Gregory P. Desrosiers

1B Software Engineering, University of Waterloo


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About Me



Me standing next to the UWaterloo Black Sign on University Ave.


BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:

Gregory P Desrosiers


Hometown: Boucherville, Quebec
Current City: Waterloo, Ontario

Academic Level: University 1B (University of Waterloo, Software Engineering 1B)
GPA: 3.5 / 4.0 (80% AVG)

Recent Education Completed: Quebec College (CEGEP), Champlain College Saint-Lambert, September 2011 - June 2014
I have a Quebec college degree (Diplôme d'études collegiales) in Computer Science and Mathematics.

Previous education experience: All the schools I've attended before enrolling at Champlain College Saint-Lambert are operated by Riverside School Board based in Saint-Hubert (directly outside Heritage Regional).

Hobbies and Interests: Computer games, arcade machines (so full of nostalgia), bowling, walking / exploring
Description in 5 words: Determined, persevering, curious, smart, passionate


I definitely do like some travelling, especially when I've been to places before for mostly family vacations including Florida, Washington D.C., Syracuse, Vermont, New Hampshire, even part of the Maritimes including the Gaspe Peninsula and the Bay of Fundy. Eventually I would want to do a vacation of my own, but otherwise I am willing to work in one of the major cities in Canada as a start. I would want to build on my habit of trying to work in different places instead of having to stick too locally, and so want to build flexibility to working in the United States overtime.



SUMMARY:



I'm mostly a programmer; I have been exposed to Java and have been practicing it for two and a half years, with my first exposure in July 2010 from attending a game programming camp at McGill University. Today, I am currently learning C++ after completing CS 137 involving the use of the C programming language.

I have interest in exploring more of other programming languages, including C++ obviously, C#, Scheme, Python, and eventually assembly. During my first term at UWaterloo, I completed a CodeAcademy component using Python.

Because of my childhood interests in video gaming, I am interested in trying out computer game development for the first time. In this site, there is a portfolio attached where you can go see some of the works I've done in my spare time. I also have a project I tried working on in the summer of 2014 that wasn't finished, but was rather something I felt that I could complete in a full schedule of my own.




PERSONAL SLOGAN:

"Curse you, Sephiroth, curse you!!"


(This is based on Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII developed by Square [now Square Enix Co. Ltd], produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi and directed by Yoshinori Kitase.)

Explanation: (spoilers from the game) I made up this slogan myself because in my experience in Software Engineering at University of Waterloo, it is often at times very stressful and thus I do have a lot of anxiety around me, but what has been part of my success up to now is determination, perseverance, and the enhanced ability to self-reflect on my past, including recent. This is what we see in Final Fantasy VII as well: the agitation, determination, and epicness, of Cloud Strife, with the ability reflect on his past when there were times that the Materia has possessed his consciousness and overwhelmed him with memories of his own, is what drives him motivated to eradicate Sephiroth and save Planet.




MORE DETAIL ON MY INTERESTS:



Favourite Video Games: Gran Turismo (series), Final Fantasy VII [awesome music too!], Sega Rally 2 (Arcade)
[hey, I do like Super Mario too, I simply don't know which one is my favourite!]

Personal Music Industry Songs: Personal Video Game Music Theme: Final Fantasy VII - Cloud Strife's Theme (Main Theme) [PS1, composed by Nobuo Uematsu]

Favourite Movies: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Space Jam, The Imitation Game

BEWARE: I did see more movies and listened to a lot more music than just mentioned over here. I'm simply too busy to list them all, and I don't think it's relevant to do so.




BIOGRAPHY:



I grew up playing various computer games mostly in my time. I also watched numerous television shows, featurettes and movies on VCR and DVD, and felt kind of enthusiastic when going out with my family to museums and attractions.

My childhood video game console was the Nintendo 64. Aside from having some of the "must-have" games, including Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, and Wave Race 64, because we had a very suitable income, we also went out to rent various games for the console as well, ranging from EA Supercross 2000 to Quake II, from Mario Tennis to South Park, and from MegaMan 64 and PilotWings 64 to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. We also did own a PlayStation, but we never went out to rent some of the highlighted games there. In addition, I loved playing various arcade machines, where my shooting favourite was Namco's Time Crisis II, and my racing favourite was probably Sega Rally 2.

On the television and cinema side, I was into Star Wars, Pokémon, Winnie The Pooh, archived lottery game shows like Family Feud, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune, and several music videos and documentaries. I was also exposed to various movies produced by the Walt Disney Company, such as The Aristocats. Other television shows I was exposed to include Stickin' Around, Uh-Oh!, a few on Teletoon, Cyberchase, ZOOM, Arthur, Postcards from Buster, and even Seven Little Monsters.

Eventually, I went on to check out games for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and done so many look ups on the World Wide Web. I started watching YouTube videos after watching an in-game recording of Namco's Rave Racer arcade machine in 2006. I was also a user of RuneScape for seven years, where most of the time I was known as Bammer 300. (I really do miss playing that online game. On the other hand, I had to give up playing it because I found out in 2010 that I became incredibly busy it was worthless to keep on spending $7 a month on membership.)

My interests were so beyond my parents' control. It was only through continuous efforts with my educators and teachers that I was able to get through elementary school, high school, and CEGEP. Because of my performance in mathematics and how I was bonded to computers at the time, I decided to move on to doing mathematics, physics, and computer science.

Now that I'm at UWaterloo, I want to learn pratical approaches to software development and apply it in my co-ops, as well as learn some various skills such as speech communication, leadership, and stress management. I want to go into computer game development; to add some flexibility to what I'm passionate for and what I should be capable of doing in my career, I may want to do some web development, research, or perhaps creative writing.





Source Code © 2015 Gregory Desrosiers. All rights reserved. Produced at University of Waterloo.