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Sylvain Gravel, Software Developer in Saguenay, QC, Canada
Sylvain Gravel

Software Developer in Saguenay, QC, Canada

Member since October 18, 2016
Due to his good business sense and dedication to his work, Sylvain always goes beyond expectations by looking for the newest improvements and the next problem to solve. This way of working is what brought him to contracting, he was never able to find the same satisfaction as an employee.
Sylvain is now available for hire
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Portfolio

Experience

Location

Saguenay, QC, Canada

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Android, Unreal Engine 4, iOS, Unity, Xamarin

The most amazing...

...thing I've done was to be the first person in the world to build a streaming app with offline DRM support using Xamarin.

Employment

  • Programmer | Scrum Master | Consultant

    2016 - PRESENT
    Le Rond-Point
    • Led and developed a dancing game technical demo using Unreal Engine 4 for the first round of financing.
    • Ported and designed the SmartUse construction plan versioning system to iPhone and built the Android version, as well as maintaining and adding features to the WPF version and the back end.
    • Built a cross-platform B2B video streaming app with offline DRM support using Xamarin Native on iOS and Android for Warner Brothers TV Distribution.
    • Developed a cardio fitness training app for iOS using the Wahoo Fitness API.
    • Built a blood pressure logging app for the Singapore Health Foundation.
    • Developed the iPad version of the Xcellerate.com athlete evaluation service.
    • Taught game development and design using Unity to teenagers, including a group with learning disabilities.
    • Consulting in team-building and putting Scrum and Agile practices into place for an accounting firm.
    • Built a remote display iOS and Android app for the PetMAP veterinary health monitoring devices using Bluetooth LE or Bluetooth serial connection.
    Technologies: Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Android, Xamarin Forms, Visual Studio, Unity3D, Unreal Engine 4, Unreal Engine, C++, Scrum, Android, iOS, Unity, .NET, C#, Xamarin

  • Scrum Master

    2015 - 2016
    Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
    • Helped video games major students with project management.
    • Supervised and coached students for the Ubisoft 2016 university contest.
    Technologies: Scrum

  • Senior Programmer

    2012 - 2014
    BlooBuzz
    • Converted the Pyramid Rising 2 game to a free-to-play model, tripling it's revenues.
    • Performed time management for the gameplay mechanics, animation, pathfinding, audio, and more.
    • Helped the team put together working Agile processes.
    • Coached the junior programmers.
    • Created level and game designs.
    • Helped the marketing team with their A/B tests and metrics collection and analysis.
    Technologies: Scrum, Android, iOS, NGUI, Unity, C#

  • Programmer | Designer | Customer Support

    2008 - 2013
    Freelance Work
    • Built plugins for the Sportracks training log PC software.
    • Setup the training sessions and managed the schedules for Garmin Fitness.
    • Performed data distribution analysis.
    • Performed data mining to match relevant training segments.
    • Implemented unit and integration testing in a TDD development cycle.
    Technologies: C#

  • Programmer

    2010 - 2012
    Media5 Corporation
    • Developed packet cable 2.0 cable modem firmware.
    • Worked on development for iOS and Android VoIP SoftfOne.
    Technologies: Android, iOS, Java, Objective-C, C++

  • Gameplay Programmer

    2006 - 2010
    Ubisoft
    • Developed the weapons, gadgets and character navigation in the game, Splinter Cell Conviction.
    • Created the tools in the game Assassin's Creed.
    • Developed the multiplayer matchmaking and chat in the game Rainbow Six Vegas 2.
    • Built the anti-piracy system in the game Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands for the PC.
    • Prototyped experimental gameplay for a new franchise.
    Technologies: .NET, C#, C++

  • Programmer

    2003 - 2004
    AGE Technologies
    • Developed a Photoshop and Illustrator plugin for the fashion industry.
    • Built a vector graphics recoloring plugin for Nike's catalog creation.
    • Worked on PNG and JPEG codecs.
    Technologies: MacOS, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, C++

  • Logistics Developer

    2001 - 2002
    Lantic Sugar
    • Worked on VBA macros programming in Excel.
    • Performed single-serve sugar pouches production planning.
    Technologies: Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)

Experience

  • WBTVD (Development)
    https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/wbtvd-screeners/id1265331727

    This is Warner Bros Television Distribution B2B video streaming app on iOS and Android using Xamarin Native. It has support for FairPlay and a Widevine DRM online and offline.

    This app won the 2017 Media Excellence Awards as the best delivery platform.

  • SmartUse (Development)
    https://www.smartuse.com

    SmartUse is a construction document management application on Windows, iOS, and Android. Developed with Xamarin and .NET Core back end and Angular front end. I participated in adding features to the document viewer, adding iPhone support, building the whole Android version of the app from the ground up, and some web back-end and front-end development.

    Developed features include adding rotation to document annotations, overrideable measures, measure groups, and more.

