James Rusty Haner

Senior Research Software Developer

Professional Summary

Technical architect and software developer with extensive experience in systems design and interdisciplinary research translation. Specializing in the architectural design and implementation of AI-informed software, including adaptive instructional platforms, linguistic analysis tools, and multimodal research support systems. Proven track record of applying human-centered design principles and ethical leadership to complex scientific software.

Core Competencies

• Architectural Design: AI-informed software, scalable system architecture, cross-platform application development.
• Research & Analytics: Computational linguistics, cognitive modeling (ACT-R, Half-Life Regression), multimodal data integration (EEG, mouse kinematics).
• Technical Frameworks: React, Vue, MeteorJS, Express, Django, Flask, CUDA, ONNX Runtime.
• Design & Media: Technical artistry, 2D/3D animation, visual storytelling, human-centered UI/UX design.

Projects

Research Platforms

• MoFaCTS — Adaptive learning platform for intelligent tutoring systems. Full-stack architecture with cognitive model integration for live classroom research.
• CohMetrix — Widely-used text cohesion analysis platform. Ported legacy desktop app to .NET 6 web service with Docker deployment.
• QUAID — NLP-powered survey question understanding tool that identifies problematic wording. Modernized from legacy codebase to web-deployable .NET backend.
• GlyphWitch — Document comparison and annotation suite for historical manuscripts. Cross-platform with React and mobile PDF annotation.

Research Infrastructure

• LAC — Political Speech Analysis — Dashboards for UN General Assembly speeches and bias-analysis tools for face/emotion recognition. Powers published political linguistics research.
• Overleaf Proxy — Self-hosted collaborative LaTeX editor with Docker, Express proxy, and React frontend for research group infrastructure.
• Bluekey SSO — Single sign-on system for internal research tools. Unified authentication across a growing ecosystem of applications.

Personal & Creative

• Pre-LLM Markov Table AI Thesis — Award-winning AI prediction system using Markov tables (University of Memphis, 2019). Dan Lattimore Award for Most Innovative Thesis.
• Vellum-Rift (VR) — Unity-based VR application for 3D manuscript exploration, mapping document features to the Z-axis for digital humanities.
• Chorls — Music score library management suite with web and React Native mobile apps for community choral groups.
• Towncrier — Misinformation mapping tool that aggregates RSS feeds and visualizes narrative spread across regions.

Mentorship

• Barnacle / tugboat — Student Deployment Platform — Internal deployment platform for students supporting one-click deploy from Docker images, GitHub repos, and YAML uploads. Bluekey SSO authentication, dynamic Caddy routing per instance, resource limits, admin dashboard, and pre-configured deployable templates. React frontend with Docker Compose dev stack.
• Capstone Teams — Mentored 4 University of Memphis capstone teams (CIS, Rosetta Codex, The Tremors, The Orphics) across multiple semesters. Architecture guidance, code review, and technical direction.

Professional Experience

Institute for Intelligent Systems (University of Memphis)

Senior Research Software Developer

• Serve as lead technical architect for interdisciplinary research projects, translating complex academic theories into functional, scalable software.
• Developed and modernized machine learning diagnostic platforms and specialized tools for computational linguistic analysis of historical manuscripts.
• Designed and implemented cross-platform applications for natural language processing and educational intervention systems for high-stakes environments.
• Architected interactive visualization platforms for spatial and temporal data analysis, supporting large-scale research initiatives.
• Managed the integration of multimodal data streams (physiological and behavioral) to enhance predictive accuracy in intelligent tutoring systems.

Education

University of Memphis

Master of Science in General Psychology | In Progress

• Focusing on cognitive modeling, memory stability, and the integration of EEG and behavioral metrics in learning environments.

University of Memphis

Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) | 2019

• Capstone research synthesized interactive design and AI ethics. Recipient of the Dan Lattimore Innovation Award for Most Innovative Thesis (pre-LLM Markov table AI prediction system).

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Animation | 2011

• Focus on visual storytelling and technical artistry.

Professional Credits & Honors

• Film Credits: Technical Artist/Animator for Feeling Wanted (2015), My Identity (2016), and Family Rewritten (2017).
• Eagle Scout & Vigil Honor Recipient (Boy Scouts of America).