I'm a computer engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh. Currently I am on a co-op with BMW Manufacturing in South Carolina. I graduated from Warwick High School in 2010 and I expect to graduate from Pitt in fall 2014.
Programming
Most recently, I programmed in C for my systems software course. The final project was a simple multithreaded web server. Previously, I have used Java for coursework, and I have also written websites using PHP. I have a good knowledge of HTML and CSS from my experiences coding websites (see projects section and this site itself).
Theatre
At Pitt, I am helping out with shows regularly (see projects section). The lighting console I have worked most with is the ETC Ion. I have been involved with technical theatre since high school where I programmed and ran the lighting console for three years.
Photography
My interest with photography started when I bought my first digital camera. Now, I'm taking pictures with a Canon 60D and my trusty S95. I'm mostly interested in architectural and landscape photography. Some of my photos are posted at 500px and Flickr. A few of my photos also make an appearance in the background of this page.
Columbinus
Pitt Lab Production - 2012
Directed by Ben Kaye, this student lab production explored the environment that led up to the Columbine shootings. I was the projection designer for the production.
Projection design for the show was a challenge. I spent countless hours creating videos in After Effects and readying the cues for playback with Isadora and QLab.
It was very rewarding to work closely with such a talented production team. The amazing John Ryan served as the lighting designer, and fellow technology enthusiast Barry Arons served as the sound designer.
Sweeney Todd
Pitt Rep Production - 2011
I served as the assistant lighting designer for this main stage show put on by the Pitt Repertory Theatre in the fall.
As the ALD, I managed lighting paperwork, programmed the lighting console, and helped design projections using a program called Isadora. On top of that, the projections were triggered by UDP strings sent from the lighting console over a network to an Arduino.
DrDavidRichards.com
Website - 2010
I designed this website for Dr. Richards' dental practice in my hometown of Lititz, Pa.
Since the site is written in PHP, I incorporated a few nifty features including a system for patients to submit cancellations and a way for the staff to post announcements at the top of the main page.
WarwickBowling.50webs.com
Website - 2009
One of my first sites, I wrote this website for an internet programming class in high school.
Despite the class's insistence on teaching ancient and depreciated HTML techniques, I managed to create a standards compliant page using CSS.
I'm particularly proud of the little bowling score calculator that I built using javascript. Checking for input errors was pretty arduous.
AlexBlanck.com
Websites - 2009-2012
You are currently looking at the third iteration of this website, which was a Christmas break project for me. I put a bit of effort into animating elements of this site. It was an enjoyable way to learn some things about Javascript. Like Dr. Richards' site, I used Mootools, a great javascript framework.
I have also archived my past sites here for posterity's sake:
