Peter Wilks
Verified Expert in Engineering
Low-level Programming Developer
Karlsfeld, Bavaria, Germany
Toptal member since December 8, 2020
Dr. Wilks is a senior software engineer, with vast experience, particularly in the automotive ECU domain. He has worked in most stages of the product life cycle, including contract tender and negotiation, project management, product architectural design, electronic and software development. He has successfully worked in international environments in the UK, Germany, and Hong Kong. He is familiar with automotive development for ASIL-D components, compliant with ISO-26262.
Portfolio
Experience
- Automotive - 20 years
- Embedded C - 20 years
- Low-level Programming - 20 years
- C++ - 15 years
- AUTOSAR - 7 years
- ISO 26262 - 5 years
Preferred Environment
C++, Automotive, C#, Linux, Win32, Embedded C++, Embedded C, Debugging, Git, System Integration, DevOps, Reverse Engineering, .NET
The most amazing...
...experience was when I started an unofficial "secret" project to write a calibration tool for BMW Formula 1 that grew to be used across the whole racing team.
Work Experience
Owner and Lead Engineer
Pathway Technologies Ltd.
- Founded Pathway Technologies Limited in Hong Kong.
- Designed the hardware and software of a new control unit for an injection molding machine. The design is an embedded controller with an Android tablet front end.
- Configuring the AUTOSAR stack for an automotive DCDC converter using the Mentor Graphics VXA and VXB tools.
Senior Software Development Engineer
DRÄXLMAIER Group
- Oversaw diagnostics, calibration, and software integration activities in AUTOSAR-based projects as the team lead. This included technical, architectural, and resource planning for each 2-week sprint.
- Defined and implemented the Layer-3 safety requirements for a high-voltage battery controller (ASIL-D).
- Ensured that all work in my area of responsibility is carried out according to the required processes based on Scrum and ASPICE.
- Acted as the customer liaison for timescales, change requests, defect tracking, and release planning.
- Analyzed customer requirement documents (Lastenheft) as part of the normal supplier response process (Pflichtenheft).
- Implemented the diagnostic services for a battery controller project, according to the customer requirements, including full OBD-2 functionality for emissions-relevant ECU.
Visiting Lecturer
Munich University of Applied Sciences
- Taught “Realtime Simulation with MATLAB and Simulink” in English. This is a masters-level course.
- Taught “Introduction to Biomedical Engineering” in English. This course is offered to final year bachelor and masters students.
- Prepared teaching material for the above-listed courses, and set examinations and projects for student evaluation.
Software Development Engineer
BMW Group
- Adapted standard BMW motor controllers for prototype vehicles using a permanent magnet and externally excited synchronous motors, as well as one proof-of-concept project using an asynchronous motor.
- Wrote interface code to allow model-based software developed with Matlab and Simulink to work smoothly with the underlying system architecture.
- Adapted the BMW standard embedded OS (OSEK-based) for the TriCore TC1782 embedded processor.
- Integrated software and served as the build and release manager for various projects in the development concept stage.
Software Development Engineer
BMW Motorsport
- Developed embedded logger and telemetry system in C for a multiprocessor engine control unit (ECU). This included the logger data sampler, flash-filesystem storage, data transmission over telemetry, and an ethernet offload of the logged data.
- Built the PC logger and telemetry decoder in C++ and MFC for the ECU.
- Specified the feature set and internal architecture for the engine and chassis engineers' PC tool to configure the ECU. This tool is a C++ and MFC application and supports a large object-oriented COM interface.
- Coordinated the work of a team of six software developers and testers, interfacing with the primary users and managing the release process as the technical project leader for the above.
- Served as the system architect and project leader for the development of the BMW-specific tools for the Formula 1 race team using C# and .NET.
- Specified and implemented UDP-based communications protocol used between the PC tools and the embedded system, supporting multiple devices, each with multiple processors. A modified version of this protocol is used between the PC tools.
Software Development Engineer
Pi Developments Ltd.
- Developed embedded logger and telemetry code in C for a Formula 1 chassis control unit, and contributed to the development of the real-time operating system.
- Developed gearbox controller code and driver interface code as part of a customer-facing development team interfacing between Pi Developments and Jaguar Racing.
- Developed embedded code to integrate the Pi logger with the customer ECU, using an HDLC-based protocol as the communications link. This was part of another customer-facing development team interfacing between Pi Developments and BMW Motorsport.
- Implemented customer-specific changes to the Pi core products (embedded and PC) as the technical head of the second customer-facing team.
Experience
CalibX
Porche Taycan Battery
Education
Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering
Sussex University - Brighton, UK
Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering
Brunel University - London, UK
Skills
Libraries/APIs
ODBC, Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) Library, Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), REST APIs
Tools
Git, Automotive SPICE
Languages
Embedded C, C#, C++, Python, Embedded C++, Simulink
Frameworks
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Qt, .NET
Platforms
Win32, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Android, Docker, Linux
Industry Expertise
Automotive, Biomedical Engineering
Paradigms
DevOps, Scrum
Storage
Microsoft SQL Server
Other
Low-level Programming, Programming, Communication, Real-time Data, Embedded Systems, Embedded Software, Debugging, System Integration, Research, Writing & Editing, AUTOSAR, Automotive Controller Area Network (CAN), University Teaching, ISO 26262, Mentorship & Coaching, Team Leadership, CI/CD Pipelines, Reverse Engineering, Electronics, Digital Electronics, Biomedical Skills, Data Analysis, Hardware Design, Embedded Hardware, Industrial Design, Calibration, Simulations, Project Design, Project Leadership, Graphical User Interface (GUI), Innovation, Diagnostics
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