John Choi
Game Developer @ Schell Games · Professor of Practice @ Carnegie Mellon
johnchoi@choitek.com · linkedin.com/in/johnchoi313 · github.com/johnchoi313
Experience
AR/VR/XR Game Engineer
Schell Games · Pittsburgh, PA
- Mixed reality research and development projects under NDA for high-profile clients
Adjunct Professor of Practice
School of Design @ Carnegie Mellon University · Pittsburgh, PA
- Teaching rapid prototyping based on real-life creative industry best practices
- Immersive digital media environments with Unity, Blender, Rhino, and Arduino
ECE Research Engineer
WiSELab @ Carnegie Mellon Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering · Pittsburgh, PA
- Developing hybrid online AR/VR/XR experiences and interfaces for IoT Digital Twins
Lead Graphics Engineer
Equmenopolis Inc. · Tokyo, Japan
- InteLLA: Creating pipelines to generate photorealistic humanoid avatars for AI tutors
- BLENDi: Augmented Reality Museum Guide and Navigator on HoloLens 2
Lead Instructor
Simcoach Games Summer Apprenticeship Program · Pittsburgh, PA
- Transformed 160+ high schoolers into 80+ genius game developers in 6 weeks
Software Development Consultant
Entertainment Technology Center @ Carnegie Mellon University · Pittsburgh, PA
- Realized and deployed 10+ experimental educational technology prototypes
Technical Artist
ArticuLab @ Carnegie Mellon Language Technologies Institute · Pittsburgh, PA
- SARA/SCIPR/RAPT: Upgraded virtual agent graphics from PS2 to PS4 quality
Game Development Adjunct Professor
Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion @ Carnegie Mellon · Pittsburgh, PA
- Transformed 40+ high schoolers into game developers in 6 weeks per session
Founder & CEO
Choitek LLC · Pittsburgh, PA
- Profitably owned and operated a freelance consulting and contracting business
Software Engineer Intern
TerraSim Inc. · Pittsburgh, PA
- Refactored entire rendering codebase and improved rendering speed 2000%
HCII Research Assistant
Human Computer Interaction Institute @ Carnegie Mellon University · Pittsburgh, PA
- Developed 8 educational minigames in ActionScript for use in HCI research
Education
MBA, Business Administration
Carnegie Mellon University · Pittsburgh, PA
- QPA 3.67
BCSA, Computer Science & Arts
Carnegie Mellon University · Pittsburgh, PA
- QPA 3.36 · BXA Student Graduation Speaker · Senior Leadership Recognition
- Dean's List Fall 2015, Fall 2016 · NSF I-Corps Site Participant · CIE Innovation Scholar
Skills
Languages & SDKs
Python · C · C# · C++ · SML · MATLAB · HTML / CSS / JS / TS · Three.js · WebXR · ROS · OpenCV · Isaac Sim · TensorFlow · Unity ROS / Perception / ML-Agents
Software & Tools
Unity · Unreal Engine · Blender · Maya · Rhino 3D · TouchDesigner · HeavyM · MadMapper · Photoshop · Premiere · GitHub · Perforce · SVN · UVCS
Hardware & Platforms
Arduino · Raspberry Pi · EAGLE (PCB) · Windows · macOS · Linux · Meta Quest · HoloLens · Apple Vision Pro · AR/VR/XR platforms
Manufacturing
3D Printing · Laser Cutting · RTV Molding · Sheet Metal Enclosure Design · CNC Routing · PCB Design
Grants & Accolades
Notable Projects
Selected hardware & software projects — full portfolio at johnchoi313.com
Hardware
- ASPIR V1/V2 (2018) — Autonomous Support and Positive Inspiration Robot
- Big Friendly Robot Dog (2018) — 2.5ft quadruped robot physics simulator
- MMM MkI (2015) — Human-size advanced educational robotics platform
- HERB Puppet (2015) — Electronic puppet to control a Barrett Robot Arm
- VRTD (2015) — Virtual Reality Teleconferencing Device for the home
- Halley (2014) — 2.6ft humanoid robot for animation research
Software
- InteLLA — Photorealistic humanoid avatar pipeline for AI tutors
- BLENDi — AR Museum Guide and Navigator on HoloLens 2
- Project Codetta (2015) — VR RPG game for Android
- SMART (2015) — Some Mobile Augmented Reality Thing
- Team BitBot (2014) — 2.5D side-scrolling cooperative platformer
- WorldBuilder (2014) — Kinect and speech-controlled colony creator