Colin Woodbury
Self Introduction
I am a full-stack developer and avid contributor to Open Source since 2012. I am the author of Aura. As a former teacher, I am skilled at public speaking and give conference presentations in both English and Japanese.
Skills
Programming Languages
- Low-Level: Rust, Go, C
- Functional: Haskell, Common Lisp, Clojure, Scala
- Scripting: Emacs Lisp, Python
- Web: HTML, CSS, Web Assembly
Web Technologies
- Terraform
- GraphQL
- Amazon Web Services, Digital Ocean
- Elastic Search, Kibana
- Docker
- Let's Encrypt
Other Technologies and Tools
- Linux
- Git, Github, Gitlab
- SQL (SQLite, MySQL, MariaDB, Postgres)
- Apache Spark
- Emacs
- LaTeX
- Geographic Information Systems
Experience
Software Development
CADDi - Rust Developer
2022 September - Present
Freelance Software (Rust, Go)
2020 May - 2022 June
Private contracting work in a variety of fields and technologies.
Kadena - Blockchain Software Development (Haskell)
2018 August - 2020 May
Core developer of the Kadena Public Blockchain.
General
- Contributed extensively to the Chainweb and Pact projects using Haskell.
- Designed and implemented Chainweb's Difficulty Adjustment algorithm.
- Pioneered Chainweb's mining algorithm and wrote its client, chainweb-miner.
- Wrote a Wallet application for the terminal using
ncurses.
System Administration
- Worked as the main system administrator for Kadena web servers.
- Managed our servers on AWS with Terraform and NixOS.
Documentation and Support
- Wrote extensive documentation in both Japanese and English.
- Instructed users on configuring our software and helped them debug.
- Represented the company as a speaker at conferences in Japan, the USA, and Canada.
Azavea - Open Source Software Developer (Scala)
2016 May - 2017 December
Open-source developer on the GeoTrellis project. Author of VectorPipe.
General
- Researched, designed, and implemented GIS algorithms.
- Performed extensive integration tests with Apache Spark.
- Implemented Mapbox VectorTile codecs in Haskell and Scala.
System Administration
- Extensive use of Docker and Terraform to manage production systems on AWS.
Documentation and Support
- Overhauled the official documentation for GeoTrellis.
- General advocate for Pure Functional Programming in Scala.
- Mentor for Haskell from First Principles weekly reading group.
Adenda Media - Lead Software Developer (Scala)
2014 May - 2016 April
Full-stack Scala developer.
General
- Maintained and enhanced a Play + MySQL backend.
- Extended a Twitter Bootstrap-based web application.
- Implemented a content recommendation system using Apache Spark's MLlib.
System Administration
- Managed our primary web servers on Digital Ocean.
Documentation
- Extensive documentation efforts in LaTeX.
English Teaching
2010 August - 2013 July
English Teacher (ALT) for the Sasebo Board of Education
- Taught English to over a thousand Elementary and Middle School students.
- Created lesson plans, supported Japanese colleagues, and helped grade tests.
- Ran an English Club for students who wanted extra practice.
- Coached students who went on to win a city-wide speech contest two years in a row.
Education
Simon Fraser University - Post Bacc. Diploma, Computing Science
2013 September - 2016 April
An accelerated undergraduate Diploma program for university graduates.
- Served as Vice President (2014-2015) and as President (2015-2016) of the Computing Science Student Society.
- Oversaw the creation of the CSSS Website.
- Served as the president of the SFU Choir for two years.
- Achieved the Dean's Honour Roll two years in a row.
Requirements completed 2016 April. Diploma awarded 2020 May.
Saga University, Japan - SPACE Program
2008 September - 2009 August
A one-year exchange program for international students.
- Member of the Tea Ceremony Club.
- Winner of the year-end Japanese speech contest for Best Speech and Most Humorous Speech.
