Introduction
Hello, there! My name is Mat Hunter, and I'm a software engineer, systems architect, and general creative living just outside of Washington, DC.
Story
All my life, I've had a passion for learning and using computing technology toward various ends.
I started my journey as a child by simply learning how to work with my family's IBM PC XT, mastering the ins and outs of the DOS command line to load up my favorite games, write small programs in BASIC, and perform system maintenance. As I got older, the computers I had access to became more capable and connected to the internet. At that point, I spent most of my time learning to express myself, through building web pages, creating custom graphics, and building 3D models that I could share with others. When the time came to start my career, my thoughts turned toward learning how to build software and systems to solve my customers' business problems, streamline their workflows, and create new capabilities.
I've now spent the better part of three decades pursuing this latter effort for a wide array of customers—from heavy manufacturing and to medicine, to consumer products and state and federal government, to news and media. Despite the time and mileage, I am still as eager as when I started. New technologies and techniques are enabling developers to build and deliver systems in less time and with less overall effort. More individuals are walking around with an incredible amount of computing power in their pockets and on their wrists. And, top it all off, so much information is readily available with just a simple search. All of this offers the promise of new and interesting applications, just waiting to be built. I am ever eager to explore the possibilities.
To any effort I join, I bring that passion for exploring possibilities. Supporting it is years of professional experience in software engineering and integration, including activities at all stages of the development lifecycle—from requirements analysis and functional design, to implementation and testing, to deployment and support. I also have experience in graphic asset and user interface design, database design and support, and systems administration and infrastructure build-out. Further, I bring a keen interest in process improvement, believing that my development team is, itself, a customer, and can benefit from new technologies and techniques.
For more information about my professional career, please refer to my résumé (or the longer version).
Interests
Just to let you know: I am still very much a human being, and as such enjoy a variety of hobbies in my spare time, including:
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Reading: I am a regular consumer of graphic novels, but also of written fiction from a variety of genres—but mostly science fiction and fantasy.
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Gaming: Like many in my generation, I grew up immersed in video games and still play on the rare occasion that I can sit down long enough.
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Recreational Running: I started running as a way to work towards better health sometime in 2013. I ran my first sanctioned event (a 5K) in March of 2014, and proceeded to continue training and running to work up to my first marathon in January of 2016. I've continued participating in events, covering over 352 miles of sanctioned events—including three more marathons—and look forward to continuing to get faster and go farther.
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Music: I'm a very novice bass player and enjoy learning and practicing technique.
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Food/Drink: I remain, as ever, a great fan of good food, particularly that of various cultural origins—i.e., I'll take near anything over your standard meat and potatoes. I also enjoy mixing cocktails and became a convert to a love of tiki culture.
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Parks/Museums: I appreciate and spend time in many of the parks and museums in and around our nation's capital, with particular interest in art, culture, and industry.
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General Creativity: When I have the time, I enjoy sitting down to any of a number of different creative projects, from around-the-house DIY, to small electronics projects, to abstract visual design work, to photography.
Contact
You can reach me via:
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E-mail: mathew.hunter@gmail.com
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdhunter