlynn Centre for Design @ Royal College of Art, London, UK

React Native, ES6 JS, Objective-C, iOS

  • Developed in React Native for rapid iteration on design
  • Did a majority of the UX and UI design, working with one other designer at the centre
  • Developed tooling to package media with metadata to embed as part of build process
  • Integrated analytics as this was a research project
  • Some features include physics-based UI elements, personalized media presentation at scheduled intervals, and an admin area for schedule creation, and accessing analytics

Sleepsense, 2016 Apr

Companion application for a "smart bed" designed by Australian company A.H. Beard.

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Mentally Friendly, London, UK

iOS, Swift

  • Developed a hardware abstraction layer which handled state and communication with 3 bluetooth peripherals simultanely
  • Developed the onboarding process, which included discovery and configuration of hardware
  • Developed UI for setting preferences on the air pump, motorized base, and sensor strips
  • Integrated an SDK which handled communication with sensor strips (for monitoring heart and sleep disturbances)
  • Developed visualization for sleep "health" based on data from the sensor strips
  • Worked with SDK developers to identify bugs and API design issues

House Seven, 2015 July

House Seven is an application in the digital space for Soho House members

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Mentally Friendly, London, UK

iOS, Objective-C

  • Soho House is a private members’ club for those in the film, media and creative industries) members
  • The app allows members to book events and screenings, view exclusive content, and access information about the various locations, wherever they are
  • Spotify sponsored an integration which required similar functionality to their own app, however they do not provide common UI elements to re-use, so a particular task I did with this project is to build a Spotify-like player
  • Other tasks included rebuilding the entire client-side authentication scheme, and updating / fixing parts of the application when new iOS releases changed APIs
  • Work on this project was started and paused numerous times throughout my time with MF. I partnered with a couple of other developers who had contributed to the app, but most of the work was done individually as other developers were resourced on other projects

Havit, 2016 Aug

Sophisticted link-sharing workflows and archival

gr4yscale labs, London

React Native, Redux, GLSL, OpenGL ES, Node

  • Aims to solve the problem of scrolling through endless pages of messages to find a link that someone sent you
  • Share to one place, for multple platforms
  • Playful user interface with realtime image processing over UI elements themselves (using RN components to wrap OpenGL ES)
  • Integrations with most popular messaging, bookmarking, and read it later services

Thumbtack, 2015 June

Consulting for digital product agency

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Carbon Five, San Francisco, CA

Objective-C, iOS, Python

  • Developed much of the core architecture and flagship features for Thumbtack's 2 iOS applications
  • Taught experienced developers coming from a web background how to be productive on iOS, explaining the idioms and tools
  • As the team grew (about 8 iOS devs, 4 server devs), I played a key role in making technical decisions around application architecture, tooling, and workflow, helping to keep our team as a whole productive and making it easier to bring new developers on board
  • Was actively involved in design discussions both from a technical application architecture standpoint, and a product UI/UX standpoint
  • Participated in code reviews, merged pull requests
  • Established application architecture and design patterns as an early developer for C5's client, Thumbtack
  • Used Behavior-driven development practices. Unit tests, functional tests, and UI tests covered a large percentage of the codebase.
  • Developed on the server side in Python + Pyramid when the project was bottlenecked by the server-side backlog
  • Ensured Continuous Integration server (TeamCity) ran tests across all device versions and for both iOS 7 and 8 to prevent device-specific bugs

CVENT Platform, 2013 Sept

Custom branded mobile event app for conferences or festivals. The CVENT platform was geared towards helping attendees of conferences gain access to relevant information such as maps, personalized schedules, presentation materials, details about exhibitors, etc. The platform consists of iOS, Android, and mobile web clients hooked up to a Rails backend.

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CVENT, Portland, Oregon

Objective-C, iOS, Ruby

  • Developed the iOS client with 3 other iOS engineers, working with the backend, dev ops, android, and design teams.
  • Learned to work as a group to make important decisions about large refactors and architecture/software design
  • Participated in code reviews to share knowledge and gain feedback about how to produce more quality code
  • Implemented or improved many of the core features that define the application today, including image and geo maps, theming, data synchronization, notifications, photo gallery, custom URL routing, ORM, database encryption, REST API's, social sharing, etc.
  • Improved release quality by automating integration testing of core features using calabash testing library + a mock server written in sinatra/ruby running on nginx/phusion passenger
  • Helped maintain and improve continuous integration environment (Jenkins) and automate complex build processes
  • Learned how to track my time and give estimates for feature implementations, working with a ticketing system
  • Learned how to performance tune iOS applications and watch out for memory leaks with Instruments
  • Became more proficient with many developer tools including git, vim, zsh, bash, and various unix utilities