Peter E. Berger    Software Engineer /  August 2008

EDUCATION

1978 Carleton College, Northfield, MN; B.A.; Mathematics

EMPLOYMENT

1990-present. Proprietor, Project Leader. Brimson Laboratories

Founded Brimson Laboratories to target projects requiring the resources of larger software development teams. Team leader and/or software engineer on software design and development contracts with:

• Thomson Reuters. Software engineer on four separate UNIX (C, Shell, Perl and Sybase) contracts for the Reuters Fixed Income Development Group. Design, implement, test and integrate: 1. Significant components of a large pricing acquisition, calculation and publishing application. 2. A database abstraction layer library to insulate a suite of applications from the underlying database management system. 3. A suite of database integrity tools. 4. Convert existing applications to a new input data stream and develop a new vs. old data collection and analysis tie-out suite to identify and categorize differences. (12/04 - 12/06; 3/07-12/07; 3/08-present)
• Digi International. Software engineer and sometimes team leader writing and maintaining device drivers and diagnostics for ISA, PCI and USB multiport communications adapters under Linux, Tru64 UNIX, AIX, FreeBSD, QNX and OS/2, and embedded firmware development for Digi's Device Server/Terminal Server products. (6/97-11/04).
• Minnesota Power.
  • Designed, implemented and maintained a series of automated data collection and analysis projects to monitor air quality, mechanical systems performance and energy usage and production (including monitoring performance of pilot photovoltaic installations) in residential and commercial buildings. Projects include developing embedded datalogger control programs and automated web-site updating such as the Millennium Star Energy Performance and Monitoring project. (6/92-8/04).
  • Software engineer on project that designed, implemented and deployed a web-based, spreadsheet-like customer tracking system. (1-6/03)
• Conservation Technologies. Multiple remote monitoring and control projects including:
  • Designed and implemented an embedded-Linux energy production/consumption data collection and performance evaluation system for the Hartley Nature Center including monitoring of grid-tied tracker and stationary PV photovotaic arrays and coefficient of performance (COP) measurements of a ground source heat pump (GSHP). (12/03-11/04)
  • Implemented a web-based energy production monitoring system for a 2.4KW grid-tied PV (photovoltaic) installation and merged it into an energy awareness website for the Duluth Library. Custom software includes a Linux interface to the SMA Sunny Boy Control and inverter and a bootable CD-ROM-based standalone public kiosk. (09/03-10/04)
  • Developed embedded control system for monitoring, logging temperatures and controlling dampers and fans in a multi-room commercial vegetable storage facility. (7-12/01) .
  • Developed embedded control system for monitoring, logging and controlling pumps in a hydronic heating system with multiple heat sources. (10/00-4/01)
  • Designed and implemented an intranet/Internet-based remote sensing, datalogging and realtime graphical analysis performance system for 42 geographically dispersed sites connected to a central monitoring office. (10/96-6/97)
• National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Principal investigator and senior software engineer leading a multi-disciplinary team to 1. modify our proprietary database-driven digital audio production system to support an adult smoking cessation program, and 2. conduct clinical trials using the resulting highly personalized audiotapes, compact discs and print materials. (8/96-3/97, 8/98-10/02).
• Oak Ridge National Laboratories/Conservation Technologies. Designed, implemented and maintained a water temperature and flowrate data collection system to evaluate a novel waste-water heat recovery device. (4/99-8/2000).
• National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Principal investigator and chief software engineer for SBIR project to develop and test a personalized audiotape program for self-management of childhood asthma. Research protocol is designed to compare the relative effectiveness of personalized vs. generic audio programs. Developed hardware/software system for producing and managing personalized audiotapes. (7/95-6/96)
• Minnesota Power/Ground Source Heat Pump Consortium. Designed and implemented a remote sensing data collection and realtime analysis system for performance monitoring of a commercial ground source heat pump demonstration project. Custom HTML and CGI programming make the collected data available via WWW Internet browsers using dynamically created tables and graphs. (2/96-8/98)
• National Biological Survey/Environmental Protection Agency. Principal investigator for software development subcontract in collaboration with the University of Minnesota, Natural Resources Research Institute to develop a virtual reality interface to geographic information system-based landcover classification data. Deliverables include 3D VRML "virtual worlds" which can be explored interactively in 3D using standalone viewers, or with VRML-enabled World Wide Web browsers such as Netscape. (5/95-6/96; 10/96-4/97)
• Hughes STX/EROS Data Center. Designed and implemented a suite of VCR control programs to automatically position and capture airborne video images in support of the Senegal Ecological Monitoring project. (7-9/95; 7-8/96)
• Minnesota Department of Health/US Environmental Protection Agency. Co-principal investigator for MDH/EPA research and education project to demonstrate the interaction between how buildings are designed, constructed and operated, and indoor environmental responses including radon levels, and to develop and present suitable educational materials in cooperation with the American Lung Association of Minnesota. (2/95-5/96)
• National Science Foundation; Minnesota Technology, Inc. Principal investigator for two subcontracts in collaboration with the University of Minnesota, Natural Resources Research Institute to develop a georeferenced airborne video data collection and analysis system and a related helicopter/laser rangefinder/GPS-based stream mapping system. (1/93-6/95; 5-6/96).
• Digi International. Software engineer on Brimson Laboratories team developing an X.25 network device driver for Digiboard smart communications card. Responsibility for OS/2 Presentation Manager programming. (12/94-6/95)
• Marathon Multimedia. Designed a hypertext browser application for a technical journal database. (12/93-1/94).
• Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Principal investigator for AHCPR SBIR project to develop an expert system for family-oriented, primary prevention health care planning. (9/92-4/93).
• Personal Learning Systems. System designer for an automated, database-driven, personalized audio tape production system. (6-11/92)
• National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Principal investigator for a NIDDK-funded SBIR project to redesign the University of Minnesota, Nutrition Data System user interface for use by untrained users. The new system includes a natural language analysis engine for user input and novel graphing techniques to display nutrient values. (9/91-4/92)
• Fairfield Software, Inc. Project leader for the Brimson Laboratories team involved in implementing enhancements to an existing C++/C-Language electronic spreadsheet program. (3-9/91)
• ICM Productions. Designed and implemented QNX-based, C-Language software for database-driven control of multiple video recorders and other special purpose hardware for a cable television application. (3-6/90)
• Sellectek, Inc. Debugging an existing QNX QTALK communications application. (3/90)

