This resume forms a summary but is not tailored for either completeness or brevity.  Please contact me for a version customised to your needs.

Summary

I’m an creative-thinking innovator with an ability to get real systems working in an optimal way. I enjoy the elegance associated with simple, yet optimal, solutions to complex problems. I’m simultaneously perfectionistic and pragmatic -- aware that sometimes the optimal solution is the one which can be implemented quickly. I’m happy working alone or leading a group, but happiest when learning from my peers. I’ve got good teamwork and communications skills, but detest first-person personal pronouns. I’ve got a track record of engineering and building systems like solar powered cars and algorithmic trading solutions which are more efficient, run faster, and are implemented more quickly than the competition.

Personal Details

1. • Name: David Charles Ambler Snowdon
   

2. • Email:

   

   
   

3. • Phone: +61-412-171-090
   

4. • Citizenship: Australia and UK dual citizen
   

Education

1. • Higher School Certificate, Cranbrook School -- 1998
   

2. • Bachelor of Engineering (1st class honours), UNSW -- 2002
   

3. • Doctor of Philosophy (Computer Engineering), UNSW/NICTA -- 2003-2009
   

Selected Porfolio

For a (more) complete portfolio of projects, please see http://www.snowdon.id.au/Projects/Projects.html

1. • I-Box -- The I-Box is a device designed to process digital video in real-time, for use in digital surveillance systems. The device annotates analogue video, and as such can be retrofitted into existing It uses a high-performance 32-bit processor (PXA270) coupled with various peripherals to interface with an Ethernet network, MPEG4 encoder/decode IC, video capture IC, video output IC, and custom-built overlay electronics. The device was bound by strict cost, power and time-to-market requirements. My
   

2. • UNSW solar powered car (Sunswift II, III and IV) -- Sunswift IV won the silicon class of the World Solar Challenge in 2009 and is currently the Guiness World Record holder as the world’s fastest purely solar powered car. I was involved with parts of the mechanical design, and was responsible for most of the electronic and electrical design. I designed and built the dozens of devices including many for the car’s telemetry and control system, >99% efficient maximum power point trackers, and a multitude of other critical components. I also built various mechanical components, usually using aircraft-grade carbon composite materials. I mentored younger team members, teaching many about practical electronics design and implementation.
   

3. • Power management PhD thesis -- Koala was the basis of my PhD thesis, being a method for automatically managing the myriad of power management settings available to a modern operating system. By using models of the system to predict the effect of different candidate settings, my method is able to effectively balance power consumption and performance to choose the lowest energy for the highest performance. It was implemented in Linux and in some cases shown to reduce the dynamic power consumption of a computer by nearly half for a very minor (<5%) performance detriment.
   

4. • Zomojo’s trading systems -- Zomojo is a small hedge fund specialising in low-latency arbitrage. During my time at Zomojo I was instrumental in improving the performance of our systems by a substantial amount. Given this was already a reasonably well-optimised system, it was no mean feat. Confidentiality prevents publication of the details.
   

Honours and Awards

1. • Cranbrook school, Academic scholarship -- 1993--1998
   

2. • Engineers Australia Thesis Prize (Sydney Division) -- 2002
   

3. • Siemens prize for innovation (NSW Division) -- 2002
   

4. • Australian Postgraduate Award, NICTA top-up -- 2003-2008
   

5. • Engineering Excellence Award, Welfare, Health, Safety, Education and Training Category (awarded to the UNSW Solar Racing Team) -- 2007
   

6. • Freescale technical achievement award (awarded to the UNSW Solar Racing Team) -- 2007
   

7. • ARTEMIS Music Orchestra competition (awarded to NICTA’s entry) -- 2008
   

8. • Global Green Challenge 2009 -- Sunswift IV(y): First place (Silicon class), Fourth place (overall), First Australian car.
   

9. • Guiness World Record 2011 -- Sunswift IV(y): fastest purely solar powered car.
   

Experience

1. •Zomojo Pty Ltd 
   

2. - Senior hardware and software engineer working on high-speed financial systems, 2009--2010.
   

3. - Vice-president, Systems Engineering, 2010-2011.
   

4. •Training
   

5. - Taught a two day embedded Linux course -- May, 2008
   

6. • University of New South Wales (http://www.unsw.edu.au)
   

7. - Tutor/Lecturer -- 1999-2006
   

8. - Summer Scholar -- 2002-2003
   

9. - Contractor (Technical project management addressing modular, roof-top mounted, solar inverter reliability problems) -- 2007-2009
   

10. • National ICT Australia
    

11. - Research engineer (Power management, ERTOS) -- 2007
    

12. - Research engineer (iBox project, ERTOS) -- 2005-2006
    

13. • