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Resume - Stuart Watt

Summary

  • A highly skilled and experienced developer and interface designer skilled in both computing and applied psychology, with a drive to create innovative and successful intelligent, information-rich web applications
  • Highly experienced in the practice of modern development techniques, applied to the successful design and deployment of usable and acceptable large-scale systems
  • Skilled technical lead, with an inclusive approach to working with others
  • Accomplished researcher and successful research leader, with many peer-reviewed articles published in academic literature, and a highly-rated research profile
  • Outstanding written and verbal communications skills

    • Technical skills

    • Web site design and development (15 yrs); web applications (10 yrs); artificial intelligence (15 yrs); information retrieval (7 yrs); machine learning (5 yrs); web services (5 yrs)
    • Web development (10+ yrs: HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver, JavaScript, ASP; 5-10yrs: VBScript, XML, DOM, SAX)
    • Interface design and development (10+ yrs: user-centred design; 5 yrs: Visual Basic .NET; 3 yrs: Java Swing)
    • Programming skills (10+ yrs: Perl, C, C++, Common Lisp; 5-10 yrs: Java, PHP; 2 yrs: Python, AJAX)
    • Libraries and frameworks (3 yrs: Catalyst, Dojo, Spring, Hibernate, Java MIDP/CLDC, Java Bluetooth JSR82, Perl PDL)
    • Databases (10+ yrs: MySQL, MS SQL; 1yr: Oracle, Firebird)
    • Development tools (8 yrs: Visual Studio; 5 yrs: Eclipse, Maven, Subversion, Ant)
    • Test-driven development (5 yrs: JUnit, EasyMock, Test::More)
    • Networking (10+ yrs: socket-level programming, firewalls, routers)
    • Analysis skills (10+ yrs: SPSS; 1 yr: R)
    • Operating systems (15+ yrs: Windows NT/2000/XP; MacOS; 7 yrs: Linux)
    • Graphic design (10+ yrs: Photoshop, Freehand; 5yrs: Fireworks, Illustrator)
    • Multimedia (5+ yrs: Macromedia Flash, Audacity; 2 yrs: Final Cut)
    • 3D (1 yr: Ogre 3D, Maya, Python-Ogre, Terragen, L3DT)

    Key projects

    • IB-ARM - application repository management, for analysing enterprise software architectures and code through free-text search and a faceted index (Catalyst, Perl, IIS, MS SQL Server/MySQL) - senior developer.
    • Active Groups - email knowledge management tool, for searching and browsing email discussion through a faceted index (Perl, ASP, IIS, MS SQL Server, Outlook/CDO, C-coded DLLs) - designer, technical lead and developer.
    • Meet-O-Matic - web-based meeting scheduling service (PHP and MySQL/Firebird) - one of the world's leading meeting scheduling systems: http://www.meetomatic.com - joint designer and principal developer.
    • AmbieSense - context-aware web-based information system, using Bluetooth and embedded 'tag' systems (Java/ MIDP/CLDC/JSR82, Apache Lucene, Ant, Antenna) - now a start-up: http://www.ambiesense.com/ - joint designer, technical lead and developer
    • Open Mentor - a web service for classifying and visualising Word annotations (Java, Spring, Hibernate, Tomcat, Maven) - designer, technical lead and developer.
    • ELSA - web-based surveying framework, generating Word-based reports with integrated statistical analysis (Perl, OLE/Automation, Apache, ASP) - designer, technical lead and developer.
    • Open Book - intelligent blog/newsletter (Perl, Apache::ASP, MySQL) - designer and sole developer.
    • Hank - Windows-based flowchart/spreadsheet visual modelling language for non-programmers (Common Lisp/ACL for Windows, Common Graphics, C-coded DLLs) - designer and sole developer.
    • Ousel - knowledge modelling environment for Windows (Common Lisp/ACL for Windows, Common Graphics) - joint designer and joint developer.
    • Syllabus - intelligent timetabling system (Common Lisp/PCL for Mac/ACL for Windows, Common Graphics) - one of the major educational timetabling programs - joint designer and joint developer.
    • Flopsie - compiler for OPS5 rules (C, bison, flex) - designer and sole developer.

    Employment - industry

    Information Balance, Toronto, Ontario
    Senior Software Developer (2007 to present)
    • Led development work transforming a largely manual application portfolio management service into a web-based fully-automated product, including a powerful new code search facility. Participated in client deployment activity.
    Meet-O-Matic Ltd.
    Chief Technical Officer (part-time, 1999 to present)
    • Designed and developed an interactive and highly usable web- and email-based meeting scheduling service, http://www.meetomatic.com, highly ranked by Internet search engines and averaging 500,000 hits daily.
    AmbieSense Ltd., London, UK
    Consultant (2004 to 2007)
    • Led technical development on a Bluetooth-enabled context-aware web application for Java-enabled mobile phones, and planned field experiments on the usability of mobile applications in tourism.
    BP Exploration, Sunbury UK
    Consultant (on a contract basis; 1999 to 2005)
    • Designed and developed an intelligent and interactive email-based knowledge sharing tool for worldwide communities of engineers in the oil and gas industry - now integrated into BP's intranet.
    British Telecom Laboratories, Martlesham, UK
    Research Fellow (1997)
    • Worked with the Human Factors group developing usability evaluation techniques for intelligent web systems.
    Scientia Ltd., Cambridge, UK
    Consultant (permanent, full-time; 1989 to 1991)
    • Designed and implemented the interface to 'Syllabus', an educational timetabling package. Involved in training and supporting customers. Developed parts of Procyon Common Lisp and Allegro Common Lisp for Windows.
    Siemens-Plessey Electronic Systems Ltd., Dorset, UK
    Principal Engineer: Advanced Techniques Department (1985 to 1989)
    • Led technical work on an international collaborative project developing a tool for knowledge-based systems.

    Employment - academic

    The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK
    Reader (equivalent to Associate Professor): School of Computing (2002 to 2007)
    • Designed and developed intelligent systems to enhance large information repositories in enterprise web applications. Supervised 4 researchers and 6 doctoral students in interactive information retrieval and web tools for collaboration. Taught on HCI, multimedia, and web courses, and supervised 20 MSc and honours projects. Led research management within the School, and prepared documentation for national Research Assessment Exercise.
    The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
    Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor): Psychology and Knowledge Media Institute (1991 to 2002)
    • Pioneered web-based intelligent automated reporting and electronic questionnaires for marketing and evaluation purposes since 1994. Wrote bids and led projects worth £400,000 for commercial and academic clients. Wrote course materials for introductory social sciences and third-level cognitive psychology.

    Education

    PhD in Cognitive Science - The Open University, UK (1997)
    BSc in Computer Science, Class 2.1 (hons) - University of York, UK (1985)

    Other related experience

    • Author of around 50 peer-reviewed articles in the fields of computing and cognitive science
    • Member of ACM, SIGCHI, and IEEE Computer Society