Paul Sweatman

Software / Systems Engineer

Objective

Eighteen years experience in the software design and development areas. Full life cycle support and systems administration. Past work has been performed for NASA, the Department of Defense and the private sector. Over five years experience running a company and leading various groups.

Summary of Skills

Experience

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Software/Systems Engineer
Feb 2007 - Present Innovim, LLC (Greenbelt, MD)
  • Design / implement the Integration and Test System Element for the NPOESS Preparatory Project Science Data Segment (I&TSE NPP SDS)
  • This task involves all phases of the design and implementation cycle and requires extensive communications with the various NASA science and engineering groups involved in the project
  • Many software tools have been designed and written for this task
  • Tools include HDF5 data manipulation tools, web based scheduling and tools to aid users in the use of the Integrated Data Processing System (IDPS) spacecraft data processing software
  • Tools were developed in a variety of languages including C, Java, Perl, PHP, Oracle and MySQL for Linux and IBM AIX platforms
  • Additional responsibilities have included acting as temporary lead for the group assigned to the element
  • Further duties include:
    • - Member of a CMMi Level 2 Appraisal Board: responsible for granting Innovim's CMMi Level 2 Certification
    • - Alternate Facilities Operations Manager: responsible for the safety and well being of about 400 people at a NASA facility
    • - Other responsibilities include authorization to sign security and work requests and management of all aspects of building operations
    • - Often serve as acting Facilities Operations Manager
    • - Familiarity with Federal emergency management procedures.
Software Engineer
July 2005 - Dec 2006 USInternetworking, Inc. (USI) (Annapolis, MD)
  • Designed and implemented an in-house, web-based inventory control system allowing editing and reporting of inventory related information
  • The project used Mod Perl, Dojo, Ruby, and SQL for implementation purposes
  • This task involved direct contact with the in-house customer to develop the system
Owner, Operator, Senior Software Engineer
Nov 2000 - June 2005 Tau Ceti Technologies (Pasadena, MD)
  • Owner of Tau Ceti Technologies, Ltd., a subcontracting firm involved primarily in the areas of Space Science and Space Missions Operation
  • Responsible for all operations of the company and all employees
  • Engineering tasks were performed in the following areas:
    • - Development of image processing software for a robotic "eye" to be used on a robot designed for the DARPA Grand Challenge
    • - Involved in all stages of the robot design
    • - Subcontractor to the Goddard DAAC (Distributed Active Archive Center) for various prime contractors, including SGT, Raytheon and SSAI
  • Various tasks were performed while working at the GDAAC, including development of automated test tools for both the Earth Core System (ECS) and for data filters to convert data stored in HDF-EOS formats to the NetCDF format
  • Other development work included the installation and testing of WMTDODS (Web Mapping Test bed) software, the creation of tools to automatically update the data catalogs used by WMTDODS and several other smaller tools
  • System administration tasks included the implementation, testing and maintenance of a BEOWULF Linux cluster of computers
  • While doing this work, various methods of clustering were investigated and once examined, the cluster was rebuilt and reconfigured to examine other technologies for evaluation
  • All work performed on Linux and SGI platforms
  • Programming efforts involved C, C++, Perl, Java, XML, and various scripting languages
Senior Software Engineer
Jan 1999 - Nov 2000 SGT, Inc (Greenbelt, MD)
  • Assisted in designing and implementing TAPS (Trending Analysis and Plotting System)
  • Primary responsibilities included programming lead, overall design of the system and implementation of the decommutation portion of the software
  • The primary purpose of the system was to determine health trends of satellite systems using CCSDS-based spacecraft telemetry sent to ground stations
  • The application was implemented using the C and Java programming languages working on Linux and Sun platforms
  • The software was/is used by the ERBS (Earth Radiation Budget Satellite) and XTE (X-Ray Telescope Explorer) ground systems
Senior Software Engineer
Feb 1998 - Jan 1999 Lockheed Martin / SGT, Inc (Greenbelt, MD)
  • Worked on the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) program which involved maintaining existing ground station software
  • All work was done using C on a Microsoft NT platform
  • Work on Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) involved the design and implementation of a new graphical user interface for use by ground control operators.
Subcontractor/Software Engineer
Nov 1996 - Jan 1998 CSC (Greenbelt, MD)
  • Worked on implementing a version of the Telemetry and Processing Environment (TPCE) for use in testing the telemetry sent back by the International Space Station
  • Designed and developed tools to aid testers in the creation of test suites to be used by TPCE for the previously mentioned testing
  • Work was performed at Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Often traveled to Kennedy Space Flight Center to train users and research possible tool enhancements
  • All coding was done using C++ and Motif on a Sun platform
Senior Software/Systems Engineer
June 1995 - June 1996 BTG, Inc. (Vienna, VA)
  • Worked with the U.S. Navy on the JDISS task (Joint Deployable Intelligence Support System)
Software Specialist
Mar 1995 - June 1995 U.S. Navy and BTG / Digital Equipment Corporation (Greenbelt, MD)
  • Worked with the U.S. Navy on the JDISS task (Joint Deployable Intelligence Support System)
Software Specialist
July 1993 - March 1995 Dept. of Defense / Digital Equipment Corporation (Ft. Meade, MD)
  • Worked on a foreign language dictionary
Computer Analyst
Dec 1990 - July 1993 Dept. of Defense (Ft. Meade, MD)
  • Worked on in-house development using C, X-windows, and OSF-Motif running on a UNIX platform
Programmer
June 1990 - Dec 1990 Bureau of Land Management (Fort Collins, CO)
  • Worked on the SASEM (Simple Applied Smoke Estimation Model) Tool using C and FORTRAN running on a DOS operating system

Education

Doctorate of Astronomy
2004 - 2007 / on sabbatical James Cook University (Australia)
  • Project involved using star catalogs derived from various all-sky observations at different wavelengths
  • All data was combined into a single database for consistency purposes
  • The goal was to perform data mining operations on the standardized database and create a secondary database of potential targets allowing researchers full access to all mined data
  • All work was performed using Ruby and MySQL
Master of Science in Astronomy
2003 James Cook University (Australia)

B.S. Computer Science
1990 Colorado State University
  • Emphasis in engineering, mathematics and numerical analysis
  • Additional class work included training in Systems Engineering, Spacecraft Mission design, C++, Java, graphical user interface design, systems administration, X-Windows and Motif (a detailed list is available upon request)

Community / Volunteer

Volunteer Consultant / Robotic Engineering Club
Sept 2003 - May 2005 Woodlawn Senior High School (Woodlawn, MD)
  • Helped teach students programming and design skills
  • Assisted with their programming efforts
  • Acted as adult lead for all control (hardware and software) systems for Woodlawn's robots used in FIRST Robotics competitions