JesseCoultas

2657 W Lawrence Ave, Springfield, IL 62704 · 217-698-9900 x213 ·jcoultas@acm.org

I am a PhD student at University of Illinois Chicago studying computer science with software quality improvement being my primary research interest. Since 2003, I have been CEO of MCS, an application development and IT service company, performing leadership and technical roles. I also am an experienced professional managing and developing enterprise web application development projects using agile methodologies.


Experience

CEO

MCS

Since 2003, MCS has worked with businesses locally and remotely around North America to provide IT solutions. These include IT Services, Web Application Development, Web Design, Technology Product Sales, Hosting Services, and Telecommunications. MCS is able to fill almost any need for technology an organization may have.

Responsibilities include management of office staff and providing the overall direction for the company. Ongoing responsibilities include project management, leadership of the programming team, software quality assurance testing, and application development.

Enterprise Application Development (industry: Biometric Services)

Have directly worked with this company since 2004 on projects relating to scheduling and fulfillment of background screening using biometric and demographic data. Currently provide ongoing maintenance on existing application and development of new components based on business need.

Performed various roles for this project including developer, business analyst, quality assurance tester, and project manager. Currently, my role is project management to support application development team, mentoring team members, and application development as needed.

Project spans across multiple departments to support the background screening process and includes the following items.

  • Public website available to applicants for scheduling appointments including collection and validation of biographical, demographic, and other data required to complete the screening process.
  • Internal interface for operators to schedule appointment and assist with customer requests to support requirements of an internally staffed call center.
  • Integration with multiple third party systems for validation of applicant data and applicant eligibility.
  • Accounting functions and reports are available for finance to record activity and maintain customer accounts.
  • Integration to biometric capture equipment to provide needed data for completing of the appointment and response information.
  • Integration with AFIS system to manage transmission of biometric information and applicant data.

Zero Day Virus Detection & Mitigation (industry: Manufacturing)

Customer was experiencing high file access activity on some internal servers and users were having difficulty accessing internal servers. Provided high level analysis, data gathering, and management to the team tasked with solving this problem. The analysis of the process indicated that multiple client systems were performing large scans of internal file servers. The issue was determined to be a zero-day virus. The epidemiology of the virus was learned through analysis of logs, processes, and network traffic. To help mitigate the negative effects of the virus, a honey-pot server was setup and helped relieve file access activity on the internal servers. This provided much needed time to work with the anti-virus software company for development of new virus definitions.

2003 - Present

Adjunct Lecturer

Illinois State University

Responsibilities include in-class lecture, preparing lab materials, assisting students during hands-on lab exercises, use of online learning management system, assess student success, and provide extra assistance and support to students as needed.

COURSES TAUGHT

  • Software Quality Assurance and Testing (Graduate Level)
  • Wireless Communication Systems (Upper Level Undergraduate)
2017-2018

Adjunct Professor

Robert Morris University

Instructor of various computer science courses including Linux, HTML, XML, Multimedia, Windows Server, Microsoft Exchange, Firewall, and VPN technologies. Responsibilities include in-class lecture, oversee and assist students with hands-on lab activities, assess student success, and provide students with extra assistance as needed.

COURSES TAUGHT

  • Linux/Unix
  • Local Area Networking
  • JAVA Programming
  • Microsoft SQL Server Administration
  • Advanced Network Services
  • XML and Programming with XML
  • Web Development (HTML and CSS)
  • Computer Forensics
2003 - 2012

Education

University of Illinois Chicago

in progress - PhD, Computer Science

Actively pursuing this degree with coursework and research in software quality assurance (see Research section). Courework completed includes the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Emperical Methods in Human Centered Computing, Data and Web Semantics, Clouding Comuting Objects, and BioE Biocontrol.

August 2018 - Present

University of Illinois at Springfield

Master of Science, Computer Science

Classes included various computer topics including databases, programming, software engineering, interface design, network programming (UNIX and C), Distributed Systems (JAVA and C++), and research on various emerging technologies.

Research Seminar: Literary Review: Researched proposed design techniques of the semantic web. Topics included syntactic/semantic definition, service discovery, and overall quality of data.

Research Seminar: Simulation: The research seminar course required the development of a simulation and reporting on the results of the simulation. The simulation emulated the card game War. Typically, the game of War continues for a long time, so the proposed topic question was “How often do never ending games of the card game War occur?” The simulation was designed to randomize the deck, determine the winner of a hand, track each player’s deck, and detecting a repeating deck pattern (never ending game detection). The outcome of the simulation showed a high occurrence of never ending games, which may be skewed based on the ruleset used for the game (no reshuffle at end of a player’s deck) and removal of the human element (unintentional reordering of cards placed at bottom of player’s deck).

Teaching: Led a classroom demonstration on the Oracle DBMS for a course on Advanced Databases. The course focused on Microsoft SQL and the instructor wanted to expose the students to Oracle as well. My undergraduate coursework and professional experience provided me the ability to inform the class on the basics of the Oracle DBMS.

Completed December 2008

Benedictine University

Master of Business Administration

Coursework delivered using Next Generation Learning that uses a blended approach that uses both online and face-to-face sessions. The MBA program focuses on problem-based learning that combines quantitative and qualitative courses that prepare for the demands of contemporary business leadership in a complex, uncertain environment.

Entrepreneurship: Developed full business plan and presentation for a movie theater with restaurant and bar to provide a unique entertainment experience within the Springfield, IL MSA. The plan included research of market trends, budgeting, location, marketing, financing, and operations to provide a comprehensive guide for building a successful business.

Strategic Management: To prove the skills obtained throughout the MBA program, each student participated in the Business Strategy Game (BSG). The class was divided into teams and each team represented a company in the shoe manufacturing industry. The goal was to obtain the highest overall score, which comprised of common business metrics. Using strategic thinking our team was able to consistently outperform our competition by accurately producing needed supply, focusing on product quality, and competitively pricing our products. By reducing overall manufacturing costs, our team was able to undercut competitors while maintaining consistent profit margins. Our strategy resulted in achieving first place in our class.

April 2016 - November 2017

Robert Morris University

B.A.S., Computer Studies

Studied various network technologies and software application development, and business-related coursework. Topics included Windows Server/Desktop, Linux Server/Desktop, CISCO Routing/Switching, Oracle Database, C++ programming, JAVA application development, Software Testing, Web Design (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), and Business/Management.

Solitaire Encryption: Class project involved implementation of Bruce Schneier’s Solitaire encryption algorithm as a C++ console application.

September 1999 - February 2002

Research

  • Exploration of bug detection using variable taints (on going).

Interests

  • Software Quality Assurance
  • Testing Frameworks
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Technology Applications in Medicine
  • Internet of Things
  • Sensor Networks
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Semantic Web
  • Project Management
  • Leadership

Industry Affiliations, Awards & Certifications

  • Member, Association for Computing Machinery (2003-present)
  • Member, Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce
  • Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) - certified since 2000
  • CompTIA A+ certified since 2000
  • CompTIA Network+ certified since 2001
  • CompTIA I-Net+ certified since 2001