Zach Minster

computer scientist / web designer / photographer / student

I do tech things.

Computer science is my one true passion. I am presently an undergraduate student at Brown University, where I am pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.

I am well-versed in C++, Java, Visual BASIC, Racket, and OCaml for the platform, while PHP is my server-side web language of choice (I am also familiar with ASP).

Learning

Brown University: In the fall of 2010 I began my enrollment at Brown. I have since taken the following computer science courses (coursework in other departments omitted):

Formative Years (Ursinus College/Perkiomen Valley High School): I began my journey in formal academic CS with an introductory distance learning course in Visual BASIC during my freshman year of high school through Virtual High School. In my subsequent sophomore year I took AP Computer Science A (a standardized, college-level, full-year introduction to the computer science discipline taught using Java) through the same distance learning service and earned a 5 (the top score) on the College Board exam. In fall 2008 (junior year of high school) I took Object-Oriented Programming and Systems Design (CS375) at Ursinus College through its wonderful dual-enrollment agreement with my high school, and in fall 2009 I took Data Structures (CS174) there. In the spring of 2010, my final semester at Ursinus, I took Computer Architecture & Organization (CS274). I earned A+ grades in all courses (please see the Ursinus College course catalog for full descriptions of the aforementioned courses).

Teaching

I have recently developed an interest in computer science pedagogy; over the past year I have taught computer science on many levels to students of several ages through various professional and volunteer engagements.

Professional Instruction: This past summer I answered to the name "Tron" at iD Tech Camps, serving as the resident Programming in Java instructor for the entire Villanova University camp season. I taught introductory object-oriented programming to students of highly diverse skill/experience levels ages 11-17. Consistently positive feedback from parents and students, not to mention the vivid "spark" so many students exhibited as they discovered the beauty of the field for the first time, made for an enlivening summer.

TA Work: At the Brown University Department of Computer Science, I am presently employed as a teaching assistant for CS17/CS18, a yearlong introductory computer science sequence that demonstrates the fundamentals of the field initially through functional programming (Racket and Ocaml) and later through imperative programming (Java and Scala). I hold weekly office hours, administrate a weekly lab section, maintain the course website, provide feedback on weekly homework assignments, and interactively grade large-scale pair projects. I have taken particular interest in teaching formal analysis, proof techniques, and recurrence.

Volunteer Instruction: I recently taught courses at two MIT ESP programs - Splash and Spicy Delve. The diverse courses that I taught spanned formal analysis/sorting algorithms, introductory computer systems design, introductory computer science through functional programming, and shoe lacing techniques.

Projects (under construction)

Any source code made available for download is released under the MIT license and copyright 2009-2012 Zach Minster. The MIT license essentially says that I don't care what you do with my code as long as you keep the license intact, and that I don't accept liability for anything that might happen to you (including but not limited to random lightning strikes) related to your use of this software.

Ursinus College Internship Survey

In the fall of 2008, the outset of my junior year of high school, I enrolled in Object Oriented Programming and Systems Design at Ursinus College, a course for junior undergraduate computer science majors designed to emulate real-world software engineering through intensive group projects. There I discovered the greatest challenge of software engineering: interacting with clients. I take pride in mastering the ability to work with customers on a tight time and resource budget. I set up after-school conferences with directors of the Ursinus Career Services department, judging their requirements and implementing software to match. With two other students at the college, I designed an online system to collect and manage internship experience surveys which students could use to locate suitable internships. We met all requirements and the Career Services personnel expressed tremendous gratitude.

Due to the restrictions of a confidentiality agreement, I am unable to post a thumbnail, source code, or any other representation of this project.

Keluko Economy Simulator Project
Keluko Screenshot
Click thumbnail to enlarge

I conceptualized Keluko in freshman year, and since then I have spent much time chipping away at different pieces of this large-scale multiplayer economy simulator. Independently coding Keluko has taught me about database management, procedural and object-oriented server scripting, and user interface design. From the website:

Imagine. Taking life as you know it and letting go. Forget your job. Forget school. Complete and total immersion in a parallel universe, living the life you've always wanted.

Salivating yet? Keluko is destined to be an online masterpiece of epic proportion. On the surface, Keluko is a revolutionary economy simulator. And yet, beneath its deceptively simplistic face, it is a breathing, pulsating community of diverse personalities all pursuing the same goal - complete capitalistic domination. Fill out a form and start over (for free, of course): Seek a job from your peers; invest in those (community-operated) companies performing best; jump up that corporate ladder; experience the exhilaration of being number one.

Virtual supremacy will be yours for the taking.

Project Homepage

Maze Solver (CS174 Final Project/ACM Challenge Problem)
Maze Solver
Click thumbnail to enlarge

I consider this program one of my greatest high school accomplishments. Watch as the "robot" solves any maze you could imagine! I encourage you to take a look at the source code - the action seems simple yet belies the complexity just below the surface.

This program is a solution to an Association for Computing Machinery contest problem.

Final Thought

I have done quite a bit more: web forum software mods (bbPress is best), various web scripts, and plenty of random applications for the Windows and Linux platforms in Java/C++/Visual BASIC (including my personal favorite, the Dr. Pepper Texas Hold'Em Simulator, which I can't seem to find anymore), but I wanted to keep this page short and allow you to focus on the highlights of my work. If you'd like to see/hear more, by all means, I'm just a shout away.