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Ross Driedger

Software Developer/Architect/Educator

London, Ontario, Canada
ross (at) earz (dot) ca

Profile

Over 20 years of experience in the software industry as a programmer, developer, architect, instructor and courseware writer. Points of focus have been toward education, games/internet gaming support and secure software development.

Core Skills

Tools

Work Experience

triOS College
2010-2015
Instructor/Video Game Design and Development Program
Instruction at various campuses in the Video Game Design and Development Program (VGDD) at triOS College. Assisted in revising course materials, and writing and compiling supplementary materials. Recognized as triOS subject expert in C++. Subjects taught: Video Game Technical Design, Video Game Business, Video Game Mathematics/Physics, Video Game Prototyping in Adobe Flash and Javascript, C++.
Project Manager
2014
Website design and management of a team that built the Website for the July 2014 ACBL sanctioned duplicate bridge tournament in London, Ont., Canada. Environments: HTML5, CSS, Javascript.
** Private **
2009
Application Developer/Architect (Contract)
Developing and designing a suite of distributed applications for retail intelligence. Environments: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Visual Studio 2005, Qt, SQL/T-SQL, SQL Server 2005.
Beanbag Studios
2008
Game Developer
Developed interactive chess and bridge games for the PC, including educational content, interactive exercises and AI engines. Responsible for the content, programming, scripting, configuration management and resolving of issue discovered during testing. Environments: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Visual Studio 2005, Torsion Game Builder, CVS.
Royal Conservatory of Music
2005-2007
Senior Application Analyst
Built online application capabilities into the web site. Prepared and submitted payroll data to Canada Revenue Agency. Designed an overall portal application for application, registration and communication between students, faculty and administration staff. Supported existing application base. Environments: Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Visual Studio 2005, Qt, .NET, Subversion.
2004–2005
Consultant (Contract)
Developed, implemented and deployed an image configuration system and security policies for the organization’s PCs running Windows XP in an Active Directory network. Security of the system and adherence to the Conservatory’s security policies was of extremely high importance. Environments: Windows XP, Windows Server 2000/2003, assorted Windows configuration tools, Unattended.
RAD International
2004
Programmer (Contract)
Part of a team that performed disaster recovery on an application for a large financial services company (secure, fault-tolerant code was of extremely high importance). Environments: C++, AIX, Motif, XDesigner, Exceed, CVS.
Earz Music Software
2002-2005
Programmer/Tech Lead (Contract)
Design, production coding, direction of a client/server educational music application for Windows, MacOS X and Linux. Uses C++, Qt, Java, SOAP, XML, PostgreSQL, Oracle and UML. Environments: Visual Studio.NET, Intel compiler (Win32 & Intel), gcc, Qt Designer, Rational Rose, Oracle, Windows NT/2000/XP, MacOS X, Fedora Linux, CVS.
Freelance Corporate Trainer
2001-2004
Trainer/Courseware Developer
Corporate training (both in-class and e-Learning) in C, C++, C#, Java, XML, UML, OOA/OOD, Rational Rose, Quality Assurance, Computer Security (Implementation and practices) , SQL and PL/SQL. Clients included CDI Corporate Education, Trios Corporate Training, Saskatoon Business College and Honeywell Corporation. Authored courseware for C, C++, XML, UML, OOA/OOD, PL/SQL, Quality Assurance, Computer Security courses. Built SCORM compliant e-Learning systems.
The Institute for Computer Studies
2000-2001
Instructor (Contract)
Part time teaching of classes (up to 32 students) in C++, Java and Programming Logic. Also consulted on curriculum revision. Environments: Visual C++ 6, MS Windows NT, Windows 95/98.
Kaosworks (now Gateway Internet Solutions)
1999-2001
Developer/Programmer/Tech Lead
Designed and implemented a specification for COM components, for E-Commerce database server administration (primarily Internet Gaming), and a client application to host them; in order to automate the development of these components, wrote an extension to the ATL Object Wizard. Analyzed requirements, wrote specifications, prototypes and documentation for back office components, including a component to allow the user to interactively explore real estate for sale. Evaluated and interviewed prospective employees. Used COM, ATL, MFC, Java, Windows Template Library, UML, Rational Rose, IIS, Windows Media technologies, HTML, XML. Environments: Visual C++ 6, Oracle 7.2, SQL Server 7.0, Windows NT, Windows 2000, MS Visual SourceSafe.
Herzing Career Institute
1998-1999
Instructor
Taught classes in C, C++, Win32, MFC, Java and COM programming. Developed and raised curriculum standards in these topics. Participated in the selection of new teaching staff. The class sizes were up to 30 students. Environments: Visual C++ 6, MS Visual SourceSafe, Windows NT, Windows 95/98.
ABEL Computers
1996-1997
Programmer (Contract)
Designed ActiveX Controls for use in a distributed dental office management system. Redesigned the video capture, X-Ray and imaging component of the application, including data organization, storage, relational schema and presentation. Used MFC, COM, ATL technologies. Environments: Visual C++ 4.2, 5, MS Visual SourceSafe, Windows NT, Windows 95.
J.V.Levitan Enterprises
1996
Programmer (Contract)
Programming, maintenance and design of software for an embedded system gaming terminal (System written in C++ and assembler). Developed coding standards for a team of international programmers (Canada and Russia). Composed music for the system and maintained the MIDI files. Environments: Borland C++ 3.1 Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95, DOS.
Discis Knowledge Research
1996
Programmer/Consultant (Contract)
Programming and maintenance of tools used in producing multimedia titles (C++ in Windows 95 and Windows NT). Administration of the network. Authoring of multimedia titles. Researching and advising on platform compatibility issues (MacOS to Windows 95, Windows NT). Used OWL, MFC, COM technologies. Environments: mTropolis, Macromedia Director, Borland C++ 4.1, Visual C++ 4.0, Metrowerks CodeWarrior, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95, DOS, MacOS.
Logic Innovations
1995-1996
Programmer (Contract)
Development and maintenance of programs that made up a parking management and audit system. Architectural and detailed design, prototyping, coding, debugging, testing and maintenance of systems. The software requirement demanded the source to be very flexible in terms of platform and user languages; in order to meet this requirement; very disciplined software engineering techniques were employed. Environments: Visual C++ 1.5, MS FoxPro, Variations of DOS

Education

Project Management
Saskatoon Business College
PMP Core – Managing Projects
Computer Security
CDI Corporate Education (now Global Knowledge)
Securing Microsoft Networks from Hacker Attacks
Computer Science
McMaster University
B.Sc. in Computer Science (Software Engineering)
Computer Programming
Sheridan College
Computer programming studies at Sheridan College.
Music Theatre Studio Ensemble
Banff Centre School of Fine Arts
Two year program for the advanced training of professional actors.
Music
University of Saskatchewan
B. Mus. in Theory and Composition, and Voice Performance.

Interests