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Ken Brooks, Software Developer in Redding, CA, United States
Ken Brooks

Software Developer in Redding, CA, United States

Member since November 27, 2016
After working six years in industry, Ken branched out to work as a freelancer and has done that ever since. His strength is not merely coding, but the whole process from thorough problem analysis to completed coding. He's good at strong, clean system design and especially clean user interfaces.
Ken is now available for hire
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Portfolio

Experience

Location

Redding, CA, United States

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

LabVIEW, Visual Studio, Xcode, Wingware IDE, Windows, MacOS

The most amazing...

...work I've made is a system that specifies, controls, collects, & analyzes data using Cyclic Voltammetry to monitor brain chemistry in lab animals in real-time.

Employment

  • Consultant

    1993 - PRESENT
    Freelance Work
    • Created custom databases.
    • Installed upgrade components.
    • Wrote a system and provided the support for the keyboard input of Indian languages (Sanskrit, Hindi, Telugu, and more).
    • Recommended systems for purchase and upgrade.
    • Installed and maintained networks.
    Technologies: Database Applications, Training & Training Content Development, Training, Installation

  • Contract Software Developer

    2008 - 2012
    University of North Carolina
    • Performed a radical rewrite/update of an experimental software system handling Cyclic Voltammetry. The system supports experiments on anesthetized and active lab animals to do real-time monitoring of brain chemistry, accurate to 1/10 second.
    • Transformed a messy piece of code written largely by chemistry students, into a clean professional piece of work.
    • Brought technical understanding to bear, to allow my users to load and analyze very large data files from long experiments, in one piece rather than chopped into annoying 30 second fragments, as it was previously being done.
    • Collaborated with several graduate students to incorporate their research technologies into the new software.
    • Created a very flexible interface to National Instruments hardware allowing the substitution of numerous other hardware card models besides the one we designed for.
    • Created a live 2D color plot to allow experimenters to watch their data unfold in real time as the experiment progresses. Older versions required post-processing to see this.
    • Wrote an academic paper based on this work.
    Technologies: MathScript, DAQ, LabVIEW

  • Contract Programmer

    2005 - 2007
    Tracera
    • Built a software system supporting Tracera's product under development, a "chemistry robot" for handling highly radioactive compounds.
    • Did a radical rewrite and update from Visual Basic 6 to VB.Net.
    • Performed heavy handling of serial communications to numerous serial devices that were part of that "robot".
    • Interfaced with Excel spreadsheets which contained the "recipes" that specify the chemistry operations to be done.
    Technologies: Visual Basic

  • Part-Time Teacher

    1999 - 2000
    Durham Academy
    • Taught advance placement computer science using C++.
    • Went beyond the scope of the required curriculum in order to include computer graphics at every reasonable opportunity because I observed that the students were much more engaged when I used graphics.
    • Created Drawbox, a cross-platform simple graphics library that supported both Mac and Windows; in support of that course. Emphasis was on creating an easy learning curve and ease of use.
    Technologies: Graphics, Cross-platform, C++

  • Support Programmer

    1984 - 1991
    Digital Equipment Corporation
    • Provided support programming for a leading-edge research lab building a new world from the ground up.
    • Built part of the text and code editor.
    • Wrote ongoing test code for a graphics card under development.
    • Designed and built an experimental UI toolkit.
    • Designed and built an advanced, experimental document editor.
    • Wrote academic publications stemming from work at Digital.
    Technologies: Modula-3

Experience

  • HDCV: An Open Source Software Suite for Fast-Scan Cyclic Voltammetry Data Collection and Analysis

    Wrote and published an academic paper based on my work at the University of North Carolina.

  • Academic Publication 1 Stemming From Work at Digital Equipment Corporation
    http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/86832/

    An academic publication based on work I did at Digital.

  • Academic Publication 2 Stemming From Work at Digital Equipment Corporation
    http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/tech_reports/SRC-RR-33.pdf

    This is another academic publication based on my work at Digital.

Skills

  • Languages

    Python, C, C++, Go, Visual Basic, PHP, SQL, Lua, Visual Basic 6 (VB6)

  • Tools

    LabVIEW, Wingware IDE, Visual Studio, Xcode

  • Other

    OpenSCAD, 3D Printing, 3D Design, GUI Design, User Interface (UI), Modula-3, Installation, Training, Database Applications, Graphics, DAQ, MathScript, Training & Training Content Development, Unix Shell Scripting

  • Paradigms

    Object-oriented Programming (OOP), UI Design, Cross-platform

  • Platforms

    MacOS, Unix, Windows

  • Frameworks

    Corona SDK

  • Libraries/APIs

    Win32 API, OpenGL

  • Storage

    MySQLi

Education

  • Completed a Refresher Course in Computer Graphics
    2004 - 2004
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil - Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  • PhD in Computer Science
    1981 - 1988
    Stanford University - Stanford, CA, USA
  • BA in Physics
    1976 - 1980
    University of Virginia - Charlottesville, VA, USA

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