Mike Swieton

I have been a software developer at Atomic Object since Summer 2003—working to tame the chaos of projects both big and small.

I got my start way back in the 90s when I first learned that many popular games allowed users to modify them. I was instantly entranced—especially since I was never very good at the games themselves (unless I changed them.)

I spent high school experimenting with different tools: learning C on my own, and learning more in my schools A.P. course. I played with Linux and BSD and built content for the then-young Web in PHP, HTML, and what passed for JavaScript at the time.  

Now I'm starting to get old enough to complain about the younger developers who don't know how good today's tools are and what it was like to work without jQuery, uphill, and in the snow.

I completed a Computer Science bachelor's degree from Grand Valley State University in Winter of 2006, and since have worked at Atomic on all sorts of projects, running the gamut of available technologies. I've shipped products in Java, Ruby, Clojure, C++, and more. I've worked for startups and enterprises, and in industries as diverse as automotive and health care.

I've spoken at local and national conferences, such as Windy City Rails, GrDevDay (twice), GLSEC (twice), and other groups as well. I've served on the boards for GLSEC and its parent organization Software GR for several years. I look forward to meeting the team of the next group or conference, whatever that ends up being.