Resume

1. Personal details

Name : Costache P. Octavian Mihai
Email: octavian.costache AT gmail.com
Web  : http://www.vivi.ro


2. Education

2005
	Masters degree in Systems and Architectures of Internet Applications at
	Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania, Department of Computer Science.
	Thesis on "Mobile Learning Agents"

1999 - 2004
	Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania, Department of Computer Science.
	Bachelors degree with a major in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Graphics.
	GPA: 8.99/10.
	Bachelors thesis on "Intelligent Software Agents in Societies with Norms". 
	Grade: 10/10.

2003	
	Cisco Networking Academy Program - graduated the Java Programmer Course
	and became an Instructor.

2001	
	Cisco Networking Academy program - graduated the Cisco Certified
	Networking Associate Course and became an Instructor.

1995 - 1999
	Highschool (C.N. I.L. Caragiale Ploiesti, Romania).
	GPA: 9.23/10


3. Tech Skills

- excellent HTML skills, moderate CSS

- strong PHP skills, good Perl experience.

- mySql experience
	Created five medium and large size websites using databases, the largest 
	one having 800Mb. Largest table now: 4mil rows.
	My college coursework includes an Introduction in Databases course.

- login systems experience
	Developed five sites that require user login, some with tight 
	security requirements.
	Largest site: 140.000 registered users.

- strong software design abilities
	Experience gained from my projects (see work for details) and as 
	a Java and OOP instructor.

- strong Java skills
	Developed three game-playing agents (card and board games), a log 
	analyzer with chart generation, and parts of bigger applications.
	Largest project: a game-playing agent with complex behavior and 
	social skills. Java Instructor.

- very strong Flash/Actionscript skills
	Built 12 Flash online games (see portfolio) and user interfaces with 
	focus on user demands: usability, fast access, light design. 
	Built the industry leading stock charts for Google Finance.

- very strong algorithmic and data structures background
	I was a constant prize winner at the National Olimpiad in Informatics 
	during high school and a teaching assistant for Algorithm Analysis course.

- strong eye for UI design and user experience

- C, Scheme, Pascal


4. Portfolio

I've created more than 20 online websites (full portfolio at http://www.vivi.ro).
The most remarkable (and developed by me from conception to execution) are:

a. The Google Finance charts (and other related work) 
    http://finance.google.com/finance?q=GOOG
    The charts are industry leading, caused other finance sites to update their
    charting. They were one of the most appreciated features of Google Finance
    at the time of launching.

b. www.didactic.ro
    Resource sharing portal between high school teachers.
    More than 1000 shared resources and 2300 users.

c. www.doizece.ro
    Online multiplayer gaming site, 35th most visited website in .ro with 
    300.000 visitors per month, 230.000 registered users, 10.000 matches played 
    per day and 1200 simultaneously connected users. 
    (The site was developed in a team of two people)

d. olimpiada.info/bynet
    Problem retrieving and solution submitting by users, rankings, statistics. 
    I have been in charge for the byNET (online) side of the Romanian Olympiad 
    in Informatics for the last 4 years.

e. www.divertis.ro
    Official website of Divertis, one of the best Romanian humor groups.

Other work:

f. multimedia presentation CDs for CEOI2000, Infoeducatia, National Olympiad
in Informatics.

g. Three educational Flash games (www.5pm.ro) and other parts of the project,
developed in a team of five people.

h. Flash games (http://www.crantz.ro/jocuri.php), developed in collaboration with
teams of two to five people.


5. Personal skills & initiatives

- initiated the first online multiplayer gaming site in Romania during my free time.

- initiated and organized the byNET side of the Romanian National Informatics Olympiad.

- in collaboration with a high school teacher, I created the Olympiad in 
Informatics for pre high school students, initially as a programming contest over the 
Internet. The contest is at its 4th edition and is now part of the National Olympiad in 
Informatics.

- I was part of an initiative to obtain funds and organize the structural cabling 
for Internet access of students dorms in the Polytechnic University of Bucharest
campus.

- very creative person, with initiative and the ideas to match my enthusiasm. :-)


6. Current and past jobs worth mentioning

2005 - present
    Software Engineer at Google.

2002 - 2005
	Java Instructor in the Cisco Networking Academy program

1999 - 2002
	CCNA Instructor in the Cisco Networking Academy program

2005	Teaching Assistant for Multi Agent Systems course

2004	Teaching Assistant for Algorithm Analysis course

2000 - 2005
	Jury member at Infoeducatia and other contests in webdesign 
	for highschool students.


7. Competition prizes

Programming, algorithms and science related: 

1999	qualified for the National Olympic Team of Romania in Informatics 
	(first 15 out of top 200 students, from wich the IOI team was selected)

1999, 1998, 1997, 1996
	2nd prize, 3nd prize, Special prize, 2nd Prize at the National Olympiad in 
	Informatics, Romania (an algorithmic competition for all the highschool 
	students in the country)

1995, 1994
	2nd prize and 1st prize at the National Olimpiad in Physics, Romania

Web development and design related: 

2005	Best Online Gaming site with www.doizece.ro at Internetics, 
	the most important romanian Web Awards Competition.

2005	Best Educational site with www.5pm.ro at Internetics, as part of the 
	team of five people that developed the project.

2004	Nomination for Best Entertainment Site with www.doizece.ro at Internetics

2002	Most Unconventional Site, Best Entertainment Site with www.divertis.ro 
	at Internetics

1998	2nd prize for webdesign at InfoEducatia, a national educational 
	software and webdesign competition for highschool students

1997	2nd prize for webdesign at InfoEducatia

8. References

Available upon request.

9. Hobbies

In 2002 I started practicing skydiving. Due to the lack of time and money, 
I had to give that up and now I satisfy my flying needs by paragliding (I have been
a registered pilot since 2003).

I also enjoy playing bridge, hiking, keeping in touch with good friends,
smart conversations and very good music.