Objective

A technical or technical leadership position in communications or pattern recognition, using my skills in embedded or scientific programming in C, C++ or Java.

Technical Specialties

Network Switching and Routing (layers 2, 3, 4)
Programming in C and C++, including embedded systems
802.11 software/firmware development (infrastructure and applications)
Distributed and Parallel Computing
Image Processing and Recognition
Machine Learning
Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing

Professional Experience

Summary: 25 years system-level software, algorithm development, and technical leadership, including patents and other intellectual property development. Demonstrated ability to take software from proof-of-concept to productization, and building core capabilities for project-based organizations. Breadth of experience, with particular concentrations in embedded systems, communications (including wireless), and machine learning.

2002 - present Senior Engineer, Trapeze Networks, Pleasanton, California

• Design and development of software to manage wireless and wired clients together on an enterprise network. Software development in C for WLAN controllers and access points.
• Wireless infrastructure software design and implementation:
  • Session Management: Created software modules to manage communication with multiple 802.11 access points (APs) from a common control point; to integrate client session information from 802.11 management frames, 802.1X security events, and network management commands; and to .roam. client session information as mobile devices move about the network. This software is central to the WLAN controller product, so I also created training materials for the programmers and technical support staff who now maintain it.
  • Load Balancing: Designed a method to balance 802.11 wireless clients among overlapping APs, with no modification to the clients or protocols. Implemented the method in production embedded software, and composed the patent application.
  • Web Authentication: Allows WLAN users to authenticate to the network using a browser without prior administrative setup. Designed and implemented the software including DHCP server, DNS proxy, modifications to HTTP server.
  • Mobile VLANs: co-invented, and composed the patent application for, a method to improve scaling of mobile IP networks by allocating users to virtual LANs, self-healing around VLAN failures, and maintaining the connections of roaming users.
• RF-based features: Development of scalable methods for monitoring RF activity in the area covered by the network. Responsible for identifying and implementing applications and services responsive to RF conditions. Examples:
  • Redesigned RF data structures to allow prioritized access based on signal strength and security classification (known, unknown or rogue devices).
  • Added support for 802.11k "smart roaming."
  • Developed AP software for detecting and reporting 802.11n devices (without requiring that the detector be an 11n device.)
  • Maintained & enhanced AP auto-configuration of channel and power settings.
  • Invented a method for dynamic selection of APs in a network to perform security (scanning) and other administrative functions, to meet user-specified coverage goals while minimizing congestion.

2000 - 2002: Senior Scientist, Ask Jeeves, Inc., Emeryville, California

• Responsible for selecting technologies from research and commercial sources, and implementing them in one of the ten highest-volume Web sites in the world. Assisted the VP of Engineering and the Chief Linguist in planning R&D direction.
• Project leader for text data mining system to automatically discover patterns in large sets of user queries. Investigated clustering algorithms and graphical display techniques, and planned iterative development incorporating user feedback.
• Developed a language classifier for determining whether a search engine query is in English or in Spanish.
• Designed and prototyped a trend detector for discovering words or phrases with increasing usage.
• Productized (from demo stage) a server for recognizing proper names in Internet search engine queries. Improved efficiency and accuracy of algorithms, added fault recovery, and made C++ code portable and interoperable between Unix (Linux, Solaris) and Windows NT/2000 with IIS.
• Senior analyst for internal project (in Perl and C) to quantify search engine & algorithm performance. Responsible for statistical reporting and interpretation, developing the QA plan, creating procedure for internal customers to design an experiment for a desired confidence interval on a chosen statistic. Technical leader in iterative design of UI for collecting response evaluations, and algorithms for normalizing scoring styles across evaluators.

1998 - 2000: Senior Member of the Technical Staff, Pluris, Inc., Cupertino, California

• Software / firmware architecture and implementation for terabit-capacity Internet core routers. A terabit router has unusual requirements for scalability and fault tolerance. As software architect for the router line card, I was one of three inventors of a method of routing IP packets at OC-12 line speed on a general-purpose CPU.
• Produced performance analysis models and traffic simulations using Java, C++, Mathematica and Excel, and used these models to support architectural decisions for hardware and software.
• Reviewed research literature and selected IP filtering techniques with the right scaling properties for software and hardware realization.
• Represented the software team in joint design decisions with the hardware team.
• Defined project standards for software engineering and source control. Produced and administered the software project schedule while the software director's position was vacant. Became the "resident guru" in the VxWorks RTOS, and mentored developers who in many cases had no experience in multithreaded and/or embedded software.
• Specified the IP and ATM layers and the routing protocol update scheme.
• Developed fault-tolerant message layer (in C under VxWorks) for the router’s internal fabric communications.
• Developed FreeBSD device driver for an ATM network interface card.
• Created Java-based graphical simulator of the fault recovery strategy for the router fabric.

