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Tim Ward
Software Engineer
| Available: | Please call or email for availability |
| Location: | Cambridge, England |
| Contact: | 07801 703 600 |
| tim@brettward.co.uk |
| @TimWardCam |
I will work for clients based anywhere in the world, as long as most
of the work can be done in or near Cambridge. I will not stay away from home for
long periods or commute long distances on a daily basis.
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If you're reading a paper copy
of this CV please note that it is always up to date online at
https://www.brettward.co.uk.
Curriculum Vitae
Tim Ward
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| Technical and business skills |
| Technical experience | Machines
Experience of many machines of all types from embedded microprocessors
to mainframes. Recent work has concentrated on Windows and Linux
platforms.
Languages and systems
Experience of many assemblers, compiled and interpreted languages.
Recent hands-on experience
includes amongst other things:
- Java - server development on Linux using a range of Java technologies
- Java - client development on Windows using Swing; Android apps
- Web - JavaScript / HTML / CSS / XML
- SQL - database design, implementation, optimisation using a variety of databases
- C++ - Windows client development, and Linux server applications
Applications
Experience of many application areas in many industries, mostly
technical computing of some kind but also some traditional commercial
DP. Much, but not all, of the recent work has involved
management systems, including electricity supply, street lighting and
telecomms (GSM, GPRS, 3G). See employment history for
some individual projects.
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| Project management
| An excellent record of on time, within
budget delivery. Project planning, reporting and control; resource
planning, allocation and control; technical supervision and training
of project staff.
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| Communication
| Used to communicating verbally and in writing
at all levels; excellent technical documentation in particular.
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| Product design
| Experienced in all phases of product and
system development from project inception to post-installation
support involving a wide range of computer systems, programming
languages and application areas.
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| Commercial
| Proposal preparation, requirements analysis
and specification writing, contract negotiation. Supplier selection
and management.
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| Employment history |
| 2017-2019 | Origami Energy Limited
Senior Software Engineer, working on various aspects of a management system for the
electricity supply industry.
Hands-on technologies used include
- Java - mostly server, some embedded
- Infrastructure - Kafka including Kafka Streams, Kubernetes
- Database - MariaDB (MySQL), including performance optimisation work
- Logging, monitoring and alerting - Elastic Stack, Python
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| 2013-2017 | Telensa Limited
Principle Software Engineer, with technical roles covering the complete software development
life cycle, from requirements capture through architecture, design and implementation to
field support, and management roles including line management, recruitment, project management
and technical team leadership.
Responsible for a team developing and maintaining street lighting management systems, including
web user interface, business logic and database layers, and interfaces to external systems.
Hands-on technologies used include
- Web - JavaScript / HTML / CSS / XML / JSON, Ext JS
- Business logic - PHP, SQL stored procedures
- Database - Firebird, including extensive performance optimisation work
- Java - Android apps, OSGi server logic
with small amounts of work in, and exposure to, several other technologies, including C/C++
and PostgreSQL.
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| 1996- | Brett Ward Limited, Cambridge
(own company)
Contract software engineer. Details of clients and projects given below,
to the extent that these are not confidential (some security industry
projects have been omitted).
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| 2012 | Psydev
- e-Learning publishing systems
Maintenance of a tool in a e-Learning system publication chain. Java, XMLBeans,
XML, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Ext-JS, Linux.
| | 2002-2012 | Mobile phone industry
- Mobile phone base station management systems
Design, build, test and maintain a variety of products to install, configure, test,
monitor and control GSM, GPRS and 3G base stations. Java (EJB and other server technologies,
Swing and other client technologies), JavaScript/HTML/CSS, C++ (MSVC and gcc), Windows, Linux,
database (ADO, ODBC, JDBC, MySQL, Access), XML (including XSLT), various GSM,
GPRS and other 3GPP protocol suites.
- Network simulation
Design, build, test and maintain simulators for various parts of mobile
phone networks. C++ (MSVC), GSM etc protocols, TCP/IP tunnelling and packet
rewriting.
