Senior Software Consultant, January 1998 - February 2001
Oxford Computer Consultants Limited are a small to medium sized company based in Oxford. Their main business is in providing software consultancy for local companies, taking part in European wide funded research projects and releasing their own software. While working at the company I worked on many different projects in all these areas. The atmosphere at the company was one of software excellence with many discussions held over technological topics.
National Institute of Clinical Excellence Web Site (http://www.nice.org.uk), 2 months
Developed the search for the web site and was in charge of code maintenance for some time. The site won an award for best Web publication.
Technologies used: VC++, SQL Server, ASP
Developed Pocket Canofile and Intranet Canofile for Canon Systems Management Europe, 2 years full and part time
Intranet Canofile allows Internet Explorer users to search and view images from a Canofile for Windows image database. The project involved reverse engineering the Canofile database specification and then coding an HTML server to generate the data and images. Two versions of the server were developed - one as an IIS plug in, the other as a standalone server using sockets. The product had to resemble the original Win32 interface as much as possible. An ActiveX viewer was built (using Visual Basic) that allowed users to rotate, zoom and otherwise manipulate images from the browser.
I worked with Canon to specify requirements for Intranet Canofile and other currently ongoing projects.
Primary technologies used: VC++, Borland C++ Builder, VBScript, Visual Basic, ASP, DBASE III (Clipper), InstallShield, NT Security, Sockets.
Developed and project managed a European Union funded project for a prototype for a European Multimedia Archive of The Holocaust, 2 years full and part time
Several European holocaust museums,
including Yad Vashem in Jerusalem are interested in collaborating together to
form a European wide archive. I developed a piece of software which allows them
to customise their own cataloguing system while still contributing to a central
archive. The
software uses a Resource Description Framework based model (not unlike the
Semantic Web) for the data, which allowed for the greatest flexibility of
knowledge modelling.
The cataloguing front-end software was developed using Delphi to allow users to enter data and retrieve it quickly from the system. A customised tree control component, which dynamically added data as each branch was opened, was used to display data. Tools for correlating data between the museums were developed and a prototype was developed for automated import of documents.
An article 'Sentence-based metadata: an approach and tool for viewing database designs' based on the project was published in The Journal of Information Science, Vol 28, No. 2 (2002) ISSN 0165-5515
Primary technologies used: RDF, XML, Semantic Web, VC++, DCOM, SQL Server, Delphi.
Other smaller projects
Software to control QA robots for testing soft drink cans (1 month): A Visual C++ application that gave a robot instructions to acquire soft drink cans and test the thickness of the internal lacquer using a capacitance sensor. Data was stored in an Access database.
Environmental monitoring software (4 months): Primarily using Delphi 1 the software interfaced with an embedded system which monitored quantities of pollutants in the air. I maintained the software, written by someone else. Also, I developed a new Delphi 5 application which allowed members of the public to call a computer and using touch tones to access the current air quality.
Refrigeration monitoring software (2 weeks): Visual C++ software to interface with an embedded system to monitor the temperature of refrigerated trucks.
Innovative graphical file manager program (1 month): In house R&D project which recorded which files were being used by applications such as MS Word so a user could see how their time had been spent.
Contact Details
Oxford Computer Consultants Ltd
2-3 Cambridge Terrace
Oxford
OX1 1RR
Tel. +44 1865 305200