Robert C Kahlert
Verified Expert in Engineering
Operating Systems Developer
Robert has taken on the architecture and documentation of great software—its engineering and research—for over 20 years. He loves designing and improving existing systems, creating content, and making systems and people collaborate in new ways. His focus areas include operating systems, compilers, databases, information modeling, and common sense reasoning. Robert has worked on research prototypes, development tools, and products in academia, at IBM, and for the symbolic AI platform, Cyc.
Portfolio
Experience
Availability
Preferred Environment
Linux, IntelliJ IDEA
The most amazing...
...application we built at Cycorp used modus operandi reasoning to identify insurance fraud in prescription pain medication for a large mail-order pharmacy.
Work Experience
Research Toward (2nd) PhD
KU Leuven
- Wrote materials for and taught a class on data modeling at the University of Luxemburg for the digital humanities master's degree program (https://tinyurl.com/yy7wr2kf).
- Conducted research on how to model historical art arguments using Davidsonian representation (https://arthist.net/archive/20729).
- Researched how to model historical arguments using script-actor frameworks (http://aitp-conference.org/2019/).
Independent Consultant | Technical Architect
Cycorp, Inc.
- Reduced on-disk encoding of a proprietary database format by 20%.
- Fixed critical memory leaks in a low-level resourcing infrastructure.
- Developed in-house tools for identifying allocation and execution hotspots.
- Prototyped a parallel regression testing system, using ZooKeeper or RabbitMQ for task sharing and a parallel indexing system using the Akka Agents framework.
Senior Software Developer | System Architect
Cycorp, Inc.
- Wrote the majority of the enterprise administration handbook for the common sense reasoning server, Cyc (https://tinyurl.com/y6nbkax2).
- Authored a multi-part series on implementation details of core system components for faster onboarding of new hires using LaTeX.
- Provided DevOps and system integration in AWS for an insurance fraud analysis tool for a large mail-order pharmacy client.
- Ported the runtime of core technology from Linux/x86 to Win32, Win64, OS X, HP-UX Itanium, green and native threading, and, eventually, to Java.
- Extended an in-house, 32-bit memory management system from 1GB to 3GB total object size.
- Developed a declarative foreign-function call API with automatic marshaling between LISP and C programming languages.
- Integrated an FOL theorem prover with spatial reasoning, using an OpenMap and ArcGIS system.
- Assisted with introducing a CI/CD infrastructure, using Jenkins, and ported a core batch of build scripts to the CI/CD system.
- Developed JDBC drivers for an FOL theorem prover and Microsoft spreadsheets (using POI).
- Wrapped a FOL theorem prover with a JDBC driver to make proofs accessible in a SQL deployment context.
University Assistant
University of Vienna
- Developed a bibliographic database with search capabilities in Java and a browser-based front end.
- Taught classes on basic computer and word processing use for incoming students.
- Advised on the acquisition of computer equipment for the department and the school.
Software Development Contractor
IBM Vienna System Development Lab
- Implemented an automated build system with email notification for IBM AIX 1.0 Gold, using Make, CVS, C Shell (csh) scripts, and dedicated C programs. Wrote the maintenance document using Bookmaker.
- Implemented a Videotex interpreter for OS/2, using C++ and Presentation Manager (IBM and Microsoft).
- Built and implemented a telephone directory assistance prototype, using IBM AIX for a European national telecommunications company.
- Developed sample applications, API demonstrations, and SDK documentation for the IBM ViaVoice dictation software for integration with OS/2.
- Implemented a tracing and testing framework for debugging a legacy chart parser.
- Provided IBM AIX memory and file services integration for REXX Compiler v3.
- Implemented a drop-in replacement for a buggy malloc C library in the OS/2 tool suite.
System Administrator and Teaching Assistant
North Carolina State University
- Provided setup, maintenance, and upgrade support for sixty workstations that were spread over three floors and running multiple operating systems.
- Set up and supported high-performance graphics workstations.
- Implemented backups and file system upgrades on the time-sharing system.
- Taught labs for introductory programming (three semesters): developed examples, helped debug student code, and explained remaining issues after classroom instruction.
- Served as a teaching assistant for the 400-level software engineering and software engineering project classes.
Experience
File-less Java Heap Dump with Integrated Analyzer
Data Modeling for Digital Humanities Graduate Students
https://tinyurl.com/y68qk6mgOpenCYC Common Sense Reasoning Project
https://github.com/asanchez75/opencycAcademic Publications
Education
Coursework Toward PhD (Ongoing) in Computer Science
Catholic University at Leuven - Leuven, Belgium
PhD in Religious Studies
University of Vienna - Vienna, Austria
Master's Degree in Religious Studies
University of Vienna - Vienna, Austria
Coursework Toward a Bachelor's Degree (Completed At University of Vienna) in Computer Science
North Carolina State University - Raleigh, NC, USA
Skills
Languages
Java, Assembly, Franz Lisp, Assembler x86, C++, CSH, REXX, Emacs Lisp, JavaScript, Perl, Python 2, Ruby, Groovy, HTML, XML, XSLT, OWL, C, SQL
Other
Content Writing, Build Systems, Operating Systems, Software Engineering, OpenCYC, Design Documentation, Technical Architecture, Technical Writing, Technical Documentation, OS/2, RS/6000, Videotex, Bookmaker, Ultrix, Windows 95, Condor, SPARC Assembler, Itanium Assembler, Aleph, DTD, OpenMap, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), Digital Humanities, University Teaching, API Documentation, Domain Research, Data Modeling, Builder, APIs, Open Source, Servers, Multithreading, Computer Science, Information Gathering, Expert Systems, Writing & Editing, Word Processing
Libraries/APIs
JDBC, Win32 API, Sage, Pthreads, Windows API, SAX, Apache POI, ArcGIS
Tools
Make, Apache Maven, GNU Make, Apache ZooKeeper, JavaCC, Git, CVS, Sendmail, Bugzilla, Jira, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), MediaWiki, Vim Text Editor, Eclipse IDE, Visual Studio, Weka, Subversion (SVN), Jetty, IntelliJ IDEA, ANTLR 4, RabbitMQ, ANTLR
Paradigms
Compiler Design, Parallel Programming, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), REST
Platforms
Unix, PC, Linux, AIX, WinNT, Amazon EC2, NetBeans, Solaris, Apache2
Storage
PostgreSQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), AWS SimpleDB, HDFS, Apache Derby, MySQL, RocksDB, Databases, Database Modeling
Frameworks
Ant Design, Hadoop, Zope, Akka, Alchemy, JMH
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