Leo C. Ureel II

Instructional Technologist, REMC #1

June 2006 - Present

Ongoing development of custom solutions for educators including dynamic web based applications, database reporting and extension of existing products such as PowerSchool, Moodle, and RT.

Providing technology training and continuing education credit to educators in the wester half of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Research Programmer, Northwestern University

June 2001 - 2006

Performed original research in cognition and learning. Developed computational theory of Rumination. Implemented a system to ruminate over stories for natural language understanding, qualitative models of physical domains for tutorial question generation, and sketches for diagrammatic reasoning.

Participated in development and kick-off of Mobius project - a natural language understanding project largely based on my Rumination research.

Lead Programmer on the Learning by Reading Project. Responsible for integrating the the system. Implemented agents technology to run components in a distributed fashion on a linux cluster. Developed testing methods. Designed knowledge representations.

Worked with my advisor to develop a new kind of concept-mapping tool, the Relational Concept-Mapper (RCM). RCM focuses on the relationships between entities by making relationships first-class concepts.

Assisted in the development of fIRE – an integrated reasoning environment with built-in support for large-scale knowledge-bases, analogical reasoning, and similarity-based retrieval.

Lead the design of coaching supports for VModel; a qualitative modeling environment for middle school scientists. This included developing and implementation of a graphical concept-mapping system in Java.

Teacher - Math and Computer Courses, Bridge Alternative High School, Copper Country Intermediate School District (CCISD)

October 2000 - May 2001

Taught High School Mathematics for grade levels 9 to 12, students age 15 to 20 with a class size of on average 25 students. This included giving instruction on arithmetic, algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, as describe in the Michigan curriculum framework.

Taught a computer literacy survey course required for all students by the State of Michigan. Course content included computer applications, graphic design , web site design, desktop publishing, digital video editing and production, and Java programming. This also included the design of the web site for the high school.

Wrote grant proposals which resulted in receipt of a grant for a cross curriculum Math and Science project. Included was an instructor and approximately $1,500 for course materials.

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Michigan Technological University

September 1999 - May 2001

Taught various introductory Computer Science courses to undergraduate students. I developed all course curriculum, including assignments, exams, and source materials. I managed undergraduate student graders and maintained office hours to field questions and problems from the students. I lectured to classes of about 40 students. The courses taught were: CS1131 Introduction to Computer Science in Java, CS1090 Introduction to Computer Programming in Java, CS210 Introduction to Programming for Engineers in FORTRAN. I also assisted for one semester the CS1131 Introduction to Computer Science in Java course.

NSF GK-12 Graduate Teaching Fellow, Michigan Technological University

November 1999 - August 2000

Attended the annual MACUL (Michigan Association for Computer-related technology Users in Learning) conference in March 2001 at which I presented two papers: "We Make Mistakes So You Don't Have To" - The development of a High School multimedia course from initial conception, funding, curriculum development, execution, and results; "High School Computer Programming Now In Amazing 3-D" - High School computer programming class using C++ to implement 3-D applications with OpenGL.

Presented Hands-on Computer Workshop a two day workshop for Chassell Township teachers. Topics included: Using Claris Works, Pagemaker, Photoshop, and Front Page.

Presented Computing in the Classroom: a week long workshop for teachers at the CCISD. Topics included: Using MS Office, Searching the Web, and Creating Web Pages.

As part of the Family Science/Math/Computing Night Activities jointly sponsored by Michigan Technological University and CCISD I presented four recurring activities: "Design Prototyping" Ñ the design processes for 5th through 8th grades, "Peanut Butter & Jelly Algorithms" Ñ algorithm design and analysis for grades 5 - 8, "Instant Insanity" Ñ graph theory for 5th & 6th grades, and "Design Your Own Web Page" Ñ web design using HTML for 5th through 8th grades.

Gave a Computer Career Talk to Chassell Township Schools 8th grade class.

Coached Chassell Township Schools 6th grade ThinkQuest Jr. educational web site competition. Helped students develop a web site that teaches about wolves.

Assisted in developing curriculum for Chassell Township High School Programming Class . Introduced the class to OpenGL and answered programming questions.

Developed extensive curriculum for new Multimedia and Graphic Design course at Chassell Township High School.

Software Engineer 4, Institute for the Learning Sciences - Northwestern University

March 1995 - July 1999

As member of the Qualitative Reasoning Group my responsibilities included: software development, interviewing prospective employees for programming positions, mentoring undergraduate interns and new employees, developing and maintaining internal standards, code libraries, and an article repository, administering the group SourceSafe server, and initiating, installing and maintaining a group Technical Documents server.

