Eli R Hooten, Ph D - Curriculum Vitae

Contact

• Site: http://elihooten.com
• Email: elir.hooten@gmail.com

Executive Summary

While obtaining my Ph D in Computer Science, I developed a deep knowledge of experimental design, human factors, statistical analysis, software development, and team management.

Since graduating in 2014 I have applied these skills in startups. First serving as the CTO and Co-Founder of GameWisp until 2018, then as the CTO and Co-Founder of Codecov from 2018 to 2022, finally as Director of Engineering for Codecov at Sentry from 2022 to the present day.

At GameWisp I grew the software team from myself to a team of ten individuals comprised of developers, designers, data scientists, and project managers. Additionally, I led the overall technical design of GameWisp's products and shipped production-quality code on a daily basis. While at GameWisp our Annual Recurring Revenue grew from $0 to $4M, we gained hundreds of thousands active users, and shipped numerous successful products and features.

While at Codecov I scaled the technical team from 2 to 15+ engineers, support staff, and product developers. I also led the overall technical direction of the business, and helped turn Codecov into a world class, industry leading developer tool. My efforts grew Codecov's revenue and user base many times over, and as of 2022 Codecov has been used by over a million software developers worldwide. Codecov was acquired by Sentry in 2022.

I enjoy applying my skills as an executive leader, software developer, and scientist to SaaS companies of all sizes. I'm passionate about managing product and engineering teams, solving complex technical problems, and providing executive-level oversight to software businesses.

Citizenship

USA

Technical Expertise

Executive leadership; Management; Leading product and engineering teams; Designing, scoping, and building high scale web-based applications; Organizational process development and implementation.

Education

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN USA

Ph D, Computer Science, May 2014

• Dissertation: Information Context in Geocollaborative Interfaces
• Advisor: Professor Julie A. Adams
• Areas of Study: Data Visualization, Human Factors

M. Sc., Computer Science, May 2013

• Advisor: Professor Julie A. Adams
• GPA: 3.91/4.0

M. Sc., Electrical Engineering, December 2010

• Thesis: A Mobile, Map-Based Tasking Interface for Human-Robot Interaction
• Advisor: Professor Julie A. Adams
• Area of Study: Human-Robot Interaction
• GPA: 3.86/4.0

Murray State University, Murray, KY USA

B. Sc., Engineering Physics, May 2009

• Summa Cum Laude with Honors Diploma
• Honors Thesis: Development of a Reinforcement Learning Agent to Play Ms. Pac Man
• Minor in Mathematics and Statistics
• GPA: 3.87/4.0

Academic and Professional Experience

Director of Engineering, Codecov 2022 to Present

Sentry

• Devised and led Codecov's transition from a single-purpose code coverage tool to a robust code quality platform.
• Scaled the Engineering, Design, and Product functions across multiple product areas, hiring both individual contributors and managers.
• Successfully transitioned a team of 30 to the principles, culture, and working practices of Sentry with minimal attrition.
• Led coordination efforts between Sentry and Codecov teams to launch key product integrations and new features.
• Moved Codecov from closed source to a fully open source company by making all source code and product planning publicly available.

Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder 2018 to 2022

Codecov

• Helped scale our team from 3 to 15+ employees and contractors.
• Worked alongside our Vice President of Engineering to shape Codecov's engineering processes and best practices.
• Directly led and the solutions engineering, technical support, and product teams.
• Served as the technical point of contact for stakeholders from many of the world's largest companies.
• Worked directly with Codecov's CEO to set product roadmap and long-term technical direction.

Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder 2012 to 2018

GameWisp, Inc.

• Grew and managed a diverse team from 1 to 10 employees and contractors.
• Developed production quality software responsible for over $4M in Annual Recurring Revenue.
• Designed performant and cost-effective video upload, encoding, and delivery systems utilized by thousands of active users.
• Designed, developed, and maintained production quality REST and WebSocket APIs used by hundreds of third-party developers.
• Routinely developed features and products and shipped production-quality code.
• Successfully assisted GameWisp's CEO with multiple rounds of venture capital fund-raising
• Performed wireframing, A/B testing, data analysis, and user interviews for GameWisp products.

Research Assistant 2009 to 2014

Department of Electrical Engineer and Computer Science; Vanderbilt University

• Implemented internal development processes for all laboratory software projects using C++/Qt, Ruby on Rails, R, and Git.
• Independently designed, sourced, assembled, and flight tested unmanned aerial vehicles and balloons for archaeological field use in the Andes of South America.
• Supported archaeological survey teams in remote areas of Peru by providing on-site hardware and software development.
• Provided a production quality implementation of the General Visualization Abstraction Algorithm in C++

Refereed Publications

Presentations

Committee Appointments

GameWisp, Inc., Board Member - 2016 to present

20th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2011 - Associate Editor

8th IEEE International Workshop on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics, 2010 - Program Committee Member

Awards and Honors

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

• Winner, Best Student Paper, 2014

American Society for Engineering Education

• National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, 2009 - 2012

National Science Foundation

• Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention, 2010.
• Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention, 2009.

Murray State University

• Alumni Association Top 22 under 40, 2019.
• Presidential Fellowship, 2004 - 2009
• Dean's List for Academic Excellence, 2004 - 2008
• Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity Grant, 2009
• Honors Program Outstanding Senior Graduate, 2009
• Engineering and Physics Oustanding Senior Graduate, 2009
• Starick Scholarship Recipient, 2008
• Student Organization President of the Year Nominee, 2008
• Honor Society Inductions: Society of Automotive Engineers, Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honors Society, Pi Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honors Society, Omicron Delta Kappa Honors Society (all 2007)

Service

Honors Program

Murray State University, Murray, KY USA

President of Student Council 2007 - 2008

• Successfully proposed the addition of an Honors Math course to the Honors Program curriculum.
• Oversaw council activities across all philanthropy, outreach, academic, social and service activities.
• Acted as a liaison between the Honors Program and all other campus organizations.

Philanthropy Committee Chair 2007 - 2009

• Oversaw the planning and execution of all philanthropic activities.
• Raised thousands of dollars for the Waterfield Library annually.
• Personally participated in all program fund raising events.

Department of Engineering and Physics

Murray State University, Murray, KY USA

Moonbuggy Team Co-Captain 2007 - 2009

• Participated in NASAs annual Great Moonbuggy Race.
• Worked with a team to design a race vehicle from scratch.
• Winner of 2007 Unique Design Award
• 2008 Second Place Finish
• 2009 Fouth Place Finish

Baja SAE Team Co-Captain 2007 - 2008

• Designed with a student team MSUs inagural Baja car: a single seat, motorized, off-road vehicle.
• Personally designed and fabricated the vehicle's suspension system.
• Responsible for acquiring and managing corporate sponsorships.

References

References available upon request