John Henry (Jack) Cole          jhcole@mgl.ca
111 Chestnut St.                       (519) 578-6298
Kitchener, Ontario                    www.mgl.ca/~jhcole/
N2H 1T9

SUMMARY  

• Experienced educator in software, engineering subjects, and mathematics at the college and degree levels
• Experienced R&D manager and management team member in high tech, international setting
• Experienced manager of large projects; adept at handling multiple priorities
• Experienced leader of engineering teams; good motivator with a "systems level" view
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; can communicate with all levels
• Expert-level application designer and C developer
• Expert-level Win32 developer; previous UNIX experience
• Very experienced at hardware interface software design and development
• Whole-product experience (design, development, documentation, support, and promotion)

• Master of Science (Computer Science) University of Guelph (2010)
• Bachelor of Mathematics (Honours Computer Science), University of Waterloo (1978)

"My career has focused on creating software and systems in the high tech sector, with an emphasis on hardware interfacing. For much of this time I have combined software development duties with senior management positions, guiding R&D departments and being active in the management team."

Mineral Insights                                   Project Leader  (Analysis, Design, Software)
Research & Development                       Team Leadership, Software development
2013-present                                           (as Foundation Software Inc.)

Conestoga College                               Professor  (Programming, Mathematics, UNIX and more)
Engineering Department                       Curriculum development  (Applied Bachelor Degree program)
2003-2016

Philips Analytical Waterloo               Manager of Design & Development
(formerly Waterloo Scientific Inc.)        + Software Development Manager
1988 to 2003                                          + Common Software Project Manager
                                                                 + Senior Software Designer

BMB Compuscience Canada Ltd.       Project Leader and Senior Developer
1983 to 1987                                          Developer of the Imaginet local area network

dAVID Computers Inc.                          Manager of Research & Development
1980 to 1983                                         Responsible for the creation of the dAVID Computer
                                                                Systems software developer

Digital Business Computers                Manager of Technical Support Group
1977 to 1980                                         Also systems software and applications developer

Foundation Software Inc.                     Consultant
Ongoing                                                 Consulting and contract software development

ACADEMIC HISTORY

• Master of Science, University of Guelph (2010)  (begun at University of Waterloo)
• Thesis: "Tuning of Liquid State Machines for Tune Recognition".  This work applied a relatively new Artificial Intelligence approach, the Liquid State Machine,  to the recognition of instrumental music.  It also explored the optimization of such devices.


• Bachelor of Mathematics (Honours  Co-op), University of Waterloo (1978)
• Computer science major, including 16 computer related  courses
• Dean's Honour Role, 1978, with final course average of 89%

• Ontario Management Development Programme, Conestoga College (part time)
• Completed the Management Skills programme (6+ courses)
• Courses include Team Building, Communications


• Other items of note
• Additional courses in C++ and Java programming
• Ontario grade 13 average of 91%. Ontario scholar and selected class valedictorian.
• Top 10 finish in Descartes Mathematics competition; awarded fellowship to U of Waterloo.


• Patents awarded or applied for: Patents were filed for two methodologies developed at Waterloo Scientific (Philips). The first was awarded for a "virtual goniometer" with eucentric motion of a 6-axis system. The second was for derivation of semiconductor thin film thickness from a map of interference patterns.  I have also authored or co-authored several papers and articles of both scientific and computer related subjects.

EMPLOYMENT DETAILS

Mineral Insights (Consulting as Foundation Software Inc.) 2013 - present :
Project Leader

What began as the "Gold Sniffer" project was the first NSERC-awarded initiative of Conestoga College's Applied Research department. Together with the inventor (James Kendall), I lead a team of electronics, mechanical, and software engineering students in the prototyping of an innovative instrument for measuring the proportion of gold in a rock sample, using high resolution photography and spectroscopy. After retiring from the college, I continued as the designer and developer of analysis algorithms and software for which some patents have been awarded. The instrument has been rebranded as "Mineral Insights", and its use has been extended to the analysis of other minerals such as nickel and lithium.

Conestoga College, September 2003 - 2016 :
Professor

I taught in the Electronic Systems Engineering (ESE) Bachelor of Engineering program, which is a 4 year co-op degree with a systems engineering focus.  I was a member of the original curriculum development team for this program, which is unique in that it is completely project based.  I participated in and lead curriculum teams for the second and third years of the program, and have delivered first, second, third, and fourth year sessions on programming, operating systems, mathematics, telecommunications, networking, and signal processing.   I have been academic lead for several semester teams.

