Paul Maia - Resume - December 2004

 

Experience

                      

1997–present   Dell Computer Corp       Austin, TX

Senior Software Engineer

·     Current task set includes: Linux based manufacturing process, manufacturing support for Intel ia64 based server offerings, VSS administration, internal website administration, Windows XP (32bit and 64bit) deployment support/tools, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP Pro and Home, Windows Server 2003 and RedHat RHEL OS manufacturing support and general tools development.

·     Developed tools and processes to increase factory throughput and diagnose factory software failures. Decreased factory failure determination time by more than 75%. Wrote software tools to perform assist the factory technicians in failure analysis.

·     Diagnosed factory and customer failures. Use ‘Lessons Learned’ to improve the quality of new products and customer experience. Received many awards in this arena.

·     Developed tools to analyze the logged data from the manufacturing process, to find better, more efficient, ways to accomplish the goals of a faster factory with the best customer experience.

·     Developed tools and processes to allow developers to closely emulate the factory process, without enduring it’s overheads. One of these tools was granted a Software Patent: US6182275: Generation of a compatible order for a computer system. A copy is here. Other patents have been applied for/awarded here.

·     Provided mentor and factory based training on factory and development processes and practices.

1995–1997  International Game Technology        Reno, NV

Senior Firmware Engineer

·     Developed games and tools, in an embedded Intel I960 environment, to support the worldwide gaming industry.

·     Diagnosed system and software failures using ICE (In-Circuit-Emulator) tools, Logic Analyzers and software debuggers.

·     Assisted developers in diagnosing system and software issues. Mentoring of new developers.

·     Modified reel-spinning algorithms on high-end gaming machine, to greatly speed up the reel display performance, allowing for better over-all system performance.

1992–1995  Litton Data Systems         Pascagoula, Ms

Software/Firmware Engineer

·    Assisted hardware engineers from initial design through deployment of a 68040 single-board VME bus computer, which was part of a multi-processor (8 processor boards) system.

·     Designed and deployed the BIOS for the said 68040 single-board computer. This include embedded diagnostics in 'C' and assembly, Power On Self Test (POST) and initialization of a Real-time embedded operating system (PDOS).

1983–1991  SoftSys, Inc.         Sulphur, La

Software Developer

·     Originated the company.

·     Developed multi-platform (SCO Unix, MP/M-TurboDOS, MS-DOS) accounting and office automation software and tools.

·     Developed PC-hosted multi-tasking process control system for management of cooling water flow, over RF Radio modems, for large industrial customers in Louisiana.

·     Provided customer and client based training. System sales, deployment, installation and setup.

Certifications

·     MCP - Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure - Austin, TX, 2002

·     MCSE, In process -Austin, TX, Not Yet Completed

Studies, Training

·     Linux Kernel Internals, RedHat Linux - RedHat Corporation, Austin, TX, 2002

·     Microsoft Accelerated MCSE, Executrain -Austin, TX, 2002

·     Windows NT, 2000 & XP Internals - Operating System internal architecture class, by David Solomon Expert Seminars, in combination with Dave Russinovitch of Winternals.Com fame - 2001, Austin

·     Software Quality Tools - Tool and interface development in a manufacturing environment - Austin, 2001

·     MSF Training - Microsoft Solution Frameworks - 2000, Austin

·     Various SEI (Software Engineering Institute) Training - Software and Documentation Reviews, Moderator and Inspector Training, Software Process, Software development and continuous process improvement. - Pascagoula, MS - 1992-1995

·     PDOS Real-Time Operating System, Programming, Maintenance and Administration - Provo, Utah, 1992

·     SCO Unix Administration - Dallas, 1989, 1991

·     Novell Network Basics/Novell Network Administration - Dallas, 1987, Houston, 1990

·     Kaypro Computers - Service and support training - Houston, New Orleans, Solana Beach, CA, 1983 thru 1987

·     Turbo-Dos (and MP/M) Operating System - Software Design in a multiprocessor environment - Houston - 1984

·     CP/M Operating System Internals - Houston, 1983

·     The 'C' Programming Language, an Introduction - Houston, 1983

·     Various Self-study courses in Pascal, C, C++, Visual Basic, Assembly Language (on 68020/30/40, Intel i960, Z80, 6502, 8086). On-going self-study in Perl, Access, ADO.

Awards

·     Lifetime Friend-of-Dimension - Dell, 1999  - Going the extra distance to provide solutions to specific major manufacturing problems.

·     Deliver Quality, Deliver Value - Dell, 1998 - Designed and developed a new factory process that decreased customer startup time on a new Dell system, from 30 minutes to 3. This improved the Customer Experience, while decreasing the chance of customer-initiated failures.

·     Customer First! - IGT, 1996, for my enthusiasm and dedication, going the extra distance for the customer.

·     Team Productivity - Litton, 1993 - Presented to the team, for achieving a higher than average percentage of scheduled milestone completions.

·     I-CARE - Improved Customer Awareness, Recognition and Education - Litton, 1993 - An award that was presented to identify my contributions to the team and the mentoring of individual engineers on the team.

