Personal Details

Name: Mark Edwin Hurd

Address: 506/15 Wyagdon St.,

Neutral Bay,

New South Wales 2089

Telephone:

Date of birth: 1st August 1969

Place of birth: Adelaide, South Australia

Present Age: 29

Marital status: Single

Australian Citizen.

DSTO Security Clearance passed.

Drivers Licence Number: E54644 (car)

Preferred Career:

Systems analyst, preferably in a mathematical or research oriented problem-solving field, with a wide range of day to day tasks, including ‘help desk’ support. Some teaching, tutoring, consulting or high-level mathematics would be an advantage.

Summary

University of Adelaide

Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences with Honours, majoring in Computer Science.

Westminster School, Marion, SA

Matriculation University Entrance Score: 88.4/100

Employment History

Masterpack International

Product Development

Position:

Dates:

Duties:

Development of Visual Basic-5 based projects was completed in-house, where I was part of a team of three or four programmers reporting to a project manager. I was involved in the design and coding of the objects (classes) and their interfaces. As part of the testing procedure, I also documented the complete installation procedure. I was also available to solve general computing problems and give advice to other programmers and macro writers.

Projects:

Coopers & Lybrand (Australian Firm)

Tax Technology Services

Position:

Dates:

Duties:

Development of Visual Basic-based projects was completed in-house, where I reported to a Project Manager, who was also the original developer of the products. I was involved in design, coding, testing, the production of bound manuals, and training for the products. Although not required, I was also available to solve some general computing problems.

Projects:

Logica Pty Limited

A wholly owned subsidiary of Logica plc in the United Kingdom.

Logica has been certified to conform to the Quality Standards ISO9001 and AS3563.1.

Position:

Dates:

Duties:

Development for most of Logica’s projects occurs at clients’ premises. My duties included refining designs, coding, testing, producing documentation, giving demonstrations, and training in the final system. The client was continually consulted, and kept informed, throughout this process.

Logica has a comprehensive quality assurance system, conforming to standards ISO9001 and AS3563.1, and all my work, including plans, documentation and code, conformed to comprehensive in-house standards.

Between projects, I supported Logica’s office Novell LAN and the computers connected to it: Sun SPARCstations running SunOS; and PCs running Windows, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT.

However, my most satisfying task was providing a ‘help desk’ support for Windows, DOS and Novell applications and features, including Microsoft Word, Excel and Visual Basic.

Projects:

Ebor Computing

Position:

Dates:

Duties:

All of my projects for Ebor, while working full-time, required liaising with DSTO Research Scientists to define requirements and to deliver the current findings.

Projects:

Philmac Pty Ltd

Position: Office Duties

Date: January 1986 (2 weeks)

Duties: Keypad data entry

Mail sorting and other general office duties

Telecom Australia

(Engineering Dept., Network Service and Design)

Position: Technical/Electronic

Dates 6 – 10 May 1985

Duties: Punched tape entry

Skills/Abilities

UNIX (BSD & System V) Windows NT 3.1, 4 MS DOS (Versions 4 - 6.22)

SunOS (up to 4.1.3) Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98 Vax-VMS-DCL

SCO Open Desktop/Server OSF/1 Networks:

Linux Minix Microsoft

X (Motif) Symbolics Lisp Machine TCP/IP (Unix & Windows NT)

Macintosh (System 7) Novell NetWare 3.11/3.12

Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 Oracle Ingress

XDesigner Wingz (UNIX) Ingres Windows4GL

Make (UNIX) FrameMaker (UNIX) Oracle SQL*Plus

Lint (UNIX) WordPerfect Oracle Pro*C

PC-Lint cc:Mail

Tom’s window manager Open look window manager

Microsoft Products:

Excel (version 4, 5 & 7,95,97) Word (for Windows & Macintosh & version 6 & 7,95,97)

Programmers’ Work Bench Visual Basic (version 3-5) Office (version 4,95,97)

