Experience

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  Uncharted Software

  • Senior Research Engineer

    • Jan 2004 - Present

    Uncharted is a consulting firm for hire. This means I tend to change projects every 2-4 years. While I have helped out briefly on many projects throughout the company, and do a fair bit of mentoring, most of my work at Uncharted has been in the following projects:Big-data sequence analysis for the advertising industry. My work was concentrated in the analytical side, writing advanced sequence analytics in Spark.An experimental project in creating visualization with adaptive level-of-detail. In conjunction with the University of Toronto.A research project writing open-source tools for visual analysis of big data. We created a novel system which applied techniques from mapping more generally to data visualization. See my talk at Spark Summit East, for example (https://databricks.com/fr/session/plot-all-the-data-interactive-visualization-of-massive-datasets). This software has continued to evolve throughout our company. Its current incarnation, SALT, is now used throughout our company on a number of projects.(Tech Lead): an experimental project looking into computer-assisted on-the-job training, using a Bayesian network to determine the best guidance to give a user.A Command-and-Control system that moved from an experimental project to a fully fielded military application. While our portion of the project focused on 3D/4D maps, there's very little about this project in which I have not had a direct part. Examples: Design, coordination, and development of the underlying data layer; invention of a system for recording 2525b graphics that captured the real intent of the user without breaking the specification; complex content configuration; adistributed database substrate, including tools to test code correctness; Converting content display to use NASA WorldWind

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  Groton NeoChem LLC

  • Senior Software Engineer

    • 1999 - 2002

    Neochem wrote an analytical chemistry package, used by pharmaceutical companies to help organize and understand their chemical libraries. I was primarily responsible for all aspects of the Web-based client, and major portions of the UI for the C++ client (including, but not limited to, documentation, specification writing, coding, and testing). Other responsibilities included determining and writing specifications for work for some customers, and server work related to all the above tasks. Primary languages used were C++ and Javascript, with some use of Oracle/SQL and Java.Accomplishments: As a lasting accomplishment, probably the most important thing I did was make all the Web site's code easily reuseable. In addition, I:Designed (as part of a team) and wrote a substance evaluation and tracking system (including work in Oracle/SQL).Made 3-D data tables, with a good examination and execution GUI.Used COM and MIME to transfer and analyze Excel files across the web.Wrote an automatic documentation system for the web client code in XML.Wrote a substance registration and tracking system (in Javascript, C++, and an internal language).Wrote data acquisition and analysis modules for several chemical analysis instruments (C++, internal language).Improved client/server communications.Designed and executed a major restructuring of the basic UI unit of the C++ client/server application, allowing clearer use and organization of worksheets (C++).

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  Macsyma, Inc.

  • Senior Software Engineer

    • 1996 - 1998

    Macsyma writes a symbolic algebra package, used by industry and students to solve problems symbolically (as opposed to numerically, though it does that too). It also made a finite element analysis program named PDEase. I was responsible for various aspects of MFE, the front end to both the symbolic algebra program and PDEase, and for communications between MFE and PDEase.Accomplishments:As lead developer, designed and created a natural language help system intended to aid naive users in finding needed mathematical knowledge (C++, MFC).Designed, specified, and wrote improvements to the text system, allowing superscripts and subscripts at any number of nested levels, with a clear and easy interface for changing them. (C++, MFC).Researched and wrote a tetrahedralization procedure for a three-dimensional version of our finite element analysis package PDEase (Pascal).Designed, specified, and wrote a system of graphics styles (using the in-place attribute system as its substrate) allowing easy and reproducible customization of graphics (C++, MFC).Maintained the Macsyma math engine (LISP).

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  ViaTech

  • Software Consultant

    • 1995 - 1995

    At the time, ViaTech did CAD consulting for the automotive industry.Accomplishments:Developed a CAD viewer using C++ and MFC.Ported this viewer to UNIX using Willows.

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  Sigma Design, Inc.

  • Software Engineer

    • 1993 - 1995

    Sigma Design makes an architectural CAD package (ARRIS), running on various UNIX systems (Sun, HP, IRIX, Sco UNIX), Microsoft Windows. I was responsible for all aspects of the C portion of the program, including design and development of new features, integration of all platforms, porting to new platforms (the most notable being the port to Microsoft Windows), and support of the internal Sigmac language (used by other developers internally, external contracted developers, and end users).