University of Manitoba - BA, Asian Studies
2006 September - 2010 April
A four-year degree, majoring in Asian History and Languages.
- Minored in Computer Science.
- Achieved the Dean's Honour Roll.
Open Source Projects
| Year | Project | Role | Language | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | applying | Author | Rust | Apply functions in method position. |
| nonempty | Author | Common Lisp | Non-empty collections for Common Lisp | |
| filepaths | Author | Common Lisp | Modern, consistent filepath manipulation | |
| sly-overlay | Author | Emacs Lisp | Evaluation overlays for Common Lisp in Emacs | |
| 2023 | transducers | Author | Emacs Lisp | Ergonomic, efficient data processing |
| fn-macro | Author | Common Lisp | A lambda shorthand for Common Lisp | |
| faur | Author | Clojure | Fast data mirror for the AUR (Clojure port) | |
| Falldown | Author | Fennel | A classic TI-83 game revived | |
| Snake | Author | Fennel | A simple implementation of Snake. | |
| nonempty-collections | Author | Rust | Correct-by-construction non-empty collections | |
| transducers | Author | Fennel | Ergonomic, efficient data processing | |
| transducers | Author | Common Lisp | Ergonomic, efficient data processing | |
| 2022 | faur-supervisor | Author | Elixir | Data refresh and watchdog for a faur server |
| faur | Author | Rust | Fast data mirror for the AUR | |
| disown | Author | Rust | Drop ownership via a method | |
| r2d2-alpm | Author | Rust | R2D2 resource pools for ALPM connections | |
| 2021 | Love Letter Tracker | Author | Rust/WASM | Knowledge tracking tool for Love Letter |
| validated | Author | Rust | The cumulative sibling of Result and Either | |
| streak | Author | Emacs Lisp | A minor mode for tracking "streaks" | |
| 2020 | linya | Author | Rust | Simple Concurrent Progress Bars |
| totp | Author | Go | Time-based One-Time Password library | |
| totp-lite | Author | Rust | Time-based One-Time Password library | |
| credit | Author | Rust | Tool for measuring Github contributions | |
| cargo-aur | Author | Rust | Tool to release Rust projects on Arch Linux | |
| versions | Author | Rust | Rust port of my versions library | |
| kanji | Author | Rust | Rust port and update of my kanji library | |
| active | Author | Go | Tool to keep Github CI Actions up-to-date | |
| skylighting-lucid | Author | Haskell | Lucid support for skylighting | |
| org-mode | Author | Haskell | Parser for Emacs Org Mode files | |
| chainweb-data | Core Dev | Haskell | Data ingestion tool for Chainweb | |
| 2019 | Chainweb | Core Dev | Haskell | Multi-chain Proof-of-Work Blockchain |
| bag-of-holding | Author | Haskell | An ncurses terminal wallet for Chainweb | |
| bounded-queue | Author | Haskell | Bounded queue data structure library | |
| chainweb-miner | Author | Haskell | A mining client for Chainweb | |
| streaming-events | Author | Haskell | Client-side consumption of EventStream | |
| 2018 | MapAlgebra | Author | Haskell | Efficient, polymorphic Map Algebra |
| fosskers.ca | Author | Purescript | My personal website | |
| streaming-pcap | Author | Haskell | Stream packets via libpcap | |
| servant-xml | Author | Haskell | Servant support for XML Content-Type | |
| streaming-attoparsec | Maintainer | Haskell | Attoparsec integration for streaming | |
| streaming-bytestring | Maintainer | Haskell | Effectful sequences of bytes | |
| 2017 | VectorPipe | Author | Scala | VectorTile processing through GeoTrellis |
| draenor | Author | Haskell | Convert OSM PBF files into ORC format | |