Codeview Delta & Visual SourceSafe Mail

Structured analysis Testing

Small system design Tutoring

User interface design Reverse engineering

Programming State machine and logic table design and analysis

IBM compatibles under Windows 3.1,95 and NT 4, using Microsoft Visual Basic, and VBA;

IBM compatibles under MS-DOS, using Microsoft C;

Encore Multimax under UNIX (BSD 4.3), using ‘C’, Pascal, sh, csh, tcsh, lex, and yacc;

Inmos Transputer (T414 / T800) with IBM AT host, using 3L Parallel C;

Sun Workstations (Sun 2, 3 and 4 and SPARCstations) under UNIX, using ‘C’, Pascal, sh, csh;

COMPAQ DESKPRO 50M under SCO Open Desktop/Server, using sh, csh;

DEC 3300/3400 under OSF/1, using ‘C’, sh, csh;

DEC VAX/MicroVAX under DCL, using VAX Pascal;

Symbolics MacIvory (a Lisp Machine as a card in a Macintosh IIx), using Lisp;

Macintosh LC / II under System 7.01, using Pascal; and,

Commodore 128 / 64 (6510 / 6502 / Z80) using ‘C’, Basic, Assembly Language, CP/M.

* Quick comprehension and understanding of complex concepts, concrete or abstract.

* An ability to quickly apply concepts learnt. Also to reapply concepts to different situations.

* Problem solving and algorithm design.

* An aptitude for tutoring.

Awards

1986: "For service to Forder house" of Westminster School

1986: "For fine academic achievement and splendid persistence"

1985: "For fine academic achievement and splendid attitude"

1986: 3rd in South Australian Final

3rd in National Final

1986: Award of Excellence (Top 100 in Australia)

1981-1986: Distinction (Top 15% in South Australia), each year

1984: Honourable Commendation (Top 20 in South Australia)

1984: Top 11% in South Australia

1983: Top 2% in South Australia

1982: Top 1% in South Australia

Education

University of Adelaide

Summary of results:

Honours, 1990: Computer Science, Chaos Theory.

Class 2, division B

Third Year, 1989: Computer Science.

2 Distinctions, 5 Credits and 6 Passes.

Second Year, 1988: Computer Science, Pure Maths, Applied Maths.

2 Distinctions and 1 Credit.

First Year, 1987: Maths, Computer Science, Statistics, Economics, Physics.

3 Distinctions and 2 Passes.

For detailed results, please refer to the attached copy of my Official Academic Transcript.

1982-1986: Westminster School

Matriculation Results:

1986: Achievement Score University Entrance Score

1981: Westminster Preparatory School

1976-1980: Coromandel Valley Primary School

1974-1975: Port Lincoln Infant School

Interests

DungeonQuest:

An annual South Australian Dungeons & Dragons competition.

Clubs

Member: Mensa

Member: Adelaide University Alumni Association

Life member: Westminster School Old Scholars Association

Professional experience

TaxKit

To help people produce company tax returns, Coopers & Lybrand produces a TaxKit every year. Mark updated the 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997 TaxKits, using Microsoft’s Visual Basic. Special versions for the Mining industry and for Superannuation Funds are also created yearly. The 1994 TaxKits printed onto Australian Tax Office (ATO) stationary and since then the TaxKits have printed facsimile forms registered with the ATO.

TaxModeller

Australian company tax is calculated using a "reconciliation to taxable income" and this requires "tax-effect accounting" to track income and expenses that are treated as taxable or refundable in a period different to when accounting standards include them. TaxModeller is a Visual Basic program designed to help with tax-effect accounting. Mark reviewed all of the code before the first public release and has maintained it since.

IICATS - FTE (1994)

As part of the large IICATS contract with the Sydney Water Board, Logica supplied a large WAN, covering a large part of Sydney. Mark helped set up a ‘Factory Test Environment’ that includes a representative section of the complete WAN.

Mark installed and configured DEC OSF/1 and SCO Open Desktop/Server workstations, disk drives, and printers required for this section. This included installing the operating systems and connecting them in a TCP/IP network. Mark documented all steps in the installation and configuration to allow for easy replication of the configurations when the full network was commissioned.

