Colloquium Details
From Shell Maps to Zombie Gunship and Beyond
| Author: | Serban Porumbescu Hidden Elephant |
|---|---|
| Date: | May 16, 2013 |
| Time: | 15:30 |
| Location: | 220 Deschutes |
| Host: | Hank Childs |
Abstract
In an interview-style format, Serban Porumbescu will describe his path from PhD graphics researcher to nVidia developer to successful iOS entrepreneur & video game developer, and the associated challenges of each. Among his company's products is Zombie Gunship, a #1 app on Apple's App Store. Longtime friend of Serban and CIS faculty member Hank Childs will conduct the interview.
Serban is an independent iOS developer living in what he believes to be the Golden Age of independent software development. His company, Hidden Elephant, focuses on entertainment and casual game applications. He works in all areas of mobile games ranging from design and development and on through to marketing and merchandising. Over the years he has developed software for small mom and pop shops, companies that were too small to be big and too big to be small, a national lab, a university, mega corporations, a Silicon Valley startup, and his own companies. In 2009 he proposed, designed, and taught the most popular course in the history of the UC Davis Computer Science Department: Introduction to iPhone Application Development. He spent a number of years in academia and industry doing computer graphics research related to surface parameterization, realtime hair and soft shadow rendering, and realtime fluid simulations. Serban has earned several engineering degrees and holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Davis. You can find him on twitter as @serban.