| axe | Author | Haskell | Split large OSM XML files | |
| streaming-osm | Author | Haskell | Stream OpenStreetMap protobuf data | |
| scalaz-and-cats | Author | Scala | Benchmarks for Scalaz and Cats | |
| scala-benchmarks | Author | Scala | Benchmarks for common Scala idioms | |
| 2016 | GeoTrellis | Core Dev | Scala | Geographic data batch processing suite |
| pipes-random | Author | Haskell | Producers for handling randomness | |
| vectortiles | Author | Haskell | GIS Vector Tiles, as defined by Mapbox | |
| 2015 | MyShroom | Core Dev | Scala | AI-based image recognition of mushrooms |
| crypto-classical | Author | Haskell | Samples of classical encrytion schemes | |
| microlens-aeson | Author | Haskell | Law-abiding lenses for Aeson | |
| opengl-linalg | Author | C | OpenGL-friendly Linear Algebra | |
| Tetris | Author | C | A 3D Tetris game using OpenGL | |
| versions | Author | Haskell | Types and parsers for software versions | |
| 2014 | elm-touch | Author | Elm | Extended Touch library for Elm |
| 2048 Game | Author | Elm | The 2048 game in Elm (play) | |
| 2013 | Hisp | Author | Haskell | A simple Lisp |
| 2012 | Aura | Author | Haskell | Package Manager for Arch Linux |
| kanji | Author | Haskell | Analyse Japanese Kanji | |
| 2011 | Sudoku | Author | Python | A sudoku solver |
| tgrep | Author | Python | A search tool for Reddit's log files |
Certification
| Certification | Level | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Goethe-Zertifikat German Language Proficiency | B1 | 2015 |
| Japanese Kanji Proficiency Test | 2 | 2024 |
| Japanese Language Proficiency Test | N1 | 2012 |
Talks and Presentations
| Topic | Date | Venue | Location | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fortran and Doom Emacs | 2022 Feb | DoomConf | Online | English |
| Terminal Progress Bars in Rust | 2021 Feb | Vancouver Rust Meetup | Vancouver | English |
| Haskell in Production | 2019 June | LambdaConf | Boulder | English |
| Beauty and Correctness in Code | 2019 May | Polyglot Unconference | Vancouver | English |
| Pact Basics | 2018 Nov | NODE Tokyo | Tokyo | Japanese |
| Introduction to Chainweb | 2018 Nov | Neutrino Meetup | Tokyo | Japanese |
| How not to Write Slow Scala | 2018 June | LambdaConf | Boulder | English |
| Tips on Scala Performance | 2018 May | Polyglot Unconference | Vancouver | English |
| Extensible Effects | 2016 Apr | Vancouver Haskell Meetup | Vancouver | English |
| Applicative Functors | 2014 Apr | Vancouver Haskell Meetup | Vancouver | English |
| Thoughts on Japanese Education | 2012 Feb | Arkas Sasebo | Sasebo | Japanese |
Hobbies
Climbing
I prefer Lead Climbing, but also do Top Rope and Bouldering both outdoors and indoors.
Competition Record
| Year | Sport | Competition | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Top Rope | The Flash | Cliffhanger |
| 2018 | Bouldering | BC Bouldering Provincials | North Van Hive |
Language Learning
I specialize in Japanese, but have also studied German, Italian, and Esperanto.
Music
| Group | Date | Position |
|---|---|---|
| VVGO: FF7 Opening Bombing Mission | 2024 March | Electric Bass |
| Tokyo Embassy Choir | 2022 Fall - Ongoing | Voice |
| VVGO: Skyword Sword | 2022 Summer | Electric Bass |
| SFU Choir | 2019 Fall | Voice |
| SFU Choir | 2013 Fall - 2016 Spring | Voice |
| Haiki PTA Chorus | 2010 - 2013 | Voice |
| Westwood Collegiate Jazz Band | 2002 Fall - 2006 Spring | Tenor Sax |
Performances
- TEC: 2023 Christmas
- TEC: 2023 November (with orchestra)
- TEC: 2023 Summer
- TEC: 2022 Christmas