Lead the development of the Feedback Articulate Virtual Laboratory which taught the concepts of feedback and feedback loops to middle school students. This included developing and implementation of an embedded HTML browser in Lisp using the Zebu lexer, a graphical user interface in Lisp and C++, a Lisp/C++ interface to MS Agent software. Co-authored, "Scaffolding Student Design Work in Articulate Virtual Laboratories", presented at 1999 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada.

Lead the programming of CyclePad, a college level intelligent tutoring environment which taught introductory Thermodynamics to freshmen college students. The program included an SMTP-based distributed coaching system, access to a an SQL database via ODBC for which I wrote low level support, scientific graphing libraries in Lisp and C++, and a DDE interprocess communication library. As part of the development I also co-authored, "Distributed coaching for an intelligent learning environment", published in Proceedings of QR98, May 1998, Cape Cod.

Lead the development of Evaplab, an intelligent simulation for middle schools classrooms. For the development I designed and implemented a client server architecture, developed sockets-based communication code and modular sockets library for Lisp, redesigned and extended the existing Evaplab graphical user interface in Franz Allegro Common Lisp, implemented Moo Client Communications Protocol routines, and coordinated with people in other institutions to bring project online.

Programmer on First Things First, a corporate human resources project. The project involved the use of video through the Windows MCI video interface for which I developed an interface to display the video clips from Franz Allegro Common Lisp. I implemented the graphical user interface for the program in Franz Allegro Common Lisp. In addition I developed Lisp foreign function code to interact with QuickTime DLLs as a supplement to the MCI video interface. Extended the standard ASK system with innovative user action-dependent links. Designed database system for the storage of the program data, and implemented a flat file version, and SQL with ODBC access portion.

Contract Programmer, Breakthru Technology, Inc.

November 1998 - July 1999

Developed middleware system to tie legacy purchasing, inventory, and point-of-sale systems together for Motorola to comprise a single commercial eCommerce web site. The development included writing MS ISAPI C++ code, extensive development and debugging of Javascript and HTML which was produced by the MS ISAPI C++ code, debugged problematic SQL and ODBC portions of code. To help the development of the software on the remote server I designed and implemented client/server applications to communicate with the server over the Internet.

Software Engineer, Coltec Automotive Division

May 1994 - August 1994

Developed a real-time data acquisition and analysis system for a catalytic converter factory test-stand. Performed remote debugging of applications running in Oklahoma through a Novell network. Developed Sybase SQR abstract data types for Avalon Financials reporting using Oracle Database to convert the existing mainframe data to PC computers.

Also assisted in the administration and support of the computer support department. Which included assisting users with Word Perfect, Windows 3.1, Quatro Pro, Harvard Graphics, and Paradox.

Computer Programmer/Operator/Consultant, Michigan Technological University

April 1992 - March 1995

General responsibilities included training and assisting users, installing and maintained PC hardware and software, and writing support software. I developed and maintained forms and procedures for Xerox Elixir reporting software.

Contract Programmer, Northern Hardwoods

June 1992 - August 1992

Developed GUI based file management utility for Microsoft DOS 5.0. It provided the much needed capabilities that modern file managers have in the DOS environment.

Computer Operator, Detroit and Northern Savings Bank

November 1987 - August 1991

Developed an automated JCL manipulation program to improve the efficiency of job scheduling. This included the development of a scheduling language to define when and how jobs would run given various specifications. I designed a graphical user interface for the structured CMS environment using REXX, XEDIT, and EXEC2. I created and maintained Dbase III personnel scheduling database to replace the existing manual methods.

I was also responsible for training staff on IBM mainframes, micro fiche machines, and office equipment. I batch processed jobs on IBM 4381 mainframes in DOS/VS and VSE. I assigned and coordinated work for computer trainees.

Contract Programmer, Judy's Gifts and Collectibles

September 1988 - May 1989

Designed and implemented tax and inventory system for Franklin Ace 1200 in Basic.

Contract Programmer, KMB/TECH

September 1987 - August 1988

Worked on educational hardware for an electrical engineering curriculum. I developed custom disk operating system for Apple IIe in 6502 Assembly Language. And built a data acquisition system in Assembly with statistical analysis and scientific graphing routines in compiled Beagle Basic.

Contract Programmer, C & J Rentals

February 1986 - May 1988

Designed and implemented custom accounting and database system for Apple IIe using compiled Applesoft Basic. And I developed several MagiCalc Spreadsheet programs on an as needed basis.