See www.brettward.co.uk/bwl/mobilephonesystems.pdf
for more details.
| | 2000-2001 | AspenTech
- Process plant simulation
Extending a process plant training simulation system. C on NT.
| | 1999-2001 | Microsoft
- Web browser / mobile phone integration.
Integrating three different versions of web browsers onto a total of four different mobile phones.
Brett Ward Limited was a Microsoft Mobile Explorer System Integrator.
Embedded C on a variety of platforms.
| | 1999 | Confidential
- Web site debugging.
The client's web site had stopped working following some changes and half the
transactions were not being recorded in the database; his usual technical
resource was not available. The problem was diagnosed
and a workaround implemented within a few hours. Technologies involved:
IIS, ASP, HTML, VBScript, Access 2000.
| | 1999, 2006 | Gardasoft
- Database restructuring.
Convert a database from DBF files to Access. Restructure and optimise performance,
and add new features.
Before: one particular operation took seven days to run. After: two minutes.
Access 97, VB.
- Image processing.
Machine vision system for setup of a machine tool. Before: minimum setup time
20 minutes for a skilled operator. After: typical setup time two minutes for
an unskilled operator.
Visual C++, MFC, VB. Image processing system: WiT.
- Image processing.
Development of machine vision QA system.
Visual C++, MFC, VB. Image processing system: WiT.
- Video processing.
Bug fixing and enhancement of a video processing and image processing application.
Visual C++, MFC. Image processing system: HIL/HAIL.
| | 1998-9 | Transaction TV
- DVB - Digital TV - Turbo Internet - e-commerce.
System design, supplier and product evaluation, recruitment etc, to support the development of
a large e-commerce system to be delivered by satellite, combined with a digital TV
channel and a Turbo Internet service.
Technologies used include DVB, MPEG-2, SQL Server, Visual C++, TCP/IP.
| | 1997-1998 | Nokia
- Visual C++ - Windows NT - SDH communications.
Maintenance and continued development of Node Managers
using CMISE protocols to manage SDH node equipment.
| | 1996-1997 | Scientific Generics
- Sybase / Windows client-server development.
Maintenance of parts of a large three-level
client-server commercial Sybase application, including
production of a new
data feed subsystem. Technologies used include
Transact-SQL, db-Library, and Unix C programming on Sun hardware,
and Windows C programming
and Visual Basic at the front end.
- Microsoft Access Performance Optimisation. Work done
to improve
the performance of a batch function in an Access database system.
A particular
operation which started off taking around thirty hours ended up
taking less
than half an hour.
- Financial Modelling System. Maintenance of a
financial modelling
system written in Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel,
including development
of a subsystem to transfer data between the two applications.
| | 1996 | Cambridge University Press
- Multimedia CD-ROM Beta Testing. Beta testing of
a multimedia
CD-ROM title for an academic publisher.
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| 1993-96 | Cotag International,
Cambridge
Software Manager. Responsible for creating and managing
the software development department. Cotag design and manufacture
access control systems based on a "hands free" RFID
(radio frequency identification) device. Reporting to the Development
Director.
Introduction of professional software engineering practices,
systems and tools (version control, change database, documentation
and coding standards etc) and improved testing and QA procedures,
leading to more reliable delivery dates and considerably fewer
bugs delivered to customers.
Introduction, management and maintenance of Windows NT / WFWG
network to coexist with company's Novell network.
Writing requirements, functional and design specifications.
Retained hands-on experience with various DOS development tools
and MS Access, Asymetrix ToolBook, MS Visual C++, using assorted
Windows technologies (including WFWG SDK, NetDDE in addition to
the more usual interfaces). Kept up to date with Windows technology
via MSDN etc.
Projects. New versions of the company's DOS-based access
control software, including a new networked multi-user version;
an MS Windows based Alarm Graphics package; a completely redesigned
MS Windows based replacement for the DOS access control software
package (under development).
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| 1993 | Cyberscience, Hoddesdon
PC Team Leader. Responsible for production of new PC versions
of the company's 4GL products.
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| 1992 | Aprotec International,
Peterborough
Development Manager. Responsible for production of a new version
of the company's product in the document management market.
