Curriculum Vitae

Details (skills) experience history

• 1987:High school final year, taught myself 8086(Intel) assembler, and ‘C’. I then helped write parts of a data-capture application.
  
• 1988-1989: Studied Light Current at the Cape Town Technicon, where I steered toward the digital subjects and computer programming in Pascal.
  
• 1989-1990: Military service did basic radio maintenance working in the signal corps. During this time I decided that programming was my forte after using a base-computer nights to write a ration-order prediction program in Pascal.
  
• 1991: I trained in formal software development, with a full-time COBOL and Data-Processing concepts course at van Zyl and Pritchard, Johannesburg. The course ended in an external examination by the CUC (Computer User Council of South Africa).
  
• 1991-1992: My first full-time work involved installing LAN and WAN for a contractor. I ran a 2 or 3-man team, eventually specialized in troubleshooting networks and tackling difficult installations. I used the time to build up a solid understanding of hardware, communication and embedded systems; all of these forming my primary interests to this day.
  
• March 1992-April 2006: I moved into real software development when I started with Adroit Technologies to develop external hardware drivers for them in the Industrial SCADA/HMI market as a ‘C’ programmer.

Detail follows.

Work done at Adroit 1992-2006

• I’ve interfaced to more than 40 totally different devices (Siemens, Omron, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Modicon, Allen-Bradley, ABB, Yokogawa etc.)
  
• Used various data communication mediums and techniques namely:
  
• 3-rd party SDKs, dual-port RAM, COM, OLE, OLEDB, Serial, TCP/IP, UDP, flat-files and GPRS
  
• Have a solid understanding of computer protocols from the above exposure.
  
• Continually update an architecture to keep backward compatibility in a modular software environment
  
• Migrated modules from a C basis, rewriting hierarchical algorithms to use OO and C++, retaining compatibility once again
  
• Created frameworks and code-libraries that reduce our programming surface
  
• Used IPC to create a effective debugging/troubleshooting environment which even a customer can drive
  
• Use the web to find answers and SDKs or components
  
• Windows platform using Microsoft Tools
  
• Considered a C++ expert amongst my peers
  

An example of my work can be found in a spare-time pursuit of my own, by doing a google search for:
“Conrad Braam” +modbus

During my time at Adroit my tasks also included:

• End-user documentation

• Web server back-end ASP
  
• Using Visual Basic
  
• Exposure to C# on the .NET platform
  
• Troubleshooting: wireless and LAN/WAN networks
  
• Providing client support (telephonic, email and on-site) involving problems not just with our software or the communications, but also of customer-assets that affect our product’s performance.
  
• Communicating with suppliers and customers world-wide
  
• Exposure to the Mining, chemical, steel, electrical and various manufacturing industries. Also injection molding, drying, asset tracking, water and traffic applications.
  
• Working with PLCs (Logic Controllers)
  
• Working with electronics from my light-current background allowing me to confidently assemble, connect and inspect machines of any type.
  
• Technology presentations for customer functions, shows and private demos.
  
• Developing a module test-jig (white-box testing)
  

The Mission-critical nature of an industrial control environment means that people rely on your code to run 24/7/365, this has taught me how a solid design, simplicity, coding style and discipline directly affect defect-rate. I readily understand platforms and programming languages, and read and understand Flemish and German technical documentation. I work well on my own and consider myself self-motivated!