Hardware/Software Systems Engineer
Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area
Hardware/Software Systems Engineer
Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area
Designing and implementing software for robust, secure, efficient, responsive and attractive interactive products in the areas of consumer electronics and digital media.
Embedded systems, Windows and Linux device drivers, reverse engineering, multi-platform SDK development, computer graphics and animation, technical writing
(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; EFII; Computer Software industry)
February 2000 — Present (8 years 8 months)
Developed robust, performance-critical Windows and Linux kernel drivers and control software enabling high-end digital color presses from Canon, Xerox and Ricoh to be driven by EFI's flagship Fiery print servers.
Designed and implemented the embedded Linux-based firmware for EFI's PrintMe Station network appliance, a small ATM-like device providing secure printing services to guests at hotels, airports, and other hospitality areas (http://www.printme.com). Developed a comprehensive partner SDK for the PrintMe service supporting Linux, Windows, LynxOS, MacOS X and VxWorks.
(Consumer Electronics industry)
August 1995 — Present (13 years 2 months)
Run a successful side business selling self-designed custom hardware/software solutions for modernizing the Superscope/Marantz Pianocorder player piano system.
Reverse-engineered the proprietary CD formats for several modern player piano systems and maintain freeware encoding software supporting all of them. (http://dp70.dyndns.org/mid2pianocd/)
Provide ongoing technical services to Live Performance, Inc., a manufacturer of high-resolution reproducing player piano systems.
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; DIS; Animation industry)
January 1998 — January 2000 (2 years 1 month)
Managed Pixar's renderfarm and image disk arrays, rendered a large portion of Pixar's second feature film A Bug's Life, provided support to personnel utilizing the rendering facilities; wrote a variety of Perl/Tcl/shell scripts to automate rendering processes and to manage and monitor resources.
Developed and executed in-house procedures for creating digital video masters of Pixar's animated films for broadcast and home video, pioneering the superior quality transfers that are commonplace today on DVDs and HDTV.
Created Renderman shaders and 3D paint setups for Toy Story 2 and also performed the video transfers of that film.
(Educational Institution; 51-200 employees; Research industry)
November 1995 — December 1997 (2 years 2 months)
Developed software to drive haptic force feedback devices in virtual surgery and patient rehabilitation applications.
Implemented embedded software for a haptic joystick control system allowing a wheelchair user to navigate a virtual space assisted by active guidance and force feedback upon collisions.
Implemented real-time haptic control software under Linux to drive Immersion Corporation's prototype sinus surgery simulator in tandem with an SGI Onyx-based interactive volume renderer. Imagery and force feedback were derived from MRI data.
M.S., Computer Science, 1995 — 1997
Specialized in hardware-software systems, computer graphics and animation
B.S., Computer Science, 1991 — 1994
Specialized in software systems, with an emphasis on computer graphics. Graduated "Magna cum laude" and "With Distinction". Minored in Russian.
Piano, home theater, photography, electronics, mechanical music, movies, performing arts.