Jake Farr

Crofton, MD · jakeefarr@gmail.com

jake-farr.com · linkedin.com/in/jake-farr · github.com/OctahedronV2

Education

College Park, MD

Arnold, MD

Skills

Work Experience

IMDM490 – Senior Capstone I

Aug 2026 – Dec 2026

• Advised 10+ students each class on project scope, budget, and alignment with course goals for their capstone deliverables.

IMDM127 – Creative Coding for Digital Media

Jul 2026

• Taught programming concepts and fundamentals, JavaScript syntax, and the p5.js library through one-on-one instruction each session.
• Assisted in managing a classroom of 25 beginner-level programming students, including 24 dual-enrolled high school students, who were not used to such rigorous coursework.
• Ensured student comfort with content and work-level through an intensely accelerated course: 5 days a week, 3 hours a day, over 3 weeks.

IMDM150 – Digital Media Theory

Jan 2026 – May 2026

• Planned and delivered a full lecture, giving students a broader scope of the Immersive Media Design major and what to expect if they pursue it.

IMDM127 – Creative Coding for Digital Media

Jan 2025 – May 2025

• Collaborated with the professor to design student labs and optimize the class curriculum, increasing the total content covered.
• Authored a 3,000 word write-up for the department, recommending curriculum changes and better onboarding for future TAs, much of which was implemented in 2026.

• Supported 30+ students throughout the development of their projects through technical assistance and creative feedback.
• Provided NWI and IMD staff with administrative and logistical support, resolving schedule conflicts and ensuring public presentation days ran without delays.
• Managed and supported the department's sound studio, prototyping lab, and XR lab, assisting students with equipment and workflows.

• Created the design language for the DANCExDANCE site, including typography, color palettes, and wireframes.
• Applied semantic HTML and optimization best practices, improving Lighthouse SEO score by 35 points and accessibility score by 8 points.
• Collaborated with DANCExDANCE's data visualization researchers and backend developers to implement interactive data visualizations into the site.
• Communicated effectively and responsively with professors, faculty, and collaborators to help guide the development of DANCExDANCE's new website through several iterations.

Projects

• Designed and solely developed a real-time multiplayer party game for iOS and Android, shipping a downloadable alpha on both platforms.
• Built multiplayer architecture using Unity Relay, Unity Lobby, and Netcode for GameObjects, enabling cross-device play.
• Designed 5 minigames leveraging smartphone sensors, including one that pulls live data from a weather REST API.
• Demoed the game live at NextNOW Fest 2025 to 50+ total visitors, observing real group play and achieving the core design goal of getting people to play together instead of scrolling.

• Developed a 10–20 minute VR experience end-to-end as the sole programmer on a two-person team, built in 3 months throughout UMD's New Works Incubator.
• Programmed all grab interactions and seamless scene "transitions" (XR Rig teleportation) using Unity's XR Interaction Toolkit.
• Contributed to ideation, storyboarding, and narrative design, plus in-engine sound and animation.
• Delivered a finished, bug-free build by the required deadline and exhibited to the public at NextNOW Fest.

Additional Projects

• CANVUS (Jan 2026) — interactive audiovisual installation reacting to participants' movements via real-time skeleton tracking, created with a five-person interdisciplinary team.
• Creature Box (May 2026) — collectible 3D-printed creature toys with a digital counterpart interactable through a custom-built website.
• Pixeled Glass (Aug 2025) — motion-activated interactive projection built in TouchDesigner, designed for public spaces.
• Coolor (May 2025) — short puzzle game inspired by The Talos Principle and Portal, built around placing and mixing colors.
• Balloon Life (Mar 2025) — audiovisual music video with audio-reactive visuals, built in Unity.
• Firework (Nov 2025) — gesture-controlled TouchDesigner project turning the user into a pixelated firework.

Exhibitions & Public Presentations

• a2ru Emerging Creatives Summit — Michigan State University (Jan 2026)
  Showcased CANVUS, an interactive audiovisual installation, as part of a five-person interdisciplinary team at this three-day cross-disciplinary summit.
• NextNOW Fest — University of Maryland (Sep 2025)
  Demoed MPG live to 50+ visitors, a real-time mobile party game shipped as a downloadable alpha for iOS and Android.
• NextNOW Fest — University of Maryland (Sep 2024)
  Exhibited Transitions, a VR coming-of-age experience built as part of UMD's New Works Incubator.