1996 - 1998: Senior Software Engineer, Ascend Communications, Alameda, California

• Software / firmware development for ISDN / LAN access routers.
• Led development of custom encapsulation / tunneling protocol for a European national ISP.
• Performance analysis and algorithm modification leading to 30% improvement in router throughput under heavy call load.
• Developed tools to analyze a router's dynamic behavior patterns in a running system.
• Team leader for group of 6 engineers responsible for IP routing algorithms.

• Leader of twelve-member advanced development team for image analysis and recognition, using DSP and nonlinear image enhancement, neural nets and other methods. Led development of the common image recognition architecture and image processing libraries used across all company projects including remittance, sales drafts, insurance claims, European bankgiros and U.S. Mail.
  
  
• Responsible for defining company's R&D strategy for recognition technology, and then for implementing it as a two-year Advanced Development program.
• Led and performed technology transfer / productization of techniques gleaned from current research, including software implementation for delivery into live-production client operations.
• Other responsibilities included evaluating third party off-the-shelf technologies; providing technical resources and guidance to sales and project development organizations; consulting on make/buy strategy and intellectual property policy.
• Software development duties included prototype and production code in C, C++, and Matlab M-code, and software design reviews for new C++ class libraries.

• Lead programmer for handwritten transaction amount recognition system for remittance processing by major public utilities, retail chains, and other credit card issuers (total over 1 million checks read each day.)
• Software team leader for long-distance digital image/data transmission system.
• Software design consultant on projects to identify and interpret addresses on U.S. Mail.
• Designed and implemented real time control software for high speed document transports.
• Design consultant on computer network security (technical and policy issues.)
• Programming responsibilities have included system-level, application and scientific code in C, C++ and assembler under UNIX, DOS/Windows, and embedded systems.

California Institute of Technology
B.S. in Engineering and Applied Science
(concentration in Electrical Engineering)

• Senior Member, IEEE
  
• TRW Chairman's Award for Innovation, 1991.
  
• TRW Financial Systems President's Recognition Award, 1994.
  
• Best Paper of the Conference, Intl' Assoc. for Pattern Recognition, 1996.
  

• "Reducing Power Consumption in Wireless Network Infrastructure," pending
  
  
• "Smoothing Filter for Irregular Update Intervals," pending, application of IIR digital filters to motion and location detection for wireless devices (publication #20090247103)
  
  
• "Method for Balancing Client Load Among Wireless Access Points," pending (publication #20080096575)
  
  
• "Method for Assigning Wireless Clients to Virtual LANs, pending (publication #20080013481)
  
  
• U.S. patent # 6,055,327 (pro se) for a perceptually-based data entry validation system ("Method of detecting data entry errors by sorting amounts and verifying amount order")
  
  
• U.S. patent #5,276,741 and corresponding European and Canadian patents for a database retrieval system ("Fuzzy String Matcher.")
  
  
• U.S. patents #5,040,226 and #5,193,121 and corresponding European patent for a character recognition system for financial applications ("Courtesy Amount Read and Transaction Balancing System") (Co-inventor with Elischer, Keret, Johnson, and Tumenbatur.)
  
  

" A Multi-Layered Corroboration-Based Check Reader," in Document Analysis Systems II (Hull &Taylor, eds.), World Scientific Publishing Co., April 1998. (Co-author with G. Houle, R. Smith, M. Shridhar, D. Kimura.) (Chosen as "Best Paper of the Workshop" at IAPR Workshop on Document Analysis Systems, DAS-96.)

"Classifier for Evaluating the Effect of Image Enhancement on Character Recognition," in Proceedings of the International Symposium on Optics, Imaging, and Instrumentation (SPIE), July 1993. (Co-author with J. McNamara, D. Casey, R. Smith.)

"Self-Organizing ZIP+4 Database for Parallel Processing," in Proceedings of 5th USPS Advanced Technology Conference, November-December 1992 (optimization of transputer-based database for fast fuzzy retrieval.)

"Recognition Confidence Calibration Techniques," ibid. (methods of normalizing character recognition results across divergent recognition technologies) (Co-author with M. Olea, J. McNamara, R. Smith.)

"Pattern Classification Techniques Applied to Character Segmentation," ibid. (neural networks and other pattern classifiers applied to image analysis) (Co-author with R. Smith and J. McNamara.)

"Self-Organization of Non-Numeric Data," in Proceedings of IJCNN-91-Seattle, July 1991 (application of combinatorial optimization to pattern recognition and fuzzy retrieval.)

"Reducing Transmission Error Effects Using a Self-Organizing Network," in Proceedings of the IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), June 1989 (application of neural networks to communications and signal processing.)