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Resume in .doc format here & .pdf format here Recommendations received for past work in .doc format here & .pdf format here

Aalok Karnik
aalok{AT}aalokkarnik[DOT]info : 650.224.7337
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Objective
Well rounded developer seeking full-time position to gain more experience with application development & information security. Able to write security focused, scable, optimized code & develop quick prototypes using agile development techniques with good understanding of multiple server side technologies resulting in easily navigable, user friendly applications.
Educational background
School Degree
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA (Aug '04 - June '07)
M.S. in Computer Science
Specialization: Computer Science (M.S. C.S.)
Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies & Research
Pune, India (Aug `02 – July `04)
M.S. in Computer Applications
Specialization:J2EE Technologies (MSc CA. - J2EE)
Nowrosjee Wadia College, Pune University
Pune, India (July `99 – June `02)
B.S. in Computer Science
Specialization: Computer Science (B.S. C.S.)

Academic Projects & Work Experience
  • Webroot - Threat Research Analyst (March 2007 - June 2008;)
    • Tasked with analyzing spyware & contributing to spyware definitions in a 20 member threat research team
    • Involved usage of a combination of proprietary and other common security tools to monitor spyware activity
    • Used VMWare to safely analyze behaviour in a sandboxed environment

  • Piktor - a personal photo album (June 2006 - present; http://aalokkarnik.info/piktor/piktor.php)
    • AJAX, PHP, MySQL based personal photo album
    • Basic features comprise adding new albums & photos, image tagging, navigation, pagination, delayed transparent popup`s, smart caching mechanism
    • Admin section currently under development includes a connectivity test as of now
    • Security features include integrated administrative panel, file mime type checking, IP logging
    • Conceptualization, UI design, DB structure, navigation, process workflow’s done by me
    • Project was done to gain some practical experience with AJAX, PHP, MySQL, UI design
    • Future enhancements include a web based installer & verifier, usage statistics, backup, album downloading, image & album link emailing, album views in filmstrip & slideshow formats
    • Current status: Preparing for a version 1.0 release

  • Battleship - Knockout Edition
    • A java based networked online game based on the popular game Battleship
    • The game play has been bent to accommodate bonus points, extra powers, new ships etc
    • Architecture comprises of a lookup server, several game servers and several gaming machines
    • Incorporates message passing using object oriented concepts to accommodate future changes more easily
    • Uses core java, MySQL / Oracle, Java Media Framework (JMF)
    • As of now the network subsystem is ready and work is progressing on game play and sound effects

  • Spyware Guide for the Layman (June 2005 - present; http://aalokkarnik.info/articles/spyware)
    • Set of articles to educate a layman on spyware
    • Topics include motivation to write spyware, detection & removal techniques, difficulties in tracing perpetrators, new emerging attack techniques in spyware domain, cybercrime, cybercriminals, malicious code and more
    • Research involved carrying out a social engineering attack leading to a corporate network compromise

  • Website for the USC Law school (Nov 2005 - June 2006; system design, coding & implementation)
    • Convert a static http://www.iandrinstitute.org to a dynamic database driven https://mylaw.usc.edu/portal/iri
    • Responsible for requirements gathering, workflow analysis through interactions with clients & end users
    • Site is a web CMS resulting in a savings of $4000/semester for the institute
    • Provide milestone reports to show progress & design new interfaces to facilitate better data entry & information management
    • Coldfusion, MSSQL Server based system provides content management, role based access control features
    • Administrative role based features for adding, updating & deleting content
    • Current status: data being loaded for final deployment

  • Lab Assistant / grader for CS530L - Computer Security lab at the University of Southern California (Fall 2005, Spring 2006)
    • Assist the students in the lab with lab assignments involving computer security attacks like SQL injections, buffer overflows, packet sniffing etc
    • Assist the computer security lab instructor in designing lab assignments and grading criteria

  • Interwoven Technologies, Member of Technical Staff (intern; June 2005 - Aug 2005)
    • Interned with Interwoven (based in Sunnyvale – CA) on their WCMS product - TeamSite
    • Involved with client team of TeamSite 6.7. Features: flex roles, utility daemon
    • Wrote perl scripts for automated remote execution of Junit test scripts of service pack 2 of TeamSite 6.5. Target platform : Solaris and Windows
    • Proposed a mechanism to reduce bandwidth usage and increase efficiency for TeamSite 6.7 through use of HTTP compression & encoding mechanisms

  • Content Management System (system design, coding & implementation; May 2005 – Nov 2005)
    • Web based system for a research group at USC (TeamCore) designed to ease out their content management
    • features include complete administration module for maintaining site entities, search tool, file uploading
    • Java, MySQL, Tomcat based system uses include jsp, servlets, beans, javascript, AJAX
    • Security features include protection from SQL injections, session hijacking

  • Entrance Examination Registration Module (team leader, lead programmer, system designer; Aug 2003 - Oct 2003)
    • Unified & led a workforce of 5 from conceptualization to implementation for Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies & Research (SICSR)
    • Project completed in 40 days in capacity of team leader, lead programmer, system designer
    • Drafted project milestone chart & delegated tasks assessing core competency. Implemented SDLC
    • Trained 3 members of the team on JSP, servlets and java beans, javascript
    • Accountable to higher management through milestone presentations
    • features include role based system access, automated event based e-mailing, profiling, administrative functions, search capabilities, easy file based system configuration for database portability
    • Java, MySQL, Tomcat & Apache based system uses JSP, servlets, java beans, javascript, java mail for presentation & business logic
    • Application currently not online due to change in academic policies. Demo copy available

  • Packer - File Compression Tool (Sept '01 - Dec '01)
    • Java applet designed to perform file compression & uploading to online file storage systems
    • Translates to reduced upload time (useful on low bandwidth networks), savings on server load & disk space
    • Judged best project at the intra college software exhibition held at Nowrosjee Wadia College

Technical Skills

Operating System Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Redhat Linux 9

Programming Languages: Java, C++, C, VB 6.0

Security Tools: nMap, Nessus, Retina, Ethereal, Autopsy

Databases: Oracle (9i, 8i, 7), MySQL, MS Access 2000, SQL 7.0

Concepts and RAD Tools: OOPS, AJAX, JDeveloper, Netbeans 5.1

Application & Web Servers: Apache, Tomcat 4.1.x onwards, Sun ONE, IIS

Internet Programming, Scripting & Markup Languages: HTML, JSP, Servlets & Java Beans, Coldfusion, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, DOM, ASP & ASP.Net, XML, VBScript

Frameworks & Architectures: J2EE, MVC, MS dot Net, Ruby on Rails

Related Coursework
Computer Security, Web Technologies & Services (WSDL, XML and SOAP, AJAX), Computer Networks & Communications, Database Systems & Design, Operating Systems, Software Design & Engineering, Data Structures, Object Oriented Programming, Multimedia Systems & Design, Online Networked Games, User Interface Design (HCI)