matt pinner

Bio

Matt Pinner
Brooklyn, NY | touchtech.io | mpinner@gmail.com | +1.310.866.0521

Creative Technologist | Interactive Systems Designer
Innovative technologist with extensive experience in designing and maintaining interactive art installations. Expertise in embedded systems, LED lighting control, large-scale digital art, and reliable production systems. Passionate about creating seamless, engaging, and long-lasting interactive experiences that connect and educate people of all ages.

Core Skills
Lighting & Interactive Art Systems: Large, small, and wearable LED installations, embedded systems, DMX, Art-Net, WS2812+, volumetric LED mapping, projection-mapped environments
Embedded Systems & PCB Design: Atmel/Microchip programming, JTAG debugging, microcontroller-based LED systems, badge life and custom pcb development using EagleCad, low-power simple designs.
Software & System Architecture: Java, Python, C/C++, TouchDesigner, networking, automation, DevOps.
Reliability & Quality Assurance: Predictive maintenance, fault tolerance, redundancy planning, backups, disaster recovery, continuous improvement
Installation & Field Support: Onsite troubleshooting, AC/DC electronics, remote support, traveling for installations, commissioning public art projects

Professional Experience
Leo Villareal Studio | Part-time | 2016–2022
Designed and implemented networked lighting systems for The Illuminated River, a 10-year public artwork illuminating London’s Thames bridges.
Developed software and control protocols for volumetric LED sculptures and large-scale projection mapping.
Built tools for particle-based animations and interactive lighting effects using TouchDesigner and GPU shaders.
Provided onsite installation, remote support, and long-term maintenance strategies.
Kernel | Director of Engineering, Software | 2023–2024
Led embedded systems and automation for a robotics-driven restaurant startup, ensuring high-reliability operations.
Designed custom microcontroller software for mechanical systems, networked control, data collection, debug, and monitoring.
Managed a team of engineers to optimize real-time system performance, proactively detect faults, predict failures, and improve resilience.
Developed QA procedures and continuous monitoring for hardware-software integration.
Amazon | Customer Reliability Engineering (CRE) Red Team | Senior Software Engineer | 2020–2023
Designed and executed large-scale fault tolerance experiments on Amazon’s retail infrastructure, stress-testing high-traffic systems.
Built distributed load-testing frameworks using cloud infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of ECS containers.
Led site-wide disaster recovery and incident response exercises, applying methodologies applicable to interactive public art installations.
Intel | Next Technology Group | Senior Software Engineer | 2014–2018
Developed real-time control and coordination software and electronics for Intel’s experimental interactive robotic, wearable electronics, and sensor-driven projects.
Designed a interactive LED sculpture and depth-camera vision appliance (Firefly) for stage performance and independent installation.
Built infrastructure for live sensor data capture at UK ICC Champions Trophy stadiums.
Interactive Art & Public Installations | Various Clients | 2010–Present
Active LED Sculpture (Denver, 2015): Designed and built custom LED control and embedded software.
Burning Man Art Cars & Installations: Developed LED mapping systems for mobile and fixed interactive works.
Museum of Mathematics (MoMath): Ongoing technical consulting, evaluating and troubleshooting interactive exhibits.
Purity Ring Lighting System: Engineered interactive lighting and custom software solutions.

Technical Proficiency
Lighting & Control: DMX, Art-Net, PWM, WS2812+, WLED, volumetric mapping, LED string sequencing
Embedded & Hardware: Atmel/Microchip, AVR Studio, PCB design, JTAG debugging, Saleae Logic Analyzer, oscilloscope analysis, battery/power design
Software & Creative Coding: Strong programming skills in modern languages, including Java, Python, C++, TouchDesigner, Processing, Unity, generative art, GLSL shaders
System Reliability & Testing: Expertise in root-cause analysis, performance optimization, system design, predictive maintenance, automated testing, fault injection, chaos engineering, continuous improvement
Installation & Troubleshooting: Scissor lifts (barely), power tools, AC/DC electronics, remote support, disaster recovery planning

Education
Colorado School of Mines | B.S. Mathematics & Computer Science

Research in distributed computing and astrophysical modeling.