Ivan is the CTO & co-founder of Tipjoy, a site which makes it easy for people to give money to stuff they love online. His expertise is in software engineering. Before Tipjoy, Ivan helped robots see, applying skills he learned from his master's degree in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, and undergraduate degree in Computer Science at New York University. Back in the days when there was free time, his hobbies were learning other programming languages, tinkering, and reading/watching stuff on the internet.
Tipjoy co-founder, CTO November 2007 - present
Responsible for all aspects of the architecture and implementation of the site. Quickly designed and built a complete micropayments software system, initially focused on voluntary payments for the web.
Tipjoy
Tipjoy makes micropayments work. It is designed to spread rather than solely on collecting money. Rather than using the model of physical transactions and simply applying it to the sale of virtual goods, Tipjoy is designed from the ground up to support the sale of virtual goods. It is extremely easy for people to sign up and start leaving money for what they love online - so easy that initially, payment is voluntary. Rather than turning people away by gating content, Tipjoy allows people to choose to leave a tip for a content if they think it was valuable. Tipjoy is expanding to support the entire spectrum of digital goods distribution, from voluntary payment for free content, to subscription models, to required payments for high-value, high-bandwidth virtual goods. Tipjoy appeals to the social nature of tipping, buying and selling. People can share their tip history, track what their friends are tipping, and track the most valuable content online.
iRobot Software Engineer, Government & Industrial Division April 2006 - November 2007
Lead in the research group, enhancing the capabilities of deployed bomb disposal robots towards greater autonomy and usability. Systems designed and prototyped and tested algorithms in C++, Matlab, and Python.
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Team Scorpion: iRobot's entry in DARPA's Urban Grand Challenge Helped design and build a 100% autonomy suite for the Scorpion vehicle. Coordinated efforts with 4 other companies on the team. Built software for obstactle detection & avoidance, sensor drivers & filters, simulation, and system management |
MISSR: Multi-spectral Image Stabilization and Super Resolution Wrote the proposal and won the grant for this phase I Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant. Designed and built a robust stabilization system that drastically increased situational awareness through panorama generation, smoother camera motions, and image enhancement. |
Charles River Analytics Scientist, Computer Vision Division February 2005 - April 2006
Applying cutting-edge research to create solutions for real world problems using both Matlab for rapid prototyping and C++ for real-time, optimized and deployable systems. Additional responsibilities include: proposal writing; managing interns; coordinating with multiple subcontractors; maintaining, adapting, and expanding upon legacy code.
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VANESSA: Video Aided Nighttime Surveillance and Situational Awareness This Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant is a real- time surveillance system which operates under difficult nighttime conditions. Components include image enhancement & smoothing; detecting motion, pedestrians, and headlights; tracking regions using a particle filter; detailed logging; and evaluation. This project requires researching sensors, integrating third party libraries, and coordinating with multiple subcontractors. |
SESAME: Scene Estimation & Situational Awareness Mapping Engine This Phase II SBIR involves building a multi-resolution volumetric map of a scene from online camera data on a moving robotic platform. Data extracted from the scene yields, for example, vehicle models and license plate numbers in a parking lot. This project requires managing legacy inter-process communication through NML, interfacing with ARIA (Active Media's robot control API), and implementing a cost- constrained, enhanced powering system. |
Carnegie Mellon University Research Assistant, Robotics Institute June 2003 - December 2004
Developed applications for vision on mobile robots in the Field Robotics Center with my advisor, Sanjiv Singh. Devised new techniques to tackle unsolved problems. Work ran parallel to coursework for the MS in Robotics program and incorporated and expanded upon the newest research techniques.
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Visual Odometry on RHEX RHEX is a robotic hexapod which is highly robust in unconstrained, real world environments. Developed a real-time navigation system using both cameras and inertial sensors which is reliable under the extreme motions of the platform. |
Intrinsic Camera Calibration Toolkit Created an intuitive and unified interface for intrinsic camera calibration for Athena Technologies Inc. which enabled both completion of a calibration task in minutes and in-field re-calibration. |
KLT tracking with rotation Developed complete feature tracking system for rigid image motion based on the Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi tracker. This real-time tracker significantly enhanced tracking performance for systems with significant roll, especially where inertial measurements are available. |
Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute June 2003 - December 2004
Master of Science in Robotics GPA 3.7
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Coursework including
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New York University College of Arts and Science September 2001 - June 2003
Bachelor of Arts: Computer Science with Honors, Minor: Mathematics GPA 3.74
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Software Engineering Project Leader Created a model of complex adaptive systems through an XML- configurable, interactive, multi-threaded Java program that simulated agent-agent and agent-environment interaction. |
Computer Vision Toolkit Created in Java, this suite included image component measurements, feature detection, contour detection, and depth from stereo vision. |
University of California at Los Angeles College of Letters and Science September 1999 - June 2001
National Merit Special Scholarship
September 1999 - June 2003
Languages
Tools
Lighttpd, Memcached, MySQL, SVN, git, Cygwin, AccuRev, CVS, QT 3 & 4, ImageJ, GCC, GDB, MSVC.NET, Eclipse, JUnit
Interests