"Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better."
-- author John Updike
Work history: Houston Advanced Research Center
From January 1992 to August 1994, I worked at
the Houston Advanced Research Center's Geotechnology Research Institute,
where I supported research personnel through C-language programming,
system planning and system administration.
Leadership and communication
- Proposed and implemented $200,000 computer equipment purchase
along with long-term plan to meet computer resource needs.
- Assisted with major biannual presentations to research
consortium subscribers, including writing reports, running computer
demonstrations and giving talks.
- Developed GTRI's initial World Wide Web content including
organizational information and custom software documentation.
- Newsletter editor, 1993 - 1994, Houston Silicon Graphics Users' Group.
System administration
- Operating systems: extensive experience in the use and administration
of Unix workstations including Silicon Graphics' Irix and
Sun Microsystems' SunOS; extensive experience in the use of the NEC
SX-3/22 vector supercomputer.
- Assisted in administration of computer systems and local
Internet-connected TCP/IP network.
- Implemented GTRI's initial World Wide Web server.
- Found, obtained and installed open-source software from the Internet.
Software development
- Languages: programmed extensively in C and Fortran.
- Operating systems: Unix, including Silicon Graphics' Irix,
Sun Microsystems' SunOS and the NEC SX-3 vector supercomputer OS
- Authored C code in heterogeneous networked UNIX environment.
- Developed software for accessing and processing geophysical
data, including software for visualization, format handling
and device I/O.
- Wrote visualization software which required use of the
X windows toolkit and OSF/Motif and involved writing a
seismic trace plot widget.
- Wrote I/O software which required use of TCP/IP networking
and writing device handlers for specialized devices such
as an Exabyte robotics tape carousel and a 3480 cartridge stack-loader.
- Improved portability, robustness and ease-of-use of programs
originally developed by staff geophysicists.
- Helped with visualization of data from the Magellan probe of
the planet Venus.
- Completed vendor training for Silicon Graphics' GL graphics library.
