Alexander Lamb

225 Button St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Tel: (831) 469-3403

E-Mail: alex.lamb@gmail.com

 

Profile

á                   Creative software engineer with many years experience in product development for leading businesses.

á                   Excellent communication skills, and extensive track record of direct client interaction in a consultancy context.

á                   Experience as both an independent researcher/developer on small rapid projects and as a team player in large-scale application development.

á                   Strong background in human-computer interaction, innovative GUI design and artificial intelligence.

 

Technical Skills And Experience

Expert Knowledge Of: Java (9 years)

 

Extensive Experience With:

C (5 years) , C++ (3 years), SQL (12 years), MS Office (12 years), Visual Basic (3 years), MS Access (3 years), Lotus Notes (3 years), Prolog (5 years), Pascal (2 years)

 

Platforms Developed On: Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris

 

Career Summary

Self Employed, Independent Consultant

Cambridge, UK / Santa Cruz, CA

Mar. 2001 - Jul. 2005

Split time between writing novels and multiple consultancy projects, including the following:

 

Awareware

Founder and Technical Director for small firm involved in deploying expert knowledge through both software and direct training.  Provided product direction and produced Java prototypes for Ôcomic book metaphorÕ training systems.

 

University of Norwich Business School

Developed course materials and ran training workshops for major business clients.  Projects included leadership workshops for executives and Improgramming, a communication skills workshop specifically intended for the software industry.

 

British Telecom

Created and ran improvisation-based workshops for high-end technical sales training, to supplement business-psychology-oriented coursework modules.

 

The Switchboard

Provided technical consultancy to web-development firm based in Bath involved in high-profile deployment of ActionScript projects.

 

Citrix Systems, Senior Software Engineer
Cambridge, UK                                                                                                                                                                       

Feb. 1999 - Feb. 2001

Worked as a Java specialist at the primary research site for the world leading provider of thin client technology. Responsibilities included:

 

Product Development

Worked on numerous server-based products written in Java for thin-client experience deployment. Work involved:

á         Extensive development using Swing, and a thorough investigation of JavasoftÕs core AWT and Swing source code.

á         Analysis and adaptation of Visual C++ legacy code, and the use of JNI to adapt it to more recent Java-based products.

á         Creation of JSP-based systems to provide access to Metaframe server farms.

 

Product Research

Conducted research into feasibility of candidate technologies and also production of prototype thin-client application development systems.

 

Recruitment

Advanced skills in social dynamics led to a role as primary the interviewer for development staff, including the conducting of phone interviews and one-on-one assessments for both technical ability and personality fit.

 

Self Employed, Independent Consultant

Bath, UK                                                                                                                                                                                               

Oct. 1997 - Jan. 1999

Worked on first novel and several consultancy projects including the following:

 

The Real Adventure

Provided Java games development and strategic technical consulting for rapidly growing advertising firm based in Bath.  Work included assessment of existing IT staff and methods, and resulted in a complete change of company technical strategy.

 

Agenda 21

Provided strategic direction and product advice for technical recruiting firm involved in both the placement of SAP experts and the development of knowledge-based change-management software.

 

Oxford Health Plans, Analyst/Programmer

New York, USA                                                                                                                                                                      

Jul. 1996 - Sep. 1997

Worked as primary Java specialist for 5th fastest-growing company in America as part of in-house artificial intelligence team.  Designed and developed cutting-edge expert-systems application to operate over intranet for use company-wide.

Had primary responsibility for both application architecture and management of knowledge acquisition.  Interacted directly with wide range of staff to gather expertise, including doctors and legal and technical specialists.

 

Bank Of America, Analyst/Programmer

London, UK                                                                                                                                                                                     

Sep. 1994 - Feb. 1996

Developed earnings-at-risk and deal capture systems in Visual Basic for bank branches world-wide.  Extensive experience in cooperating with traders on financial models and software projects. Role involved travel and remote work at international offices.

 

Arthur Andersen, Consultant programmer

London, UK                                                                                                                                                                                     

Mar. 1993 - Aug. 1994

Acted as one-man team on high-profile rapid application development projects. Work involved extensive use of Visual Basic, Excel and various data analysis tools and required extensive interaction with clients as both a consultant and trainer.  Also received AndersenÕs training in business and accounting skills.

 

Bacon And Woodrow Actuaries, Programmer

London, UK         

Nov. 1992 - Mar. 1993

In-house expert in artificial intelligence programming in Prolog.  Responsible for development of frames-based knowledge system to support actuarial calculations.

 

Undergraduate Positions

Fujitsu Laboratories, Tokyo, Japan, Summer 1991

Worked in Fujitsu's Linguistic Systems Laboratory.  Significantly improved the capabilities of their prototype speech synthesis technology using neural-net based techniques.

 

Digital Equipment Co., Reading, UK, Summer 1990

Worked in Digital's Advanced Development Laboratory.  Developed new interface capabilities to enhance Digital's prototype multimedia executive desktop system.

 

Oracle, Bristol, UK, Summer 1989

Worked as a database programmer using Oracle's application development tools. Work ranged from internal application development to troubleshooting on customer projects.

 

Education

á                   Bachelor of Science (Honors) Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, Edinburgh University, Scotland

á                   A Scottish BSc Hons. constitutes four years of study exclusively in a single field, including research. It is approximately equivalent to an American MSc.

á                   Edinburgh is widely regarded as the premier artificial intelligence research establishment in Europe.

 

Other Skills

á                   Founded Amazing Spectacles, the UKÕs foremost long-format improvised theater troupe. Acted as Creative Director and trainer.  Role required extensive team-leadership and marketing skills and resulted in extensive involvement with television and print media.

á                   Author of two science fiction novels and many short stories.  Graduate of prestigious Clarion West writersÕ workshop.  Attendee of Milford writers' workshop.

 

Other Interests

Hiking, photography, painting, digital physics and volcano climbing.