Curriculum Vitae

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Skills

Software Development

Object-Oriented Design

Object Orientation may well be the best thing since sliced bread! I first taught myself to program on my TI-83 calculator before going on to study Computing at college. After this I chose to pursue a masters degree in Computer Science at the University of Southampton. It was in university that I was taught Object-Oriented design principles, and gained a real appreciation of the advantages they offer. Since then I have applied them to projects I have worked on and learnt how to combine these principles to create robust design patterns in computer software.
Group Development Experience

I have undertaken two major group design projects during my time at university. From these I have developed an appreciation of the importance of a good team dynamic and the role of a team leader in co-ordinating and managing the efforts of their peers. I look forward to working on long term projects and hope to improve my team management skills without becoming distanced from the interesting challenges of the design and implementation process.
Fluent in Version control

Version control is a vital part of the development process, not just from a group development perspective, but also in managing and providing a backup of works in progress. The test of any Revision Control System is that it should simplify the development process, rather than complicate it. While I've come to know Subversion well, the Git version control system offers a flexible decentralised architecture allowing collaboration without the need for a central server.
Mac OS X, Windows and Linux

I'm comfortable developing on any of the three main operating systems. Before university I had only encountered Windows based systems, however during my time at university I have become adept at the administration of Linux systems, and come to love the Unix shell environment. I now feel more at home working on Mac OS X due to its rich visual environment and its Unix roots, and eagerly await similar maturity in Linux desktop environments.

Languages and Formats

Java

I've done a lot of work in Java both for fun and profit. I was taught the fundamentals of Object Orientation using Java, and have gone on to learn the more complicated and useful elements in my spare time. My internship in 2007 involved primarily Java development.
C & C++

I've dabbled in both C and C++, once completed a basic implementation of malloc(), and also programmed serial port IO operations on an embedded system controller. They are excellent languages for low level programming and performance critical applications but I am continually amazed at how spectacularly you can shoot yourself in the foot with them, figuratively speaking of course.
(X)HTML & CSS

Web development has been an interest of mine since my A-Levels, once I came to University I purchased hosting space which has allowed me to experiment with sites like this in my free time. As a developer I recognise the importance of standards, therefore this website should be both valid XHTML and CSS.
Javascript & AJAX

My dissertation project was an interactive Semantic Web graph browsing tool implemented using asynchronous Javascript programming and SVG, and this page also makes use of some rather fancy Javascript from the MooTools library.
PHP & SQL

I've been dabbling in PHP since around the start of my time at university, but the largest and most interesting thing application of PHP I have worked on was for my 2006 internship within the School of Electronics and Computer Science.
JSP & JSTL

As a final year course module I developed a web application in JSP, using the Spring and Hibernate frameworks to implement a Google maps based rented property finder application. This gave me a real understanding of the potential of frameworks to simplify development, though it is worth noting this was through comparison of Spring & JSP to the Ruby on Rails framework.
RDF(s) & OWL

The School of Electronics and Computer Science prides itself in its research driven teaching programmes, this really becomes apparent in the final years of the degree programme, and there are also opportunities to get a taste for some of the research being undertaken in the School through Summer Internships. My first internship introduced me to the research topic of the Semantic Web which subsequently inspired my dissertation project and my choice to study Knowledge Technologies as a third year module. As a result I have a good understanding of the core Semantic Web languages, RDF(s) and OWL, as well as experience implementing a linked data publishing system.

Interests

Brilliant Design

As a software developer I have come to appreciate the importance of intuitive and well-thought-out designs Such design consideration should not be constrained to user interface design, but should encompass every aspect of human interaction with computers. Years of poor design choices and complicated interfaces have burdened computer systems with a reputation for complexity and mystery which they need not have.

The release of Apple's iPhone, is an excellent example of brilliant design and sent a strong wake-up call to the developers of mobile phone and PDA interfaces, highlighting how little consideration has traditionally been given to usability and intuitiveness. If we cannot rely on innovation from established players in the marketplace, there is clearly room for competition that will, and let us hope that someone will rise to the challenge.
Open Data

Among the recent Web development trend toward interactive and web applications, often referred to as 'Web 2.0', Mashups (web applications that combine data from multiple sources into a single interface) stand out as one of the most innovative. Mashups increase value of the existing data on the Web by building new and interesting applications from the combined data.

These innovative applications show us the true value of data and how much we lose by locking it away in closed or proprietary systems. The Semantic Web is another of my interests which falls under the umbrella of the Open Data movement. They are not only encouraging the publishing of open data but also developing flexible and robust mechanisms and techniques to support it.
Convention Over Configuration

Software frameworks should be easy to use, and the Convention over Configuration argument is a firm step in the right direction. Flexibility is vital in any software library, but it it should not come at the expense of its overall usability. Large software frameworks typically also have a steep learning curve, but the sensible design and implementation of default behaviours is an effective method of offsetting this. While it does reduce the initial learning burden, it is still necessary to document these design choices for advanced learning.

Ruby on Rails is a prime example of the power this approach can have, as well as being a well designed software framework.

Qualification	Subject	Grade
A-Level	Mathematics	A
A-Level	Further Mathematics	B
A-Level	Computing	B
A-Level	German	B

Employment History

Temporary Research Assistant

School of Electronics & Computer Science, University of Southampton 2^nd July 2007 to 28^th September 2007

I was employed for the second time within the Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia (IAM) research group, this time working with the ALADDIN project. I worked on two related projects; the first built upon a previously developed Java application which visualised weather sensor data on an interactive map. I was tasked with implementing data playback support for stored readings as well as graph plotting over time.

The second project was a weather sensor station built upon a Gumstix platform and was jointly developed by myself and another Student Intern. The project involved customising a lightweight Linux distribution, cross-compiling additional software libraries, and developing software to interpret weather information from the serial interface.

Temporary Research Assistant

School of Electronics & Computer Science, University of Southampton 4^th July 2006 to 22^nd September 2006

I was employed as a Temporary Research Assistant within IAM research group, on the AKT project during the summer of 2006. I assisted in the authoring of the OWL ontology used to present information about the school in RDF format, and along with another Research Assistant, was responsible for the full development of the system used to publish the data on the Internet.

For a technical description of the work, see the ECS URI System Specification or the AKT Project summary.

Skills

Software Development

Languages and Formats

Interests

Qualifications

University of Southampton

MEng Computer Science Degree

Havant College

A-Level Certification

Employment History

Temporary Research Assistant

Temporary Research Assistant

Contact