Thom Verratti		5740 Wilkins Av 1L Pittsburgh, PA 15217 412-422-4442 mailto:thomv@cs.cmu.edu
Summary	I am a software architect who has designed, built and deployed commercial and in-house systems for over ten years, and an author with publication credits in creative, technical, and academic writing. I’m concerned about lessening the negative impact of technology on people, and worked at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University to study and develop methods for evaluating interface design. Our spin-off company, Grand Illusion Studios, created a conversational interface to the web.
Experience	1998–present Westwind Media.com Pittsburgh, PA (via acquisition of Grand Illusion Studios) Manager of Product Development § Designed and implemented commercial software which uses patented Synthetic Interview technology to create interactive characters on the web § Helped create and refine procedures for the specification, scripting, and processing of new web characters, including internal computer tools to enter and manage data § Created project plans for scheduling and cost models for pricing
	1996–1998 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA Research Programmer, Teaching Associate § Designed and implemented a collaborative software environment as part of the Icie Project team (Dr. Dan Olsen, principal investigator) § Assisted with undergraduate classes as a Teaching Associate for the School of Computer Science (classes included: Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction, Fundamental Structures of Computer Science II)
	1995–1996 ANATEC Indianapolis Indianapolis, IN Consultant § Consulted with ADESA (national chain of dealer auto auctions); proposed, designed and wrote customer contact and telemarketing module § Designed and prototyped factory sale transmission module for ADESA § Performed two-week feasibility study with Hyster and Yale (materials handling equipment companies)
	1991–1995 Boehringer Mannheim Corp. Indianapolis, IN Systems Integration Specialist § Founding member of new department dedicated to expert systems (programmer/technical writer for three-person group) § Designed and implemented over thirty prototypes demonstrating applications of new technologies for disparate departments § Spent 30% of time researching new technologies such as multimedia and CD-ROM authoring
	1990–1991 Delco Electronics (General Motors) Kokomo, IN Programmer § Developed programs and databases to augment commercial project management package
Education	1996–2000 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA § MHCI (Masters of Human-Computer Interaction)
	1986–1990 Taylor University Upland, IN § BS/SYS (Computer Science/Systems, Artificial Intelligence cognate) § English/writing minor (24 hours) § Named ASM (Association of System Managers) “Computer Science Student of the Year” 1990 § National Merit Scholar
Professional Memberships	§ ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) since 1997 § SIGCHI (Special interest group, Computer-Human Interaction) since 1997 § AFSM (Association for Services Management) since 1993 § Dramatists Guild (Associate member) since 1992 § Microsoft Certified Professional
Publications	§ Olsen, D. R., Boyarski, D., Verratti, T., Phelps, M., Moffat, J., and Lo, E., Generalized Pointing: Enabling Multiagent Interaction, ACM Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI 1998) § Olsen, D. R., Hudson, S., Phelps, M., Heiner, J., and Verratti, T., Ubiquitous Collaboration via Surface Representations, ACM Symposium on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 1998) § Olsen, D. R., Hudson, S., Verratti, T., Heiner, J., Phelps, M., Implementing Interface Attachments Based on Surface Representations, ACM Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI 1999) § Patrick, E.; Cosgrove, D.; Slavkovic, A.; Rode, J.; Verratti, T.; and Chiselko, G., Using a Large Projection Screen as an Alternative to Head-Mounted Displays for Virtual Environments, ACM Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI 2000) § Monthly columnist for Visual Basic Developer, Pinnacle Publishing, from Vol. 1 No. 2 (September 1994) - Vol. 3 No. 2 (September 1996), writing as "Dr. V.B." § Articles in Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine (May/June 1996, July/August 1996), Developer Wire (1st quarter 1996, 2nd quarter 1996), others § Full-length play Cosmographicum performed at Taylor University in February, 1992 as part of regular season (Dr. Oliver Hubbard, director) § One-act play Stings performed at Indiana University in March, 1992 by p.s. send money productions (Tina Beck, director) § Poetry in Amelia (1999), Soundings (1991), The Rectangle (1991), others
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