Nicholas Furness
Geospatial Analyst & Developer
Profile
Drove the design and development of a number of showcase, award-winning and mission-critical systems for private enterprise and government. A deep understanding and extensive experience of software architecture, of software development, and of system runtime dynamics allows me to play a critical role in any team involved in the creation and troubleshooting of complex systems.
I am looking for a position that allows me to work on intuitive and customer-centric software, whilst moving towards team-leadership roles under the right mentorship.
Skills
Geospatial Apps
Improve users' workflow using clear and thoughtful design to create intuitive, responsive, powerful and interactive applications.
Database Design
Develop and build scalable and efficient application-specific data repositories, both spatial and non-spatial.
Technical Mentorship
Adept at working with team members to reinforce their strengths and recognise their potential knowledge gaps.
Technical
- ASP.Net, ASP
- AJAX, JavaScript
- C#, VB6, Objective C
- Ruby on Rails
- Oracle, PL/SQL
- SQL Server, SQL/XML
- Oracle Spatial
- OOP/OOD
- ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Desktop
- ArcObjects
- ArcSDE
- GE Smallworld
Experience
Atos Origin Ltd.
Senior Geospatial Analyst and Technical Lead
2004-2008
Specify, design, implement, maintain, document and extend one of the first and most complex ArcGIS Server installations, providing map editing, map production and spatial web services to the UK Government's Rural Payments Agency.
Worked closely with the client on-site in London and remotely from New York. In addition to functional improvements, realised the following measurable benefits.
- 5× data reliability improvement of outsourced data.
- 10× faster map generation.
- 2× nightly data import performance.
- 4× data upgrade and resynching performance.
- 12× software and configuration upgrade performance.
Linkspoint Inc.
GIS Analyst, Architect and Technical Lead
2001-2004
Fast implementation of simple and intuitive geospatial applications for large and small clients around New York City.
West Nile Virus inspection and treatment
Specified, designed, developed and deployed an interactive route-drawing/management system for Department of Health contractors to deploy West Nile Virus countermeasures. The Windows-based ArcMap custom solution interfaced with a custom PocketPC solution to track inspection and larvicide treatment around New York.
- At no point in the client’s workflow were they required to understand geospatial systems: If you could read a map, you could work the system.
- Instantaneous reporting of inspection results and treatments in tabular and graphical form.
NYC Dept. of Buildings 9/11 recovery
Overnight implementation of map provision service to wireless devices for DOB recovery activities after 9/11. Integrating with existing Lotus Domino data to supplement with dynamic generated maps of individual properties (where facades were too damaged to locate accurately). Introduced immediate reporting back to DOB from the field.
NYC Dept. of Buildings Plumbing Inspection
Award-winning PIPES system for DOB plumbing inspections integrating existing systems with new handheld application. SQL/XML with XSL processing was used to merge legacy CRM data with new Inspection System data directly onto PocketPC devices, scheduling each day's work and reporting back inspection results nightly.
Architectural Restoration
Customizable Tablet PC system for graphical markup of architectural restoration surveys. Combined database schema and control software allowed disconnected editing from and merging to a central project database over WiFi, supporting client-driven per-project customizations of survey options.
Convergent Group
Senior Developer
1996-2001
Developed enterprise GIS systems for large gas, electricity and telecommunications providers, and for local government using both ESRI and GE Smallworld GIS platforms. Created spatial databases and software at the core of Convergent Group's reusable utility GIS components library.
Smallworld Systems
Senior Developer
1999-2000
Helped to develop GE Smallworld’s new outage-management solution, PowerOn. PowerOn became a leading product in the outage-management market operating as a mission-critical enterprise application for many utility companies worldwide. Recently identified by Gartner as still the industry leader.
GDS/Arc Systems/EDS/Convergent Group
Software Engineer
1995-1997
Worked in Cambridge, Denver, Melbourne, and Sydney on a Facilities Management, Network Modeling and Map Production system for Bell South Telecommunications.
Personal Projects
I have had a personal website since 1997. In 2000, I extended my C# knowledge by designing and building an ASP.Net and SQL Server blogging engine served from home, later augmented to cater for photo libraries. This included the concept of polygonal tags tied to user profiles (now a feature of Facebook, Flickr and others) as well as by emotion, clothing, location and event. In the end my website changed focus and I switched to Blogger, then Tumblr.
Education
Cambridge University
MA and BA, Computer Science
1992 - 1995
Personal
I was born in Slovenia and raised in Cambridge, England. I have worked in Melbourne, Sydney, Denver, Cambridge, London and New York, where I currently live with my wife. I am bilingual in English and Slovenian and hold a Green Card and both British and Slovenian passports.
I started programming in BASIC at the age of 8 using Commodore 64s and BBC Micros before progressing to the Acorn Archimedes, experimenting with 3D graphics and User Interface design in ARM Assembly (Acorn later spun off their CPU team to form what is today ARM). With the exception of Modula 3 and ML, which were university courses, all languages and systems I’ve learnt have been self-taught.
I’m currently teaching myself Ruby on Rails (with my first commercial project nearing completion), and learning Mac and iPhone development as well as Web Application Security. I’m also teaching myself about visual interpretation both in photography and movies, and am working on a collection of illustrated children’s books aimed at adults, the first of which is entitled “This Is Not For You”.
Nicholas Furness — nf@nicholasfurness.com — +1.646.827.0275
www.nicholasfurness.com