Background

I'm originally from Co. Down, N. Ireland, and studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Queen's University Belfast. My PhD thesis title was "Environmental Analysis through fusion of Vision-based information and Geographical Information Systems" and many of the areas I investigated during that work back in 2000-2004 remain strong interests today. The thesis is available to download.

I've been interested in computer programming from a young age. In the mid-1990s I competed in the first 3 years of the All-Ireland Schools Programming Competition! In 2002 I started contributing to open source software and have become particularly involved with a number of open source projects, notably GRASS GIS where I'm currently a member of the project steering committee. See GIS Work for more details on some of my work with GRASS.

In recent years my life-long interest in radio has led my work more towards audio and video processing, and I'm currently working on some interesting development projects for Radiomonitor. See Digital Audio & Video Projects for more details on some of my digital media work.

Key Skills, Experience and Interests

Note that these have a heavy radio bias.

• Founding member of Queen's Radio (Queen's University Belfast student station), heavily involved 2002-2006 in all aspects of running the station
• Studio set-up and audio wiring
• Outside broadcasts, studio production & tech-op
• Dealings with Ofcom, AM transmitter licensing, procurement & maintenance
• Computer-based audio processing, especially low-latency operation using Linux: JACK audio connection kit, etc.
• Computer networking, Internet (worked for two years as Unix systems admin supporting Web, E-mail, FTP and other collaborative software tools)
• National Student Radio Awards: Gold award for Best Technical Achievement, 2005 (for Linux-based record of transmission system with easy web-based interface for presenters to download audio from shows)
• Computing in general: competent C programmer, systems admin and web developer, actively involved in open source software projects
• Webmaster for various sites from time-to-time; former Technical Officer for the Student Radio Association 2006-08
• Built a news team for Queen's Radio completely from scratch in 2005-06: Gained a real appreciation of the challenges involved in management and team building, and how to successfully overcome them
• Use of Adobe Audition, IRN Net Newsroom etc. for news preparation
• General interest in all aspects of radio: feel this is a big help in relating to other people working within the radio station and how best to support them in their technical requirements
• Occasionally work as a club DJ

Professional Affiliations

• Member, Institution of Engineering and Technology (formerly Institution of Electrical Engineers)
• Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Associate Member, American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

Employment / Education History

Currently:

Self-employed engineering consultant. Clients include Radiomonitor and RTÉ Radio.

2004-06:

Analyst / Programmer, Queen's University Directorate of Information Services.
Developed and supported central university web, e-mail and related systems.

2000-04:

Queen's University Belfast
Ph.D. Electrical & Electronic Engineering (Thesis title: Environmental Analysis through fusion of Vision-based information and Geographical Information Systems)

1996-2000:

Queen's University Belfast
M.Eng. (Distinction) Electrical & Electronic Engineering

St. Patrick's Grammar School, Downpatrick, Co. Down

1996: GCE A-Level 4 A

1994: GCSE 5 A*, 4 A