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Curriculum Vitae

Alternative formats: RTF , Standalone XHTML .

Mobile: 07905 428254. Email: mail@daniel.may.name. Web: http://www.daniel.may.name. Address: Flat 2, 46 Cathcart Road, London, SW10 9JQ, United Kingdom.

Profile

I am a software systems architect, developer and team leader with over 8 years experience. I have project‑managed, developed code and lead teams through all stages of the software life‑cycle. I have a specialist background in e‑learning systems, particularly those with a mathematical or science focus. I am keen to continue working with bright and enthusiastic people, using sound management & engineering principles to produce high quality products.

Skills Summary

Leadership & Management

  • Successful team manager/leader who creates a happy and highly productive working environment by establishing working methodologies which best suit the project at hand, as well as fostering a culture of trust, responsibility and creativity.
  • Strong cross-disciplinary communication skills, particularly in bridging the "developer/non-developer divide".
  • Experienced in the line management, discipline and performance management of both technical and non-technical staff.

Information Technology

  • Languages (Libraries): Java SE (JUnit, PMD, Live Connect, Xerces, Xalan), Java EE (Servlets, JSP), PHP (PEAR, symfony, CodeIgniter, PHPUnit), JavaScript/JScript/ECMAScript (jQuery, SCORM), Perl, BASH, MySQL, PostgreSQL, HTML, XHTML (Valid & Accessible WCAG 2.0), CSS, XML, RSS, XSLT, XML Schema, DOM, MathML, OpenMath, QTI, MathQTI.
  • Applications: Apache, Eclipse, Ant, Maven, Drupal, Subversion, Perforce, CVS, LaTeX, SourceForge, Bugzilla, Jira.
  • Operating systems: Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora), Windows (XP, Vista, Server 2003), Mac OS X, Cisco IOS.
  • Network: Network design and implementation, DNS, DHCP, VLAN, VPN.

Professional Experience

Director, KADA Films/Systems, August 2009–September 2009

  • Collaborated with my partner to create The Specials — an internet docu-soap.
  • Responsibilities included setting up technical infrastructure, audio editing, colour grading, compressing video, creating & maintaining the website (based on Drupal), publicity and executive producing the films.

Contract Lead Developer, Detica, April 2009–July 2009

  • Set up the development and staging environments for a high security multiple-server Drupal installation using virtual servers via VMWare. Authored custom Bash build scripts to compile from source & deploy a secure application stack (Apache, PHP, MySQL, HTTPS via OpenSSL, etc.) on a high-security minimal Linux distribution.
  • Developed a Drupal website which required writing many custom modules, a theme implementation and a complete installation profile.

Contract Consultant Developer, Imperial College London, July 2008–February 2009

  • Designed and developed the jsjavacomm library which allows Java applets and JavaScript to intercommunicate. For instance, an applet can be set up as a listener for JavaScript browser events and can modify the browser's document with standard DOM method calls.
  • Complete re-design and development of the computerese system (a simple computer algebra system). This work included: formalising the computerese language syntax, developing parsers, writing a computational engine for evaluating and simplifying computerese expressions, and writing serializers to convert computerese to MathML and OpenMath.
  • Various administration tasks e.g. migrating codebase to a Maven based project, setting up and administering Apache servers, Subversion repositories, automated back-ups, etc.

Head of Technology, London Gifted & Talented, April 2006–April 2008

  • Overall responsibility for the company's IT infrastructure including strategy, design, construction, deployment and maintenance of all systems: network, hardware and software.
  • As lead software architect I defined and implemented the development processes (sometimes adaptive e.g. Agile, sometimes predictive) which enabled my team to successfully deliver over 50 educational resources from simple websites to fully fledged web applications. I also wrote numerous small BASH and Perl scripts and Cron jobs to automate as many tasks as possible freeing up staff time.
  • Successfully managed a team of 8 staff, including recruitment and formal performance management; with the result that the company exceeded its KPIs and won e-learning team of the year 2007 at the e.learning age awards.
  • Instigated company-wide knowledge management through the introduction of skill-sharing sessions, an intranet, pair-programming, training and coaching. This raised the skills, independence and productivity of staff and enabled the efficient recording of business processes & "lessons learnt".

Research Associate, Imperial College London, August 2000–March 2006

  • Co-authored METRIC a computer algebra based application which supplies self-tests and explorations of mathematical ideas.
  • Collaborated with the JISC funded Serving Mathematics consortium to develop the MathQTI specification, an extension of QTI 2.0, which allows the use of advanced mathematics in electronically delivered questions and tests.
  • Lead the specification & construction of MQAT, a MathQTI authoring tool.
  • Installed and administered the webservers and CVS repository. Wrote numerous BASH and Perl scripts to produce reports and automate various administrative tasks.

Technical Consultant, Jool Productions, January 2001–January 2002

I worked as the Technical Consultant for this small television production company; the high point was our critically acclaimed series of short films for Channel 4 called "Top Toilets".

Technical Consultant, PhotoInsight, April 1997–August 2000

Successfully collaborated with a variety of individuals in this small arts organisation to deliver the project's website and the audio system for a touring exhibition.

Research Student, ILL , October 1994–March 1996

Whilst researching my doctorate in experimental particle physics I collaborated on the building and running of an experiment, which produced a record new upper limit on the magnitude of the neutron EDM .

Education

  • Ph.D. Experimental Particle Physics, University of Sussex, October 1994–September 1998.
  • B.Sc. Hons. Physics 2:1, University of Manchester, October 1991–July 1994.

Softography (Abridged)

Risk
A Drupal module which helps with the recording and management of risks.
jsjavacomm
A Java library which builds on Live Connect to allow easy intercommunication between Java applets and JavaScript within a web browser.
e-TASC
A thinking tool for teachers and learners. Managed and coded a complete re-factoring of the PHP, MySQL & XML API used by the client-side Flash applications. This resulted in a dramatic increase in system performance & usability.
Network Websites
Over 30 collaborative community websites for teacher training based on Drupal. I managed the technical delivery of these websites and ongoing maintenance. The development work included writing custom Drupal themes and modules.
METRIC TNG
The "next generation" of the METRIC learning materials; using "new" web technologies like MathML, SVG, OpenMath etc.
METRIC classic
A large Java Web Start application providing self-tests and educational explorations in mathematics and science.
In between the lines
An interactive online learning resource. Authored the PHP & MySQL back-end and the XML API used by the client-side Flash applications.
XHTMLtoRTF
An XSLT stylesheet which transforms XHTML to RTF. Part of the system which is used to generate this document's alternative formats from a single source file.
Teacher Tools
A resources directory website for teachers. Managed a contractor in the development of the MySQL database and PHP back-end and an in-house web designer in the production of the XHTML & CSS. I designed and wrote the back-end administration tool using the symfony PHP framework.
London Gifted & Talented PHP template system
A PHP templating system which allowed non-PHP coders to quickly and easily produce new websites which met the company's quality standards. Use of this system resulted in a dramatic increase in my team's productivity and quality.

Awards

  • Winner: e.learning age E-learning team of the year 2007.
  • Short listed: BETT Awards 2006.
  • Short listed: Learning on Screen Awards 2006.

Professional Memberships

Member of the BCS .

Personal Information

Nationality: British.

References available on request.