Software Construction

·     Languages/Environments (years experience): C (19 years), C++ (6 yrs), C++ Builder (4 years), i960 Assembly Language (3 yrs), Visual Basic (4 yrs), Linux (6 yrs), Windows (6 yrs), PVCS (3 yrs), VSS (4 yrs, including VSS Administration), HP/UX (3 yrs), GNU C (4 yrs), Perl/CGI (2 years), Python (1 year)

·     Debug/Diagnostics tools: Techtronics DAS Logic Analyzer - 1992-1997. HP ICE Tool - 1992-1995, Intel ICE tool - 1995-1997, Software Debuggers from many vendors.

·     Software for Hardware: DMA, Ethernet, RS-232, SCSI, Parallel I/O.

·     Tools/Applications: Borland C++ Builder, Borland C, Microsoft Visual Studio, Watcom C, Pharlap DOS Extender, Microsoft Word, Visio Flow-charts, PC-Lint, VSS, PVCS, Apache, Perl, CGI, Python.

 

Patents Filed, Awarded

·     Generation of a Compatible Order for a Computer System - DC-01333 - Generation of an order, utilizing the Web and other interfaces. A method of generating an order and set of manufacturing sequences for that order. A Patent was granted for this invention: US06182275. A copy is at this link: Patent

·     Method and Apparatus for Determining the Drive Letter Assignment of a CDROM During Initial Setup of a Computer System - DC-01599 - A software method of predicting the drive letter that would ultimately be assigned to a CDROM in various operating systems. A Patent was granted for this invention: US06370641. A copy is at this link: Patent

·     Method and apparatus for testing custom-configured software/hardware integration in a computer build-to-order manufacturing process - DC-01599 - A build-to-order manufacturing method for producing a custom configured computer system includes obtaining a customer order. Hardware for the custom configured computer system is assembled in accordance with the customer order. The assembled hardware is then tested using software tools and utilities. Next, software is downloaded to the computer system in accordance with the customer order, the software including an operating system (OS). Lastly, a fully integrated system test is performed, the fully integrated system test including the execution of an OS setup for fully integrating the hardware and software of the custom configured computer system and testing of the fully integrated hardware and software from the OS' perspective prior to shipment to a customer. A Patent was granted for this invention: US06543047. A copy is at this link: Patent

·     Factory Software Management System - DC-1702 - Provides caching of the most recently used software in a manufacturing environment. Utilized drone server to age off files that had not been accessed in a specified amount of time. Client software would dynamically mount secondary servers to access software that had been aged off, in the event it was needed. A copy is at this link: Patent

Major Projects, Accomplishments

·     SystemVu - Repeater-Decoder Monitor - Monitors Radio/Repeater on-air activity. Provides Repeater and Radio activity bar chart and printed reports. Allows for the watching for specified radios with alarms, alerts, email, paging, etc... Multi-tasking, multi-user. Web interface for maintenance and monitoring of the SystemVu Server. Clients connect over local area network or Internet. A demo of this software is here. 

·     EMRUtil - Factory-Based Diagnosis of manufacturing failures, in worldwide manufacturing operation. System utilizes email for support and FTP for automated program updates. Originally in Visual Basic, now in C++ Builder. Included in this project, was the worldwide deployment. Traveled to Ireland and Brazil to provide assistance with the deployment and training of the factory support personnel. Supported the concurrent deployment of this product by another team in China and Malaysia.

·     ArchMngr - Manufacturing Flow Analysis Tool. All systems manufactured would produce logs of the manufacturing process. This tool would analyze and report on the manufacturing process flow, utilizing the logs to extract timing and process data.

·     BIOS/Diagnostics for 68040 Based computers. This single board computer was part of an eight-system back plane (VME bus). The BIOS was designed and developed in C, including all diagnostics, POST and coordination of the shared resources between the 8 processors. The hardware included Ethernet, DUSCC (serial I/O), NEC SCSI, 16mb memory and DMA, for each processor card.

·     Ethernet based, diagnostics and test of 68040, multi-processor based system. Used RS-232 terminal emulation for terminal services and Ethernet for high-speed background file transfer capability. Allow for the downloading of tests and diagnostics into a proprietary Multi-processor embedded system.

·     The Monitor - Process monitoring/control of Plant/Industrial Cooling Water. The cooling water was delivered via a man-made canal, running from the Sabine River (in TX) to Lake Charles, LA. The system was comprised of 6 sites, controlled over RF modems, utilizing RS232 and 2-meter commercial radios. Software would control up to 4 pumps at each site, maintaining water levels and continuous flow of cooling water.

·     Video Master - Retail Video Store management/rental software. This product was marketed and sold in several states.

Professional Interests

·     Windows-based/targeted programming.

·     Linux-based/targeted programming.

·     Tools and Utilities development.

·     Elimination of redundant task through software automation.

·     Working with hardware engineers, using software to prove and test hardware designs.

References

Available upon request.