Colin Hodge

My name is Colin Hodge and welcome to my personal website. I am a recent graduate of the University of Vermont with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in pure mathematics. I just moved from Salt Lake City, Utah spending the winter after graduation working at Alta Ski Lifts Company to Seattle, WA in order to pursue a career in the engineering field.

During the four years I spent at the University of Vermont I was a part of many engineering projects that I am very proud of. The creation of these projects was a great way to see the kind of engineer I am and the type of work I am interested in. Starting very early in my secondary education I became very intrigued with 3D design, mainly in SolidWorks but later with Simulia ABAQUS utilizing its advanced finite element analysis capabilities. A collection of CAD projects can be seen below rendered in 3D as well as in the form of a formal report. Within my coursework I became familiar with Matlab which started my interest in programming, but because it isn't open source I felt that I should develop my skills into other programming langauges that can be equally as useful in my engineering career. In my senior year I took a course to become more familiar with Python which proved itself to be very useful in other classes as well. Similar to my 3D drafting work, my Python work and my resume can be seen below in the "School Work" portion of the website.

In my free time I enjoy being outside, the activities I partake in vary from season to season. In the summer months I try to fill up most of my time hiking and backpacking. In my time growing up in Upstate New York I fell in love with the Adirondack Mountains, which lead me to pursure climbing all of the 46 High Peaks they have to offer. This took 5 years of many day hikes, backpacking trips, and lots of early mornings at the trail heads to complete. When not hiking I am most likely skateboarding, which is a hobby I picked up with my housemates during the Covid-19 pandemic. All of us had been interested in skateboarding for a long time but found it intimidating to pick up alone. Starting together was a great was to motivate ourselves to get better.

During the winter skiing starts to take up a majority of my free time. Going to school in Vermont has allowed me to ski 40+ days each season. Around two-thirds of the days on skis are spent at the resort (lift service), while remaining third is spent exploring the backcountry with my friends. Northern Vermont is home to some of the best skiing in the country and I am grateful to have explored it with some of my best friends. I am now in Salt Lake City, which is close to a new league of mountains. Here I am taking the time to learn about avalanche and backcountry safety while exploring my new backyard of snow-filled peaks.

Recently I have been getting into photography more and more, I currently shoot with a Nikon D5600 and an 18mm - 200mm AF lens. Before I used my Nikon Camera I was using my IPhone, although it has great camera quality it does not even remotely compare to the capabilities of even the most introductory DSLR camera. During my adventures I have been trying to further developing my skill of photograhpy, taking every opportunity to find a new event or activity to capture. Trying to use my D5600 to its fullest I have also started to develop an interest in videography as well, using my friends as subjects for small projects such as skateboarding edits. Being a fairly new hobby for me I definitely have a long way to go, but I am very happy with the progress I have made so far.

I decided to create this website for a few reasons, first it was an way to get comfortable with a two new programming languages (HTML and CSS). After taking courses on Matlab and Python through my degree curriculum I came to really enjoy coding. I also wanted to create a "one stop shop" for projects I have completed, pictures I have taken, and any relevant information about myself organized in a professional manner. Below you can find school projects I have been part of, my resume, my social media, and a galley of photos I have taken. This website is a work in progress and will be updated as more content is created, and as I get more comfortable with HTML so please bear with me.