I grew up interested in making and understanding how things work.
After finishing high school I took a “Bachelor of Engineering Technology (Electrotechnology)” degree at CPIT here in Christchurch. This was a degree covering a wide range of topics including:
- control system engineering
- electrical engineering
- computer engineering
- electronic engineering
- engineering management
In my final year of study, I did a research project for Link Engine Management. The project was using DSP techniques to analyse engine vibrations and automatically feedback information to the engine control computer. This provided automated engine protection against knocking/pinging (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_knocking). The project also had an audio amplifier suitable for headphones which was essentially an “engine stethoscope”. The project was successful and led me into my first job. The technology is used in several products still available today.
My job title was just “Engineer” which meant I did a wide variety of tasks: PCB design, schematic design, firmware, software and other hands on tasks. Surprisingly, testing was probably the most fun part of the job - it often involved driving around in high performance cars.
Eventually, I got sick of electronics blowing up and fixing was not as easy as recompiling. I decided to focus more on software development.
I got my first software only job at Dynamic Controls working on medical grade firmware that is used in mobility scooters. I learnt a lots from a large group of extremely talented developers.
Several years went by. I decided I wanted to move up the technology stack, but only a bit, so I took a job at Enatel working on their embedded Linux platform. I got lucky again and had an ex Android Kernel developer leading the project, once again lots more knowledge was gained.
Starting a software development contracting company was the next thing I wanted to do. So I did that and have been flat out since. Recently I have been doing a lot of work with Qt, QML and C++.
Side Project: C++ Conference
I always enjoyed watching C++ conference talks online and realised there was nothing on this side of the world. Having recently finished a Tim Ferriss book which mentioned the benefits of pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone, I decided to give it a shot.
Pacific++ was created (https://pacificplusplus.com/) which ran in 2017 (Christchurch) and 2018 (Sydney). I have taken a break from the conference in 2019 after several issues getting an Auckland event off the ground.