ZAID ABDULLA

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER
As Sulaymaniyah, Iraq
zkam83 -at- gmail -dot- com
+9647708197197

See my website for samples of my work and an up-to-date resume:
  http://zaidabdulla.com

Summary
========
* Chosen 3 times to represent University of Wollongong in Dubai in many
  national and international programming contests (NPC 2005, ACM 2006,
  NPC 2006).
* Programming since 10 years old.
* An early hire at an Internet startup Ninua Inc.
* Contracted for projects for major TV channels in the Middle East.

Relevant Experience
====================
The American University of Iraq-Sulaimani, Iraq
  * Web developer, June 2010 - Present
  * Working on various web projects, internal and external.
  * Writing modules to extend Drupal to suit the university needs.
  * Research solutions to the university's ever expanding IT needs.
  * Keywords: PHP, MySQL, Redhat, Drupal.

2Digital, Dubai, UAE
  * December 2009 - March 2010
  * Contracted to develop an interactive virtual environment with
    5 characters controlled simultaneously over a network.
  * Complex dynamic character animation system.
  * Project is for the famous children magazine Majid. To be shown
    live on Abu Dhabi channel.
  * Keywords: C++, Ogre, Lua, OpenAL, Softimage SDK, DirectShow.

Cosmos Interactive INC., Vancouver, Canada
  * September 2009 - December 2009
  * Worked on the XBOX360/PC version of the upcoming platformer game
    Babylonian Twins. http://babyloniantwins.com
  * Keywords: C#, XNA.

Ninua, Inc. (ninua.com), Redwood, California
  * Freelance Programmer, October 2007 - November 2009
  * Worked on Blog Networks Facebook app
    http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/.
    Keywords: Facebook API, PHP, MySQL, Python, Javascript, CSS,
    Linux administration (Redhat Fedora).
  * Developer of BitPixels.com: a website thumbshot provider.
    Keywords: Google App Engine, Python, Django.

Array Systems, Inc. (arraysystems.com) Los Angeles, California
  * Contracted to take over the development of VitalEsthetics.com (A drug
    distribution website), August 2007 - September 2008.
    Keywords: PHP, MySQL, Javascript, CSS, YUI (Yahoo! User Interface library).

AI Productionz (aiproductionz.com) Dubai Studio City, UAE
  * Contracted to develop a virtual cartoonish show featuring the infamous
    character Mudhish, June 2007.
  * The program was operated live in one of the malls in Dubai and on Sama
    Dubai channel for 2 months.
  * http://zaidabdulla.com/samadubai706.php

Star Animation Studios (staranim.com), Damascus, Syria
  * Full time Software Developer, July 2006 - October 2007.
  * Developed a software engine to be used as a virtual studio to produce
    3D real time TV shows.
  * Developed a tool to import motion capture data (Gypsy device) into
    Softimage XSI at real time.
  * Keywords: C/C++ DirectX, COM, Lua, XSI SDK, Ogre SDK.

Shooting Stars FZ LLC, Dubai, UAE
  * Part-time Software Developer, May 2005 - June 2006
  * Developed a couple of entertainment applications that mix live video
    stream with a 3D scene in real time using chroma keying.
  * The applications were operated in two of the biggest malls in Dubai,
    as well as in Saudi Arabia.
  * http://zaidabdulla.com/shootingstars.php

Pet Projects
=============
Peerpalette
  * Website for meeting new people and chatting about mutual interests.
  * Search for people based on their interests.
  * Being developed using Google App Engine (Python).
  * It's under active development and has not been publicly advertised yet.
  * http://www.peerpalette.com

cliget
  * A Firefox extension that generates wget/curl commands for secured
    downloads to allow files to be downloaded using commandline on a 
    server without the need for a browser to perform login.
  * https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cliget

Open Source Contributions
==========================
OGRE
  * Contributed a major overhaul to the Autodesk Softimage exporter for Ogre.
    Adding features and improving performance.
  * Added the exporter tool to the CMake build system.
  * Other small patches to the core Ogre library.

Education
==========
University of Wollongong in Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  B.Sc. in Computer Science, Software Development, 2006.