  • Assassin's Creed (Development)

    As an intern, I helped develop game and level design tools for the original Assassin's Creed game. Developed in C#, these tools were used by the team to produce what turned out to be a revolution in the gaming industry.

  • Splinter Cell Conviction (Development)

    As a gameplay programmer, I was in charge of most things related to the main character. Among the other systems developed and maintained were animations and 3D movement, weapons and gadgets as well as camera and special effects. This project was built using a heavily customized Unreal Engine 3.

  • Chrono Solution (Development)

    This project is a sports events RFID chip timing software. It can handle multiple simultaneous races. It has a USB or TCP/IP connection to the hardware. It can read and write on RFID chips, import athletes' and registration information from Excel, and export or print race results.

  • PetMAP Remote Display (Development)
    https://www.petmap.com/

    PetMAP is a series of devices for veterinary health monitoring. As a developer, I refactored and then ported the existing Windows app to make it cross platform such that I could then build the iOS and Android version. Mobile devices connected to the PetMAP using Bluetooth (LE or classic) in order to acquire and then display the charts on a larger screen than the device offers.

  • Agrocentre (Development)

    The Agrocentre app is a news portal for the Agrocentre stores which sell agriculture products and services. It contains archives of their journal, video tips and tricks, seed plots growth and selling numbers. It's available on iOS and Android for phones and tablets. It was built with Xamarin Forms.

  • Garmin Fitness (Development)
    https://code.google.com/archive/p/garminworkouts/

    A SportTracks plugin to setup and schedule advanced workouts and athlete profiles on Garmin Fitness devices such as the Edge and Forerunner series.

  • Distribution (Development)
    https://code.google.com/archive/p/st-distribution/

    A SportTracks plugin for data distribution within workouts.

  • Xcellerate.co (Development)

    This is the iPad version of the Xcellerate.co athlete tryout evaluation service. The app allowed to rate hockey players on various skills and synched to a server. It also had an offline mode so it would work when in arenas.

  • Filtered Statistics (Development)
    https://code.google.com/archive/p/st-filteredstatistics/

    A SportTracks plugin that helps to isolate relevant training segments using data mining and editable criteria.

  • GA Experiments+ (Development)
    https://wordpress.org/plugins/ga-experiments-plus-dev-edition/

    A WordPress A/B split testing plugin. Only the first free tier is currently available but plans are to continue the development to make it more accessible to non-technical users. There are also plans to create a mobile edition for A/B testing in apps or games.

  • Xamarin Forms, MVVMCross, and SkiaSharp: The Holy Trinity of Cross-Platform App Development (Publication)
    https://www.toptal.com/mobile/xamarin-mvvmcross-skiasharp-cross-platform
    Developing a mobile app for multiple platforms can be quite costly. Implementing the same functionalities in multiple programming languages and dealing with a plethora of unique libraries for each platform requires a massive amount of time and knowledge. In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Sylvain Gravel talks about Xamarin and its companion technologies that let you build mobile applications for multiple platforms without compromising familiarity, performance, and uniqueness.

Skills

  • Languages

    C++, C#, Objective-C, PHP, Swift, Java, Kotlin, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), JavaScript

  • Frameworks

    Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Unity, Unity3D, Codeception, NUnit, Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine 4, Xamarin.UITest, .NET, Laravel 5, Entity Framework Core, ASP.NET, AngularJS, ASP.NET MVC 4

  • Libraries/APIs

    Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS, jQuery

  • Tools

    Git, Perforce, Microsoft Visual Studio, Xcode, Jira, AWS Push Notification Service (AWS SNS), Jenkins, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Visual Studio, Azure DevOps Services, Syncfusion

  • Paradigms

    Unit Testing, Scrum, Acceptance Testing, Kanban, DevOps

  • Platforms

    MvvmCross, Windows, Android, iOS, Xamarin, UWP, WordPress, MacOS, Bluetooth LE, Azure, Unix

  • Storage

    JSON, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL

  • Other

    Xamarin Forms, SkiaSharp, Virtual Reality (VR), Game Design, Bluetooth, FairPlay, Scrum Master, Lean Startups

Education

  • Short program certificate in Adult Education
    2016 - 2020
    Téluq - Online (Teluq.ca)
  • Master's degree in Organization Management (Business Management)
    2015 - 2018
    Université du Québec à Chicoutimi - Saguenay, Canada
  • Certificate in Business Management
    2012 - 2015
    Université du Québec à Chicoutimi - Saguenay, Canada
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science
    2004 - 2007
    Université de Sherbrooke - Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
  • Associate's degree in Computer Science
    2000 - 2003
    Collège Lionel-Groulx - Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec, Canada

Certifications

  • The Professional Scrum Master™ level I (PSM I)
    JULY 2015 - PRESENT
    Scrum.org

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