Bruce Alderson
Software craftsmanship from start to finish.
Profile
I love creating software; obsessing over technical details, designing artful visuals, and working through the business of making it all happen.
What do I do? I design, build, and ship software. I work with dozens of programming languages, tools, and platforms. I manage successful projects and teams. And I absolutely adore crafting user interfaces, web services, server applications, and data collection systems.
Professional experience:
- Seasoned software architect and senior designer, responsible for design, planning, and implementation of large scale data management systems, web services, and distributed data collection systems.
- Experienced project manager and team lead, responsible for training and overseeing internal and external teams.
- Innovative UI and visual designer, working with web, social services, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Mac, and Windows interfaces.
- Veteran software developer, experienced in many languages including C/C++, Java, PHP, Javascript, Perl, Ruby, Python, C#.
- Expert data collection protocol design and implementor.
- IT operation coordinator, responsible for minimizing costs and improving uptime and responsiveness.
Experience
Discovery Software — 2004-2010 Software for educators
Discovery Software focuses on handheld and web tools for educators, as well as consulting in the education market and other markets. Their products are used for campus safety and security, student and teach evaluation, and connecting school data systems and services.
Sr. Architect/Chief developer
At Discovery Software I've focused on product design and development, senior consulting services, management, and training. The products I've worked on include web services, mobile tools, and desktop applications aimed at educators and administrators.
Responsibilities:
- System architect, visual designer, lead developer of multiple web based software systems, including handheld APIs, interactive interfaces, and cloud deployments. Responsible for designs, documentation, review, capacity planning, and execution.
- Senior manager, lead developer, and architect for multiple client/server PC and handheld products, budgeting, and technical/business documentation.
- Sr. Consultant, providing technical leadership and review for clients.
- CTO and IT operations manager, responsible for budgets and approach and execution of IT services.
- Also responsible for staffing and staff technical training.
Milestones
- Designed, prototyped (in progress) a client web service for securities analysis. (PHP, Ruby, Javascript, Rails, CodeIgniter, AWS, MySQL)
- Designed, built, and repeatedly shipped our Rubrix web service, including web services API for iOS and BlackBerry and social components. (PHP, CodeIgniter, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, MySQL, AWS, Linux, MySQL)
- Designed, built, and repeatedly shipped our LearnFaces social web service. (AWS, PHP, CodeIgniter, Javascript, MySQL, SimpleDB)
- Designed, built, and shipped BlackBerry version of Principalm client. (Java, BlackBerry)
- Designed, built, and shipped Windows Mobile security client. (C#, Windows Mobile)
- Designed, built, and shipped several Windows tools. (Client/Server, web services, QT, C++, C#)
- Completed analysis, design, and implementation for dozens of prototypes for new platforms and products. (C/C++, ObjectiveC, Java, iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile, Mac, Windows)
- Designed, consulted, managed, and shipped web services on contract for a number of companies. (PostgresSQL, Progress, C#/MSSQL, Java, C/C++, LAMP/CodeIgniter/Drupal)
- Managed technical aspects of development funding. (SRE&D, IRAP)
- Reduced IT costs by 90% over 3 years, maintaining services and uptime.
Triant Technologies — 1996-2004 Industrial data collection and analysis
Triant focused on data analysis and collection software and hardware for semiconductor manufacturing, transportation, and financials.
Sr. Architect/Sr. Software Developer
At Triant I focused on the design and development of data collection and analysis infrastructure for semiconductor manufacturing. The work included embedded and enterprise software built in C, C++, and Java. The design, development, and testing included multicore realtime and semi-realtime problems, as well as advanced serial and TCP/IP protocol design and implementation.
Responsibilities:
- Software Architect responsible for systems design, capacity planning, documentation, review, and execution.
- Sr. Software Developer and team lead, responsible for design, project execution, and documentation.
- Technical project manager, responsible for coordinating internal and external teams, design and code reviews.
- Software Developer, Technical Team Lead, responsible for low level application design and implementation.
Milestones
- Designed, built, and repeatedly shipped data collection and analysis backbone (multi-million dollar projects spanning 5 years). Included coordinating multiple teams, many off-site. (C/C++, Java, Windows/Unix, Perl, PHP)
- Designed, built, and shipped various data collection platforms, including embedded hardware integration, and flexible little language design/implementation for runtime configuration. (C/C++, Windows, Linux, Mac)
Consulting — 1993 - 2010
I also consult and craft software on contract. In the last few years I’ve focused on web applications visual design.
Recent projects:
- Design and implementation of an online training system. (PHP, Ruby, Javascript, CouchDB)
- Design and implementation of an embedded controller for collision detection. (VxWorks/C++)
- Developed several embedded protocol drivers for manufacturing control. (C/C++, Serial, TCP/IP)
- Designed and developed NL parser libraries for humane text processing. (Perl, Javascript, PHP)
- Classroom training. (C/C++, software design methods, web design, little language design, and SEO/marketing ethics)
Post-secondary
Contact
Feel free to contact me by email or phone: (604) 807-8812.