Prior to the launch of ESE, I taught first and second year C Programming and Software Techniques courses for the School of Engineering Technology, in the Telecommunications and Computer Engineering Technology programs, since 2003.  I have also taught Calculus and UNIX for the same department.  In all cases I developed the course material from existing outlines. 

Philips Analytical Waterloo, January 1988 to 2003 :
Manager of Design & Development
  Software Development Manager 
  Common Software Platform Manager
  Senior Software Designer  

The company (a division of Philips Electronics, formerly Waterloo Scientific) was a designer and manufacturer of laser and Xray based scientific equipment for use in the semiconductor industry.  These instruments, priced from $100k to $1M and used for quality control, incorporated robotics, machine vision, complex motion control systems, data collection, advanced data analysis, data presentation, and semiconductor FAB automation.  In the fall of 2002, Philips sold the division to a competitor, Accent Optical Technologies, which appropriated the technology and dismantled the Waterloo operation.  (From that time until June 2008 I maintained and extended  the Waterloo software base for Accent, which became a part of industry-leader Nanometrics in 2006.)

I was hired in 1988 as a senior software developer and future Software Manager, a role I assumed actively in 1991, managing four developers.  In May 1997, I accepted leadership of the Design & Development Department, which included the software, electronics, mechanical design and scientific staff.  I was also part of the Management Team which directed the strategy of the company.  In May of 1999 I was asked to form an international development team to create new software to control several dissimilar Philips Analytical instruments. The Common Software Platform was based in Waterloo, involved development teams in 4 countries, and grew to 16 developers.

At PAW I have co-authored several papers and have two patents awarded or pending for software algorithms. The company achieved ISO 9000 certification in 1999, and I was part of the implementation team, authoring the development sections of the quality plan.

BMB Compuscience Canada, August 1983 to December 1987 :
Project Leader

During this period the company created two iterations of a local area network (Imaginet) for microcomputers, which at that time was a new and revolutionary domain.  I was  the originator, designer  and  implementer of  all system and user software. I also directed the design and development  of  the second version of Imaginet hardware and various other components of the system.  I authored several hundred pages of training manuals and promotional articles about the network, and spoke about Imaginet at user-directed gatherings.

dAVID Computers Inc., September 1980 to August 1983 :
Manager of Research & Development

As   the   Manager  of  Research  and  Development  for  dAVID Computers I guided a team of a  dozen  people  in  the design,  development and  production of one of the very first entries in the brand new "supermicro" market.  I conducted all preliminary research,  determined  the direction  of  the  development, assembled and guided the hardware and software teams, assisted in the development of the more complex software (including the transfer of  UNIX  to  the  system and development of embedded controllers and drivers)  and  provided  sales  and marketing support for the project.

Digital Business Computers, September 1977 to September 1980 :
Technical Group Leader

The company, a minicomputer OEM, employed me as a business application  programmer and eventually leader of the technical support group.  Responsibilities included liaison with our  supplier (Digital Equipment Corporation), imposition of standards and practices, and system software development.  Success at these tasks eventually lead to the formation of dAVID Computers.

Foundation Software Inc., Ongoing :
Consultant

As founder and president of Foundation Software (FSI) I do consulting and contract programming.  Among the company’s major projects was a hardware/software package for testing hearing response times of athletes at the 1996 Olympics. Another program was developed for vision testing for the School of Optometry at the University of Waterloo.  Recently FSI has been doing Web page development. In 2003, FSI developed software for use in the calibration of measurement tools. I have enacted all aspects of these projects, from quote to installation.

Instructor, Conestoga College, 1981 & 1982

The Guelph and Waterloo campuses employed me as a continuing education teacher for an introductory microcomputer course.  I prepared the lecture material from course outlines.

Programmer, Tutor.  Co-op Employers,  May 1974 to September 1977

As a co-op  student I  was  employed  by three firms, including the Computer Systems Group at the University of Waterloo.  The work was  primarily assembler  level programming with a hardware interface emphasis.  I also worked for several terms as a tutor for computer and mathematics courses.

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OTHER INTERESTS

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References are available on request.