Office Move (1993-1994)

Mark helped plan and execute the move of computing equipment when Logica moved its Sydney office to new premises. Mark tested the networking equipment, the file server, and other shared equipment, as well as each PC, before the users needed them.

Office Technology and Reuse (1993)

Mark managed the internal office Novell network, and assisted in a hand-over of the LAN and PC management. Mark continued to upgrade the Logica Client Database, a Visual Basic system, and other applications. He also helped organise a procedure to store and document reusable items created during projects for future retrieval.

Television Scheduling Facility (1993)

Mark was retained by ABC TV Technical Services to develop a data conversion facility for their newly acquired Sony Flexicart On-air Replay System after the successful implementation of the ATVI News Captioning System (see below).

Situated in Darwin, the Sony equipment is used to control the selection and play of videotapes by the ATVI group for television transmissions over South-East Asia.

The Replay System requires a schedule of tape identifiers and command and timing sequences in order to operate. Mark developed a facility to retrieve this information from Excel spreadsheets within the ATVI scheduling group and convert it – as required – into Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) format for transmission to Darwin from the ABC premises in Gore Hill.

The software was written using Excel macros and ‘C’ within Microsoft’s Programmers’ Work Bench.

Television News Captioning System (1993)

Mark designed and developed a news captioning facility for ABC TV Technical Services to support the introduction of multi-lingual foreign news bulletins over South-East Asia. The bulletins are produced in Melbourne by Radio Australia for the Australian Television International (ATVI) group within the ABC. Satellite links are used to transmit them to Darwin.

He developed editing, sequencing and storage capabilities for news items and a live interface to support the news broadcasts. English language captions are displayed over the picture of the newsreader as each foreign language item is read. The system supports static and moving displays, and a variety of transition sequences.

Mark developed the system using a prototyping approach that required close cooperation with both end-users and technical staff.

The software, written in ‘C’, drives a Chyron Codi TV Character Generator to impose the captions onto the broadcast picture. The user interface was developed using C-Scape. Communications with the Codi are over an RS232 link using the Greenleaf Communications software library. The development environment included Microsoft Programmers’ Work Bench and Codeview.

UNIX Consultancy - Networking Design and Hardware Recommendations (1993)

Mark helped a senior consultant produce a design for a network solution for a client from Dubbo. Mark was asked to suggest cabling, hardware, configuration and operating systems requirements, as well as suppliers, installers and maintainers. The client wanted the information as he was currently expanding his office and wanted to install the new network at the same time.

After considering a number of suppliers, Mark proposed a solution that was within the budget required and would provide for both the client’s current requirements and the possible future expansion described.

Office Technology (1993)

Mark upgraded Microsoft Excel spreadsheet systems that produce the company’s monthly reports. He has also created an Excel system to help office staff administer a filing system. Mark involved the eventual users in the design of the systems and Mark provided training for the final versions.

Stock Market Expert System (1992 - 1993)

Mark worked on the H3 expert system for the DaiNat Company, a joint venture between Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company of Japan and County NatWest Investment Management Company of London. H3 uses the X windowing system on Sun SPARCstations connected in a network. H3 provides stock purchase and sale recommendations for real-time trading. Data from the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) is fed, using a Teknekron feed, into the H3 system where calculations are performed and stocks continuously evaluated. The recommended trades are displayed on the trader’s monitor.

Mark completed the implementation of the user interface to the expert system. Coded in Ingres’ "Windows4GL", the graphical user interface also handled the accounting of the stock and futures and the money being traded. While Mark worked on the system, it was being tested in both London and Japan, with change requests coming back from both. Changes to the system and the user interface style were extensively tested in the UNIX/X environment before the system was sent back to London and Japan.

OTC - Traffic Management System (1992)

Given a functional description of this application, Mark produced prototype designs for the windows of the system. After extensive consultation with the client, Mark designed these prototypes to conform to the graphical user interface standard for the project and to the normal rules of style for X applications. The prototypes can be used to produce the code defining the windows in the final system.

