Josh Brickman

Email: joshpbrickman@gmail.com

Full Stack Web Developer, with extensive experience in creative problem solving, honed over nearly a decade in the building design industry. Strong project management and team leadership skills, developed through long-term collaboration with architects, contractors, and fellow structural engineers on massive projects across the Midwest. Excited to leverage interdisciplinary knowledge, insight, ambition, and enthusiasm, and inspired to build the future through code.

Highly organized and detail-oriented, Josh served as team-lead on all of his projects at Northwestern University's Full Stack Coding and Web Development program. From outlining the work, to building and implementing the entirety of the back-end structure, he guided the overall concepts to completion for SimpleState, Picniq, and FitUp. Technologies on these applications included, but were not limited to, the following: JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js, MySQL, Sequelize, Github, Bootstrap, AJAX, JSON, REST, APIs, Heroku, Git, etc.

Portfolio

Hexagon Spelling

Test your spelling skills at a game inspired by, but not affiliated with, the New York Times "Spelling Bee." This reverse engineered application is deployed on Heroku utilizing the MERN stack

Hexagon Spelling - Github Repo
Hexagon Spelling - Deployed Application Image showing the Hexagon Spelling web application

ASAP Poke

Brand website for a restaurant concept, deployed on Heroku utilizing the MERN stack. Mobile responsive, the site includes multiple pages for menu, ordering, rewards, and newsletter (which also features form validation).

ASAP Poke - Github Repo
ASAP Poke - Deployed Application ASAP Poke web application


FitUp

Guided and randomized exercises to help you achieve your best workout, regardless of location! Leverages a MySQL database, user authentication, a custom-built API, and Google Map location services.

FitUp - Github Repo
FitUp - Deployed Application Image showing the FitUp web application

Picniq

Plan socially distanced picnics by discovering local restaurants offering delivery to your favorite parks! Utilizes the FourSquare API to dynamically generate cards with relevant restaurant resources.

Picniq - Github Repo
Picniq - Deployed Application Picniq web application


SimpleState

SimpleState lets you REACT to the news with a clickable map interface, displaying state-level covid stats, voting facts, and senator contacts. Also includes a news search and a trending news database.

SimpleState - Github Repo
SimpleState - Deployed Application Picniq web application

Employee Directory

A dynamic application, allowing users to parse through an entire employee directory based upon multiple filters simultaneously. Built with React, it leverages state, components, callback functions, etc.

Employee Directory - Github Repo
Employee Directory - Deployed Application Picniq web application

Experience

Structural Engineer

Magnusson Klemencic Associates

As a senior design engineer with Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA), Josh collaborated extensively with architects and contractors to ensure timely analysis, design, and construction of unique projects across the Midwest.

Selected Projects:

  • Epic Systems, Verona, WI - Designed complex steel framing for a multi-campus corporate office park
  • 5th and Brazos, Austin, TX - Dynamically optimized concrete structure for 34-story mixed-use tower
  • 150 N. Riverside, Chicago, IL - Performed site visits & construction review for 50-story tapering tower
  • River Point, Chicago, IL - Formulated unique steel connections for sloping mega-columns
  • Fifth Third Ice Arena, Chicago, IL - Concrete construction observation for Blackhawks practice rinks
  • Advocate Center, Chicago, IL - Steel construction observation for Bulls practice facility
  • Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, Downers Grove, IL – Design lead for new patient wing
March 2013 - June 2020

(View Complete Resume)

Education

Northwestern University

Certificate in Full Stack Web Development
School of Professional Studies
June 2020 - December 2020

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Master of Science - Structural Engineering
Bachelor of Science - Civil Engineering
August 2008 - May 2013

Skills

Programming Languages & Tools

Achievements

NASA Lunar Loo Challenge

Collaborated with three engineers to design the Translunar Hypercritical Repository 1 (THRONE). This next-generation space toilet – intended for astronaut use in orbit, on the Moon, and beyond – was selected by NASA from more than 2000 submissions.

Winner's seminar embedded above. THRONE's presentation segment can be viewed at approximately 41:00 to 48:00.

7th Annual Structures Symposium

Presented at the 7th Annual Structures Symposium, hosted by the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois (SEAOI).

This presentation chronicled the unique structural designs implemented at Epic Systems in Madison, Wisconsin, the nation’s largest provider of electronic healthcare recordkeeping services. Tasked with creating a series of wizard themed office buildings, while simultaneously evoking iconic structures like the Smithsonian Castle and King’s Cross railroad station, Magnusson Klemencic Associates successfully designed six visually striking office buildings totaling 1-million-ft², along with an underground parking garage for 1,380 cars, two pedestrian skybridges, and an interconnecting tunnel system.

Interests

Outside of coding and technology, I am an avid architecture buff, giving volunteer tours for the Chicago Architecture Center.

Also a huge proponent of bike share (Divvy) and exploring Chicagoland on two wheels.

Beyond that, I enjoy music / video production, LEGO, cinema, cooking, and researching the future of arts and engineering.