Resume and Related Stuff

Latest resume as text or .doc (written using Open Office Writer) (the two may not be exactly identical, with minor formatting differences and possibly unfixed typos in the text version)

Briefly

I am a creative thinker, artist, explorer of ideas, and an electronics/software geek with interests in photography and film, fine art, architecture, quantum physics, sustainable living, life, astronomy, metaphysics and the economy.

My thirty-second elevator pitch would go something like:

"I figure out tricky technical problems, create tools, brainstorm and test ideas, design and build electronic and software systems and develop techniques to push beyond what was thought possible, to serve worthwhile purposes in art, manufacturing, science and education. I'm not much of an expert at any one thing, but draw upon ideas from audio, visual arts, physics, electronics, even the performing arts to come up with and present solutions. If i had more than thirty seconds, i'd tell you about my horde of monkey slaves i make do the actual work."

A Pleasing Comment

One pleasing moment several years ago, when i had been working at a manufacturer who had invested in some fine and pricey electronics equipment, but not getting any value from it due to nonfunctional interfacing software. Every so often, the supplier of this equipment would send a sales engineer or consultant to give us a dog-and-pony show, trying to persuade us to use their terrible software. They seemed to have no concept of safety or operational simplicity.

My colleagues and i got it working with our own from-scratch software with a marvelously streamlined user interface well-tuned to our facility's needs, a reliable well-documented interfacing to the equipment, and with which we were happy. It met our safety requirements, and those who'd be using it were satisfied. We took their every request into account.

One day, some of the equuipment maker's guys came for a visit and we showed them what we had made. A big bright user interface, no mouse action necessary during safety-critical activities, data being passed in real time from sensors to laptop display and recorded in human-readable files, and generating reports according to an busy-engineer-friendly scripting language i had invented. They were amazed at how their efforts came nowhere near what we accomplished. I don't recall the exact words one said, but something like "Man, what you guys have done, is just way beyond anything we thought of"

I enjoy creating systems that lead to such comments.

Even if i work on more mundane, non-envelope-pushing systems, i always aim to:

  1. Understand what's already in use and why it falls short
  2. Think of something better
  3. Design it clearly, so that others can understand it. No clever algorithms only a Mensan can unravel or strange obfuscations
  4. (there is nothing interesting between these parentheses)
  5. Make the thing work
  6. Supply APIs, file formats, etc to staff software engineers
  7. Document it clearly, for users and for programmers and technicians, so it can be maintained and modified.

Summary of Skills, Talents

cover of National Geographic December 2006, showing high-phase angle image of Saturn that i worked so hard on

Combining Interests Over The Years

It happens that computers are incredibly useful for doing math and physics calculations and running lab experiments and making LEDs blink. These were of great interest to me in high school. Now I have gained years of know-how with computers in those areas. I loved understanding the workings inside a TV, writing software to do the most math with the shortest assembly code, to explore the ultimate nature of atoms.

When in the 1990s i discovered 3D rendering with POV-Ray and Radiance, it was great to combine my love of creating art with the optical richness of ray tracing.

Always had a great desire to drive an electric car, get my electron-juice from solar panels, avoid pollution. Always had a great interest in innovative architecture. Eventually found out about Earthships first in the 1980s then more vigorously in 1999. Physics and electronics come in useful for understanding the thermodynamics, solar panels, and more.

Eventually came the thought of rendering pictures of earthships, cob, and other innovative types of sustainable houses using ray tracing. Wow, this combines art, 3DCG, all that solar stuff, and physics. Nice combination.

Challenges I Like

Routine work of unchanging nature and mundane purpose bores me quick. These are the kinds of challenges and projects that keep me awake:

For contrast, it might be worth mentioning the kinds of challenges that don't interest me, but ones i've observed others go for:

Education

Physics PhD program, Colorado State Univ, 2002. studied high energy physics, condensed matter theory.

Physics PhD program, Indiana Univ, 1984-1987. fantastic system of libraries. great department for high energy physics.

Informal art classes, Birmingham-Bloomfield Art Association, 1989-1999

Radio/TV production, Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts, 1990. practical basics of pre-production, script and ad writing, directing, studio work, editing and broadcasting business. Best school i ever went to.

Physics, B.Sci. 1983, Oakland Univ. 1978-1983. though a physics major, my best grades were in chemistry including p-chem.

Industrial Electronics, 1978, RETS Electronics Schools, Detroit. Vocational courses to satisfy my desire to study electronics more than my high school could offer, and a certificate for better jobs.

Awards, Prizes, Recognition, Etc