The design Mark produced formed a demonstration that simulated the actions of the final system. This demonstration allowed the client, the author of the functional description, and Mark himself, to get a better feel for the application's features. Improvements to the design, to the format of display, and to the system functionality could then be discussed more effectively.

Mark used "XDesigner" to design the windows and the graphical user interface standard was based on IBM's common user access style guide and the OSF/Motif style guide.

Bid Work (1992)

Mark organised the gathering of information required for importing products into Australia (a "Schedule A") and set up a spreadsheet to receive this information.

For another bid, Mark produced a rough estimate of the effort required to document the code of a very large existing system. This involved applying the data describing the size of components of the system to an estimation model (COCOMO) under various assumptions. The model was implemented on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and Mark also set up another spreadsheet to retrieve and summarise the results.

Office Technology (1992)

Mark installed various products, updates and Logica specific applications and utilities on office PCs, as well as general maintenance, training and ‘help desk’ support.

An on-site defence contractor at DSTO Salisbury, South Australia.

Applications programmer

Sparse database search given vague targets (1991)

Mark produced an Oracle ‘Pro*C’ program that found a set of "best matches" in a sparsely filled database given an ill-defined target. To efficiently search for these optimal matches, complex search algorithms were developed. The Microsoft ‘C’ Compiler and PC-Lint were used in development on an IBM compatible 486. The code was designed to be ported to a UNIX system at a later date.

Reverse engineering an Expert System (1990 - 1991)

An expert system was bought by the Navy from a Defence contractor, but security requirements precluded the underlying database to be sent to Australia. Mark analysed the Lisp code of the expert system to determine the structure of this database. Mark progressed the documentation of the system to include detail of operation at all levels.

At the highest level, the encoding of the "knowledge sources" was described. The relationships between these knowledge sources, as processed by a "blackboard model" of operation, were also described. At the lowest level, Mark explained the Lisp coding techniques used in this system.

Call Graph Generator (1990 Vacation Work)

As part of a set of general development tools, Mark designed and progressed coding of a program that provided a graphic display of calls to routines. The tools could be used to determine the call sequence of routines – recursion and multiple entry points were recognised and marked. Input could be provided from a variety of sources such as object libraries or a textual cross-reference list.

Developed using Microsoft FORTRAN on an IBM compatible, the design incorporated features to ease porting to both UNIX and Digital RSX. The tools enabled the programmer to easily determine call sequences to facilitate more efficient development and debugging.

FORTRAN interface to UNIX Curses library (1989 Vacation Work)

Mark designed and implemented a set of ‘C’ and FORTRAN routines to port an MS-DOS FORTRAN package to work under UNIX System V (SunOS). This port made extensive use of ‘C’ library routines and routines supplied in the package. The software was developed based on protocols used in the package.

After extensive testing, Mark installed and configured this software at the client site.

Investigation of Inmos Transputers (1989 Part-time)

Mark developed performance tests using 3L "Parallel C" on a network of four Transputers connected to an IBM compatible host PC. The tests measured gains in efficiency as the number of transputers increased and as the configuration of the network was changed. The results were collated in a report for future reference when tendering for relevant contracts.

Other than Computer Science related subjects including Numerical Analysis and Computational Mathematics, Mark studied Pure and Applied Mathematics including Chaos Theory, Economics, and Statistics and has a wide knowledge of all these disciplines.

Attachment II

Official Academic Transcript

(original or photocopy available on request)

Mark Edwin Hurd

B.Sc.(Ma.)(Hons.)

The University of Adelaide

Adelaide, South Australia 5000

Telephone: (08) 8228 5333

Official Academic Transcript

Name: Mark Edwin Hurd Issued on 02-Dec-91.

Student number: 871469J

Date of birth: 01-Aug-69 (unverified)

1987

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Bachelor of Science in the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences

1988

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Bachelor of Science in the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences

1989

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Bachelor of Science in the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences

1990

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Bachelor of Science in the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences (Honours)