Software Engineer Machine

Terry Laughlin

Owner / Primary Consultant at Laughlin and Watson

*****@********.** 918-***-**** Clearwater, Florida

Summary

My projects (below) were all done in C/C++, C# with JAVA, ADA, SQL and Python in grad school in the 00's. Assembler as required. I did Fortran and COBOL in my first work out of college - some things you never forget and I still have manuals.

My work has been primarily real-time embedded machine control (robotics, automation, BSP's), including design, development (coding), debugging and delivery. The projects have included machine control for bottle inspection (using cameras) during manufacture, machine control for bottle cap inspection (using cameras) during manufacture, machine control for laser eye surgery machines (using cameras for setup) for 2 companies, machine control for something that is looking out the window of a spaceship, with computer controlled telescopes, orbiting Earth or maybe the machine is walking on Mars (I can't say more). I have also done internals, library work and drivers for the QNX Unix-like real-time operating system which is BSP work. QNX development is now being done under LINUX and I am now seeing LINUX as the OS.

Experience

Laughlin and Watson Owner / Primary Consultant

January 1980 -Present

Laughlin and Watson, founded in January of 1980 to provide custom design and implementation of software projects, continues the promise of quality service to our clients. Since 1982, we have specialized in QNX realtime projects. Client projects have been accomplished on Linux and Windows, but our heart is still with the best, QNX.

That first machine was an original IBM PC with QNX 0.95. Today, it is any Intel/AMD/ARM or other chipset in a desktop, laptop, embedded machine or phone with QNX Neutrino (although we still understand QNX 4.0 or even 2.0). Or, actually, any QNX compatible processor.

In 1983/84, our lead consultant and owner, John T. (Terry) Laughlin, was Vice President of Application Software for Quantum, Inc., the predecessor of QNX Software Systems, Ltd, now part of Blackberry. In 1989 and 1990, he returned to QNX as a consultant to participate as part of the QNX 4.0 development team.

Past and current clients include QNX Software Systems (now a division of Blackberry), Abbott Medical Optics, Emhart Glass, Audience, Bell Laboratories, NEC America, Visa, Bank of America, Pacific Gas & Electric, INEX Vision Systems and the California Retired Teachers Association (CRTA). Projects include: Machine Vision, pattern control for eye surgery, communication network management software, world-wide real time credit card authorization, international reservations, financial systems, cash register management software, software surveys for client firms, BSP's and more.

MAJOR PROJECTS and CLIENTS

Consulting Software Engineer at Alcon

November 2016 -August 2017 (10 months)

Alcon has an eye surgery machine similar (same roots) to the Abbott Medical Optics machine that I worked on. I was employed to review the code they had licensed, and make minor changes to customize the machine to Alcon and get it working on their new hardware including a BSP. Turned out that it was licensed from AMO (below) and was code that I had written.

Consulting Software Engineer at Honeybee Robotics

2014 -2015 (2 years)

This involved robotic space equipment. All I can say. The primary OS was QNX but I tested with code under VxWorks and did QNX development under Linux.

Consulting Software Engineer at Bucher Emhart Glass

January 2013 -October 2013 (10 months)

Bucher bought Insight Control Systems and continues to sell the software I helped develop at ICS. One of their customers (in Germany) had a BSP problem and I was brought on to solve that problem. It took many months to locate the problem (it didn't occur often), including several months at the customer site. Then fixing and testing, including in the field. Problem solved.

Consulting Software Engineer at Abbott Medical Optics (now Advanced Medical Optics, part of Johnson & Johnson)

2009 -2012 (4 years)

Consulting software engineer for eye surgery pattern creation, control and management to Abbott Medical Optics for their robotic laser eye surgery machine plus device drivers and image processing. I designed, coded, tested and debugged the software. AMO is a client of Laughlin and Watson.

Personal development

2007 -2008 (2 years)

Creation of a personal stock trading and charting system using JAVA and DTN IQ-Feed for data. Done and working under Windows. This was done for fun.

Insight Control Systems, Software Engineer, Team Leader, VP Software

February 1993 -May 2001 (8 years 4 months)

ICS was founded in 1992 by three former Inex Vision Systems engineers. ICS grew steadily until it bought Inex and was then purchased by Emhart Glass, a Bucher Company. I helped grow ICS from three founders to 21 employees in 2001 and the business from zero to $4 million in revenues. I was responsible for all software development of our primary products, intelligent inspection robots for closures (bottle caps) and glass bottles with a very heavy emphasis on machine vision. This included all software controlled hardware - BSP's All development was under the QNX OS.

QNX Software Systems (the Operating System company), Software Engineer, VP Application Software

January 1983 -May 1984 (1 year 5 months)

I was VP of Application Software when there were three programmers and one salesman in the company. Later (1989 - 1990) I again worked for the company as a consultant doing QNX OS kernel and utility development and drivers for the QNX 4.0 project. I am still good friends with the QNX founders.

Education

University of Oklahoma

BA, Sociology with minors in Computer Science (using Fortran) and Finance, 1991

And this is the good story. We had an older classmate who sat in the rear of a graduate Sociology course. One day I saw him on the far side of campus as we were walking to class. I asked why a professor was sitting in on our class. He said that he was not a professor. He was just sitting in to refresh his PHD. I asked him what he did at the school. He told me that he did not work at the school, he worked at the Census Bureau in Washington, DC. Trying to be friendly, I asked him what he did. He said that the Census Bureau was run by Sociologists and that he could do whatever he wanted and that's why he spent his time as a computer programmer. I was stunned and we talked about what he did as we walked. And why he did it - because it was really fun. And that's the day, I became a programmer. It's still fun and, wow - I am so glad that we had the conversation.

University of Tulsa

Computer Science, 2003 - 2003 using JAVA, SQL and Python with Linux

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