cv - Irfan Design

Education
College of Arts and Letters, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mi.
Experience Architecture. Previously in Neuroscience.
Course-Work in Cognitive Psychology, Content Strategy, Graphic Design, Interaction Design, Logic
and Reasoning, Project Management, Prototyping, and User Research for example.
Okemos High School, Okemos, Mi.
HS diploma with honours, 2010.
Educational Achievements
Member of the National Honour Society throughout high-school.
Member of the National Society for High-School Scholars.
Scored a 4.0 in a 490-level Biotechnology course at Michigan State University my junior-year in
high-school.
Completed the courses of Advanced Placement Biology & Computer Science.
6 years of membership in MidWest Talent Search through Northwestern University— this allowed
me to attend programmes for the educationally gifted; such as, MST ( Math, Science, and Technology ) @ MSU, High-School Engineering Institute, and High Achievers— all where I would take quasi
higher-education and higher-education courses.
Employment
Specialist, Apple
Lansing, Mi. Summer of 2014 - Present
I became part of a more-thoroughly trained group of Apple Retail employees that were the first
that stood for a new idea— specialists trained in and capable of doing everything. I strove and
excelled in empathetic, innovative, and meaningful interactions solving customers’ problems—
be it technical, sales, or business related.
User Experience Intern, Wolfram Research
Champaign, Il. 2013
In an experiment to introduce myself to the world of corporate-design, rather than freelance or
firm, I joined Wolfram Research’s User Experience team. There, I performed competitive analysis,
content-strategy, interaction design, user-research, and visual design projects to further the
company’s interal and external endeavours. In this experience, I learned to work fluently with
direction from various stake-holders; including directors, designers, developers, and project-managers. I was lauded for my attention-to-detail and ability to connect teams in completing projects
successfully and punctually. My performance resulted in a second, remote internship where I
learned and practised productive cooperation from afar.
Web Designer & Developer, Michigan State University
East Lansing, Mi. Summer of 2011
Working for Dr. S.D. Mahanti was a challenging experience in terms of web-design as I was
given not only a layout, but conditions in which the website must exist— my first time working
within constraints, professionally. This lesson in constraints was well-learned and I am glad I did so
early in my design-career. Dr. Mahanti’s previous site had not only aged in content, but also in
technologies. I took his vision & need and created a site using the beauty of HTML5 and CSS3 yet
keeping the site elegantly simple. Building something that wasn’t a multi-media reality, but an
aesthetic and professional aggregation.
Web Designer & Developer, Michigan State University
East Lansing, Mi. Summer of 2009 - Present
After being impressed by my assistance with technological issues and my performance in class,
Dr. Mariam Sticklen; of the Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences department of the College of Agriculture at MSU, hired me to redevelop her website. While I used CSS 2.1 and HTML4, the experience was influential to me as it was my first experience creating a site to be used professionally.
Unfortunately, she insisted on using content and code from her former site, which consisted of
antiquated technologies; however, over the years, as I wrote and manged content for her, I built a
modern, responsive, and simple compliment to her website.
Office Technician, Mid-Michigan Physicians
Lansing, Mi. Summer of 2008
My first job, at Mid-Michigan Physicians’ South Side Urgent Care, I converted the urgent cares’
charts, labs, and records from paper to digital form. This was part of MMP’s transition into digital
informatics. This job helped me establish myself in technology professionally as I made many
connections and continued to work for doctors; for example, as a scribe.
Volunteer Efforts
Throughout my time in the Greater-Lansing area, I've committed myself to advancing the community. Some of these efforts has been my volunteer work; for example, at food-drives,
food-banks, religious institutions, and more. Below are some of my long-term efforts:
Teen / Student Volunteer, Sparrow Health System
Lansing, Mi. 2006 - 2008. Summer 2010 - 2012
I cherish this experience dearly as it first introduced me to directly interacting with patients and
medical professionals. At Sparrow Hospital, I was able to observe procedures, meet patients, and
learn to react calmly, professionally, and quickly in urgent situations. Witnessing the smiles as
patients and their families were grateful for the health-care further inspired me. However, I, too,
was inspired by the tears I saw, when a patient passed on, as the families knew that the doctors
did everything they could. I learned to learn from failure and approach each new tast more
prepared than ever.
Teen Volunteer, Ronald McDonald House of Mid-Michigan
Lansing, Mi. Summer of 2006
At the Ronald McDonald House, I was able to further social skills with my families of patients
that, in turn, helped me as a volunteer at Sparrow Hospital and in my future endeavours. Their
creative philantrophic efforts taught me that there is always a way to help someone and to be
innovative in doing so.
Teen Volunteer, Capital Area District Libraries: Okemos Library.
Okemos, Mi. Summer of 2005 & 2006
At my local library, I was able to extend, to the youth, my love for reading by helping with
summer programmes that the library offered. Running these with the help of library employees
taught me leadership as well as fellowship.
Leadership Experience
University
Boy Scouts of America
Executive Board, Briggs Multi-Cultural Alliance.
PR-head, Briggs Multi-Cultural Alliance.
Eagle Project, Summer 2010.
Quarter-Master, Assistant Patrol
Leader, and Crew-Chief.
Florida Sea Base High Adventure.
Philmont High Adventure.
Centennial National Jamboree.
Advertising Director, Lyman Briggs Freshman Class Council.
High School
President, CEO, and Web-Master, FIRST Robotics Team 1504.
Lead Mentor, Team 1504’s Elementary Lego Robotics Competition.
Conferences
Michigan Area High Schools & Michigan Area Student Councils’ Leadership Conference.
Wolfram Technology Conference
Skills & Interests.
Computer Science & Technology:
Algorithms, animation, artifical-intelligence, graphic-design, hardware, programming, and web-design. I have written in the following ( bold signifies languages of preference ): Actionscript, Clojure,
ClojureScript, Go ( Golang ), HTML 4 & 5, CSS 2.1 & 3, JavaScript, Java, and jQuery, Objective-C,
PHP, Perl, and Python. I also have some experience in audio, photo, and ( some ) video editing.
As I am mostly-self-taught, my begining years were spent as more of a novice, my skills are exponentially growing in the recent years. However, I wrote my first if-statement when I was 9, started ( web )
developing and playing in Photoshop 3 years after, and professionally designing 4 years after that.
Arts & Language:
I speak and understand English and Kashmiri fluently. Spanish moderately. I can understand
parts of Urdu and Hindi. I enjoy debate, politics, sketching; and, lyric, poetry, prose, speech, and
sonnet composition. I played the piano for 8 years.
Humanities & Natural Sciences:
Behaviour, biology, cognition, consciousness, emotion, empathy, justice; and ethics & morals in
relation to behaviour, faith, logic, politics, science, society, and technology. In addition, genetics,
immunology, neurology, oncology, and virology.
References