João de Mendonça Salim

Born in Brazil

Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

First Video Game

Pokemon Red on a Game Boy Color Grape. How it all started.

Started A.A. | Seneff Honors Program

Valencia College

Began higher education in the Seneff Honors Program at Valencia College.

Bandit

Adopted Bandit, a loyal companion through the journey.

A.A. Completed | General Studies (Honors)

Valencia College

Graduated from the Seneff Honors Program.

Uprooting Prejudice | Student Curator

Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center

Joined the Student Curatorial Team at HMREC, contributing to the Uprooting Prejudice interactive exhibit. Designed a physical installation where visitors push through panels labeled with forms of prejudice. Credited alongside Ralph Appelbaum Associates. Received an Excellent evaluation.

Started B.A. in Digital Media

University of Central Florida

Began undergraduate studies in digital media and interactive systems.

Petrópolis Flooding Disaster

Devastating floods and landslides struck Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, João's hometown. This tragedy became the driving inspiration behind the ARCA thesis project on collaborative disaster management.

Quest Me | UI/UX Concept

UCF

Designed a mobile app concept in Figma for randomized user quests.

Stark Vehicles (Newt Mobility) | Full-Time

Stark Vehicles

Joined as 3D Printing Engineer, UI Designer, and Frontend Developer. Built web apps, managed 3D printing lab of 10+ printers, designed marketing materials. Worked through 2024.

Distinguished Recognition for Commitment to Action

Clinton Global Initiative University, Vanderbilt University

Received the Distinguished Recognition for Commitment to Action award from the Clinton Global Initiative for ARCA, a collaborative disaster management mobile platform. Presented at the CGI U annual meeting at Vanderbilt University.

Adam T. Lee Endowed Scholarship

UCF

Awarded the Adam T. Lee Endowed Scholarship in Digital Media Excellence.

Undergraduate Thesis | Collaborative Disaster Management

UCF, Thesis Chair: Adam J. Parrish

"Exploring the Diffusion Potential of a Collaborative Mobile Platform for Disaster Management and Relief", published on UCF STARS repository, inspired by the 2022 Petrópolis flooding. 103 downloads.

ARCA | Figma Prototype

UCF

Developed ARCA as a complementary Figma prototype to the undergraduate thesis, a mobile app concept for collaborative disaster management and community relief coordination.

B.A. Completed

University of Central Florida

Graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Web Development and Interactive Media.

Creative Coding Projects

UCF, Professor Mosher

Built Vista Page, NonSense Games, Quantum Quest, and HOLD 404, exploring satire, game design, and digital endurance through p5.js.

DTO Project | City of Orlando

City of Orlando, Dept. of Tourism

Submitted an interactive sensory installation application for downtown Orlando storefronts using creative coding.

Started M.A. in Digital Media

University of Central Florida

Began graduate studies with a Dean Fellowship. Research focus on games, AI, ethics, and education.

Graduate Teaching Associate

UCF, Nicholson School

Supporting undergraduate digital media courses through instructional assistance, student mentoring, and technical guidance.

Research Assistant | Dr. Sercan Sengun

UCF (Pro Bono)

Researching intersections of games, AI, ethics, and digital culture. Exploring how emerging technologies reshape creative practice and scholarly labor.

Maker Space Workshops

UCF

Developed and taught public workshops on resin printing and model painting, reducing barriers to technology access.

Red Manifest

Gothic interactive fiction game built in Ink with procedural audio and mobile-compatible HTML deployment.

Peer Reviewer | ACM Games Research and Practice

ACM

Serving as a peer reviewer for Games Research and Practice, ACM's journal on game studies and interactive systems.

Tall2Ride

Created a theme park ride height checker covering 1,154 rides at 101 parks globally.

Florida Drive Easy© | Founded

Founded and launched a multilingual DMV exam prep platform with Google Ads, Stripe, and SEO across 4 languages.

DIRT | Disaster Image Recognition & Triage

Building a multi-phase deep learning system for disaster detection: flood segmentation (U-Net++), road damage detection (YOLOv8), and scene classification.

iLRN 2026 | Conference Attended

iLRN, Greece

"Cataloging the World Exhibition: A Living Survey of Physical World Representations in Videogames" accepted and presented at the International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network.

ACM Journal Article | Special Issue on Game Advertising

ACM Games Research and Practice

"Community Contextualization of Mobile Game Ads Through YouTube Essays" accepted for publication in ACM's Special Issue on Game Advertising.

Frontiers | Journal Under Review

Frontiers in Computer Science

"A Graduate Student Perspective on AI Augmentation, Ethics, and the Emergence of the Academic Cyborg" under review.

ICFA 2026 | Algorithmic Oracle

International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando

Publicly demonstrated and presented S.O.C.R.A.T.E.S. — The Algorithmic Oracle at ICFA 2026 in Orlando. The interactive installation was experienced live by conference attendees.

Spark STEM Fest 2026 | Project Showcase

Orlando Science Center, UCF Office of Research

Interactive particle text installation showcased at Spark STEM Fest at the Orlando Science Center, representing UCF's creative coding and digital media research.

ELO 2026 | Electronic Literature Organization

University of Central Florida (Online)

Participating in ELOnline 2026 themed "(Un)Supervised", exploring supervision in digital contexts, LLMs, electronic literature, and computational creativity. July 15–18, 2026.

UCF Student Scholar Symposium

University of Central Florida

Presenting research at UCF's annual Student Scholar Symposium, showcasing graduate-level work in digital media, AI, and interactive systems.