1983-1992. Contract Programmer and Consultant; Brimson, MN.

Designed and programmed software under contracts with:

• Nutrition Coordinating Center, University of Minnesota. Designed and programmed C-Language and PASCAL database and user interface programs for food intake studies including major work for the National Center for Health Statistics NHANES national food consumption survey. (7/87-10/92)
• Heinmiller Software Associates. Programming team member on a project to design and implement a new user interface for a cost analysis system under contract to Estimatic Corporation, Denver, CO. (2-8/91)
• Euler Solutions. Software engineer working on design and implementation of a cost accounting and flexible budgeting system for the health care industry. (4-10/89)
• Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Minnesota. (5-9/88)
• Group Health, Inc. Programmed a suite of Turbo PASCAL programs to manage a distributed pharmacy administration database. (6-7/87)
• Microport Systems, Inc. DOSMERGE/286 beta tester. (4/87)
• Hallmark Cards, Inc. Designed and developed video graphics system. (1/85-1/86)
• Control Data Corporation, South-Western Publishing Co.; Scholastic, Inc. Designed and wrote C-Language Lotus 1-2-3 look-alike spreadsheet programs to operate on various hardware under CP/M, Apple DOS, Apple PRODOS, PC/MSDOS, TRSDOS and UNIX operating systems. (2-4/84; 5/86-2/87; 9/87-12/88, 1-4/90)
• American Mathematical Monthly. Designed and implemented C-Language, UNIX utilities to maintain database; track and print camera-ready copy of book reviews. (3-6/84)
• Information Technology Design Associates. Co-designed and developed UNIX-based C-Language software development system for multiple target computers. (10/83-2/87)
• Warren, Gorham & Lamont. Consulting and data conversion work. (10/83-3/86)
• Control Data Corporation. Programmed CP/M PASCAL MT+ word processor and database manager for CDC microcomputers. (11/82-12/83)

1980-1983 Academic Computer Programmer. St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN.

Designed, programmed and maintained software, provided support to faculty and students and supervised teams of student programmers working for the College's academic computer center. Primary responsibility for computer communications, graphics and text processing projects.

1978-1979 Math Tutor. Phillips Junior High School, Minneapolis, MN..

1977-1978 Math Tutor. Carleton College, Northfield, MN.