Electrical engineer with more than five decades of experience spanning analog electronics, digital systems, embedded computing, systems programming, instrumentation, and hardware/software interfacing. BS Electrical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1973. Working continuously in electronics and computing software since 1968. Specialized in embedded computers with analog and digital interfacing and research involving capacitive detection of moisture.

Nearly four decades of independent research and development in capacitive detection of soil moisture. Developed because the head grower in Floyd, Virginia was having difficulty keeping roots three inches down from the soil surface properly watered. Unlike resistive sensors which corrode and are affected by soil salinity, the capacitive approach measures the dielectric constant of water directly. Currently being commercialized for hobbyists, farmers and wholesale plant nurseries.

Over an eleven-month period, developed a complete sensor system for plant propagation by cuttings. The device pulls air samples from cuttings, calculates the vapor pressure deficit in kilopascals, and transmits the reading via LoRa transceiver to a pump control system. Applies mist when VPD is out of range: 0.4 to 0.8 kPa for rooting cuttings, 0.8 to 1.2 kPa for vegetative plants, and 1.2 to 1.6 kPa for flowering plants.

Wrote a program in PL/1 using pointers to read logic equations defining the PB440 computer, assign chips to wire wrap boards, and produce an optimized wrap sequence so that a wiring error required removing only one wrap rather than the entire chain. Later adapted by the Navy for the Trident submarine, generating hardware signatures that allowed sailors with limited training to identify failing computer modules and determine corrective actions.

Early 1970s, before microcomputers existed. Designed and built a hardware finite state machine using two 256×8 EPROMs and custom logic gates to translate card reader columns from EBCDIC to ASCII in real time for a GEPAC 4020 process computer. Output fed to a 64×8 bit FIFO. A PhD student attempted the same project using diodes as ROM — it did not work. This one did.

Wrote routines to display gas chromatograph analog signals on a GE300 printing terminal. Designed and implemented a 16-channel byte-wide serial multiplexer and associated OS routines in assembly language for graduate student access to 16 UARTs. Also implemented an analog signal recording system allowing lab instrument output to be recorded and replayed at VPI&SU.

Developed a solution to emulate the TI980B minicomputer OS on an IBM mainframe so the minicomputer sent SVCs to the mainframe believing it was communicating with another minicomputer on the chain. Allowed object decks to transfer from mainframe to minicomputer via SDLC without modifying the minicomputer OS. Written in PL/1 and assembler. Later judged patentable but not enforceable.

Wrote a PL/1 and assembler program to copy 777 files to tape using a single JCL DD card, requiring direct modification of IBM/370 operating system internals to perform the action repeatedly.

Developed a computer grading and evaluation system for A.H. Robins to determine which computer system best matched their operational requirements.

BS Electrical Engineering — Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1973

Advanced Java Concepts (graduate level) — 97%
C++ for C Programmers (taught by the author) — 95%