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| 1992 | The Scottish Office.
Communications consultancy:
investigating and reporting on communications problems on a computer
network, including recommendations for improvements.
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| 1991 | A large Japanese
electronics company. Product
design consultancy. Responsible for the functional design of the
software for a new product for the European market. Liaison with
hardware designers.
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| 1980-91 | OTIB A.T. Cambridge
Limited, formerly
GST Professional Services Limited
Section Manager, Embedded Systems Section (1988-1990).
Responsible for section of up to 10 software engineers: staff
selection, appraisal, technical supervision. Consultancy, project
management and supervision, technical sales assistance, contract
negotiation, proposal preparation, quality assurance.
Standards Librarian (1987-1991). Responsible for coordination
of standards preparation and issue; member of Standards and QA
committee working towards BS5750 registration. Writing of various
standards (since 1980) forming GST's quality manual and project
management methodology and motivation of staff to use them.
Projects. Involved at various levels (including design
and programming in most cases) in a wide variety of assignments,
including (amongst many others):
- Typografica - project manager: GST Software
Products' font generation package for word processors and desktop
publishers.
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Acorn Desktop Publisher - project manager:
conversion of a GEM-based desktop publishing package to the Acorn
Archimedes GUI environment.
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Archimedes 1st Word Plus - project manager:
conversion of a GEM-based word processor to the Acorn Archimedes
GUI environment.
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Point of sale - project supervisor: maintenance
of software running in a point of sale system and associated work
with the central mainframe system.
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Communications system - project supervisor (this role
included selling the project, contract negotiation, requirements
analysis and specification): associated with the above project,
replacing an outdated PDP11 communications system with a higher
capacity VAX-based solution..
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Financial information terminal - project manager (this
role included selling the project, contract negotiation): hardware
design and implementation, software design and implementation,
manufacture.
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Operating system - designer and team leader: building
a single-user multi-tasking operating system for Motorola 68000.
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Assemblers and linkers - project manager, designer, programmer:
production of various assemblers for various machines; maintenance
of linkers.
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CAD system - project manager: make a large CAD system
machine-independent and create an IBM mainframe implementation
from the original on Prime.
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| 1978-80 | HPAC Limited, Oxford
Design and implementation of various compilers, codegenerators
and runtime libraries. Contribution to the BSI standardisation
effort for RTL/2.
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| 1978 | MEJ Electronics Limited,
Dorking
Design of microprogramming language for AMD 2900. Production
of microcode assembler. Production of multitasking system for
TMS 9900. Machine control software for 9900. Hardware debugging.
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| 1977-78 |
CPI Data Peripherals Limited, Stevenage
Design and implementation of cross-assembler. Design and implementation
of test software for magnetic tape equipment.
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| 1973-76 | Various
Various vacation jobs involving programming and digital electronics,
mostly word processor development for Data Recall in Dorking.
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| Personal information |
| Name
| Timothy Derek WARD
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| Address
| 12 Harding Way, Cambridge, CB4 3RR
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| Telephone
| 07801 703600
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| Email
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tim@brettward.co.uk
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| WWW
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https://www.brettward.co.uk
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| Personal skills
| Driving licence, groups A, D, E
Private pilot's licence
Competent touch typist
Poor French, did learn some Czech once but forgotten it all now
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| Qualifications |
| Education
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| 1966-73
| Bristol Cathedral School
8 O levels from English Literature 50% to Maths 94%
A level Maths, Physics, Chemistry, all grade A
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| 1973-77
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Churchill College,
Cambridge
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| 1974 | Maths Tripos IA class 2 |
| 1975 | Maths Tripos IB class 2 |
| 1976 | Computer Science Tripos class 1 |
| 1976-77
| I spent 1976-77 as a research student at
Cambridge,
investigating distributed operating systems.
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| Professional qualifications
| MBCS (Member of the
British Computer Society)
CEng (Chartered Engineer)
Qualified Internal Quality Auditor (haven't practiced recently)
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| Other activities |
| Politics
| Former member of Cambridge City Council
Voluntary work as UN Election Supervisor and Observer in Kosovo and Ukraine
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