Past Projects
This is the list of major software projects that I worked on since circa 1987. Some of them are no longer in use; some are still running on thousands of computers all around the world. This is the breadcrumb of my entire career. Or at least the larger bits of it. Excluded from this list are some smaller projects that I think are not relevant. I also excluded the projects that I personally own and that are available online. You can find those on my home page.
I worked in companies that range from the very small to the very large. On occasion I freelanced and sold my own product. During all this time I worked on some really exciting projects. Here they are the most recent first:
Solutions IQ
2008 – 2009
This was a company where I got the chance to try out a completely different work environment compared with those in the larger groups I have worked in for the previous eight years. “Solutions IQ” is really fond of agile methodologies and treats them very seriously. I worked on a couple of projects for customers like AT&T and Lynden. Most importantly, I got familiar with things like Scrum and pair programming. I also got the chance to take my Scrum Master certification.
Microsoft Project Server
2003 – 2008
In 2003 I moved inside Microsoft from Visual Studio to Microsoft Project team. It was just before the start of a new product cycle that concluded with the 2007 release of Microsoft Project Server. I was lucky enough to get the task of re-designing re-writing from the ground-up a major feature in the product. This was the Project Server Reporting Database with all the backend code around it. It was mostly C#, SQL Server and T-SQL. I also did a lot of work on the component that handled building the Project Server Analysis Services Database (OLAP cubes).
Visual Studio build system
2000 – 2003
In 2000 I came from Romania to United States for an interview with Microsoft. I got the position and in October of 2000 I started to work on a team in the Development Division. This was a small group responsible of building Visual Studio and .NET Framework. I was part of a small team that worked on a system that automated the build the entire Visual Studio product, run automated tests, isolated errors, detected the most likely source of errors, sent email notifications and so on.
Another project was an automated intranet check-in system that was designed to serve hundreds of developers. As in any very large development organization, submitting changes in the source repository by so many developers comes with a very specific set of challenges around the stability of the code base. Our system validated the check-in requests coming from the developers and automated the check-in process. To be able to serve the large load the system run in parallel on more than one hundred computers.
Factory and warehouse automation
1998 – 1999
After two years on working mainly on a CAD system, I was involved in a warehouse automation project for a factory (Hakle) in Frankfurt. The project was a collection of more than 25 executables that run on handhelds and PCs controlling database access, sensors, barcode printers, barcode readers, and in general all kind of automations.
CAD system and automation projects
1996 – 1998
In 1996 I was hired in a small company that had several projects for a German client. For a couple of years I worked on a CAD system that was used to visualize and control large scale automations in big factories or warehouses. I was also involved in a few automation projects that took place in various sites across Germany. That was the first time I got to write code for handheld devices. All in all, quite an interesting place to work.
Automated multiple choice test
monitor
1996 – 1997
This was an application written to monitor and evaluate in real time students
taking multiple choice tests. It was the result of the collaboration between me
and a former professor with whom I have worked in the past during my college
years. The system evolved through two major versions. Below are screenshots
from both these versions.
A needlepoint map generator system
1996-1997
This was a collection of applications that generated maps for needlepoint. Starting from the scanning of a classic picture that had a few tenths of thousands of colors and shades, the system brought down the number of colors to just one or two dozen. It involved some elaborate math and it included a specialized editor customized for this type of market. It also contained a special print program that generated and printed the special maps needed by the needlepoint hobbyists.
For a while I sold needlepoint maps that I created using my own system. Later I sold the system itself to three companies.
Granulometry (image processing) software
1993
This was another image processing system this time with applications in granulometry. Granulometry is the optical measurement of the size and size distribution in a set of objects that appear as small spots. It has applications in areas like mining and medicine. Unfortunately this project was canceled after a few months when it became apparent that getting revenue out of it was improbable.
Here is a screenshot of this application.
Medical image processing software
1994 – 1995.
During my college years I stared to collaborate with a physician specialized in nuclear medicine. This collaboration resulted in a few projects. The largest one was a system that displayed and processed medical images doing things like Fourier transforms on an image of a beating heart. Bellow is the screenshot of the application during such processing.
Signal acquisition and processing software
1993 – 1994
This was part of my degree dissertation at the end of the college. It was a system for signal acquisition, processing and control. It had a very simple language, a compiler and a user interface that was used to visualize the result of the acquisitions or processing.
Here is a screenshot of the application. In the left area is a fragment of code and on the right a representations of some signals.
Small resolution clip designer system
1992 – 1994
Still in college I got an offer to work for a small company that designed a small resolution high intensity LED panel that was capable to play simple advertisement videos. The small resolution presented specific challenges and my job was to design a software system that was to be used in designing, visualizing and scheduling the clips. I co-opted a long time friend, signed a contract that promised us a certain percentage of the revenues and got to work. For a while I spent day and night writing code, authoring clips and even making visits to potential clients to promote advertisement plans. Unfortunately the demand for this product was rather small and eventually the enterprise flopped. My friend and I were left with only a reward in accumulated experience in programming. However I am not without some good memories about the project. In one evening I was in the mall where our panel was placed and watched a few of the clips that were running. A particularly funny clip started to play and a group of students that were passing stopped under the panel, started to laugh and cheer. Not only that I wrote the software behind it but in that case I also created the clip J.
Here is a screenshot from the clip designer application. If I remember correctly this is the beginning of a clip for a company whose name translated in English means “Hummingbird”. If you don’t understand most of the words in the screenshot don’t worry – they are in Romanian.
Z-80 Assembler / disassembler
1987
I started programming a few years before as a high school student but this was my first major programming project. Around 1986 my country started producing a microcomputer based on the Z-80 microprocessor. It came equipped with a simple monitor application and a BASIC interpreter. However it lacked any kind of assembler / disassembler. After a few months of painstakingly writing code directly in binary code I had a symbolic assembler / disassembler functioning.
Last revision: 8/17/2009 9:37:00 AM