Background Summary
Experienced Engineering Manager and real-time embedded systems Software and Hardware Engineer with diverse technical skills and a strong customer- and quality-oriented style of leadership. Accomplishments include product development and validation of both PC-based and consumer electronics digital video and audio products for profitable mass production by major OEM customers, and the staffing and training of a software engineering department that led to a corporate IPO and later to an acquisition by a world-class IC manufacturer. B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering.
Employment Experience
Independent Consultant, PA and NJ, 2004 - present
Provide technical engineering, reverse engineering, hardware and software design, and expert witness services.
ThinkFire Services USA, LLC, Clinton NJ, 2004
Senior Engineer
Evaluated and rated patents in client portfolios, performed technical research and reverse engineering of electronic and computer products to find and document intellectual property infringements with claim charts to secure licensing agreements for clients and to defend them from ligation and counter-assertions.
STMicroelectronics Inc., Malvern PA and Lancaster PA, 2001 - 2003
Project Manager, Emerging Markets
Senior Engineering Section Manager
Integration and Test, DVD Division of the Consumer and Microcontroller Group
Responsibilities include a variety of activities related to the development
of a "standard product" consumer electronics set-top DVD/VCD/CDDA/MP3
player, including specification, design, software engineering, embedded software
debugging, testing, and the integration of new features completed by development
staff into production versions of software. Interact with customers, other departments,
and engineers working at facilities in other parts of the world for the purpose
of improving development schedules and product quality, providing training,
and resolution of software issues relating to customer acceptance and mass production.
STMicroelectronics acquired the Ravisent Technologies CE division in March
2001.
Ravisent Technologies Inc. (formerly Quadrant International),
Malvern PA, 1997 - 2001
Manager of Design Integration Engineering, Consumer Electronics (CE)
Division
Performed a variety of predominantly managerial activities related to the development of the company's first consumer electronics DVD player product with essentially no involvement from upper management. Responsibilities included identification and specification of tasks that maximized achievement of customer requirements with a minimum of engineering effort, task assignments, design decisions, prioritization, interaction with customers and with engineering and management of the Karlsruhe (Germany) design center, and managing delivery and support of customers. Performed most of the recruiting, interviewing, and hiring activities to create a critical engineering department by adding six (mostly senior) software engineers and several co-ops, and fulfilled all management responsibilities (training, performance and compensation reviews, technical leadership, process development, and expense approval) for the development staff.
Quadrant International (changed to Ravisent Technologies Inc. for
IPO), Malvern PA, 1996 - 1997
Engineering Test Manager
Senior Test Engineer
Designed the foundation of the company's test plan, daily software build process, test automation, and quality processes for the qualification of the device drivers and user application for two designs of a PCI-based DVD playback card. Performed engineering analysis of problems with the software and worked directly with development engineering and customers to characterize and correct the defects. Verified compliance to all hardware requirements of PCI 2.1 specification and to all software requirements of DVD licensing entities. Specified and wrote all of the production diagnostic software used to validate the product at the manufacturing facility and on the production floor at Dell Computer, our largest customer. Supported engineers and customers, and participated in some product (software) design decisions. Led design reviews. Hired and managed one software engineer and an engineering technician.
Tseng Labs Inc., Newtown PA, 1994 - 1996
Engineer
Performed a variety of engineering activities associated with the qualification of video graphics (VGA) chips up to and including the ET6000. Used test equipment and logic analyzers to perform the hardware design qualifications (both at the board and chip level) on a variety of ISA, PCI, and VL motherboards, and wrote C and 8088 assembly language programs at the hardware register level to facilitate the silicon validation. Verified compliance to all requirements of PCI bus specification and hardware compatibility with prototype and production processors and motherboards. Analyzed silicon problems found by software engineers writing the device drivers and designed programs to cause these anomalies quickly for ASIC simulation and silicon microprobing. Debugged customer-reported problems. Characterized test chips and worked with the ASIC design group (including the corporate founder) to perform experiments and analyze hardware design defects and improve silicon test vectors.
Accu-sort Systems Inc., Telford PA, 1990 - 1993
Software Engineer
Wrote and debugged 8085 assembly language programs and some C programs using in-circuit emulators to customize industrial barcode scanning systems to meet customer requirements for RS-232 and RS-485 serial port communications and control. Developed and improved barcode decoding algorithms in moving-beam scanners.
Skills and Expertise
Software and test engineering management, project management
Embedded systems and real-time software and firmware design, debugging, and
validation
Hardware design, software design, and software architecture including new feature
development and user interface design
Hardware (board-level design, debug, and validation), software (C, assembly
languages, C++, Python), and test engineering
Intellectual property, patent evaluation and defense, reverse engineering of
products, and claim charting of infringements
Direct interaction with customers and customer representatives
Evaluation of complex technical standards to identify and document product requirements
Knowledge of quality systems and concepts and their applications
Digital video, digital audio, and signal compression and storage
Development of test methodologies and automation, test plans, and technical
documentation
Test equipment, test equipment interfaces (GPIB, Ethernet), industry certifications
(Dolby, FCC, DVD Forum, Microsoft)
Technical staffing - recruiting, interviewing, and technical training of employees
at all skill levels
Technical writing, documentation, and accuracy verification
Training - architecture of training materials, public speaking, and technical
guidance for engineers and customers
Education transcripts available on request
Pre-employment
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
M.S. Electrical Engineering, 1989
B.S. Electrical Engineering, 1987 (GPA: 3.33)
Post-employment
Essentials of Management, Penn State University, Great Valley PA, 2000
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Advanced Administration, Novell Inc., Waltham
MA (2007)
Other Activities and Interests
Photography, astronomy, cooking, cellular microbiology, gardening, computers, intellectual property law, digital audio, and music collecting, information archival and occasional travel for my favorite band Blondie, who were popular in the late 70s and whose Official Website I created, own, and maintain.
References
Professional references of any relationship and some samples of my work will be provided on request.
Software applications
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0, Visual SourceSafe, Rational ClearCase, Rational ClearDDTS
defect tracking system
Linux, Microsoft operating systems from DOS 3.3 to Windows 2000 and XP at the
device driver level
Microsoft Visual Intercept Enterprise and Rational ClearDDTS defect tracking
systems
Various C/C++ compilers, assemblers, and software debugging tools for several
platforms
Microchip Midrange 8-bit PIC Microcontroller Integrated Development Environment
and assembly language
LibreOffice, Adobe Photoshop and a few other graphics programs, Audigy and other
sound editors, Emacs, PHP, and web applications including phpBB, WordPress,
and MediaWiki.
Relocation and travel
I am not willing to relocate except to New York City. Employers should be a
reasonable driving distance from my home, or permit working from home with some
travel.
Terms and Conditions
Copyright 2018 Barry L. Kramer
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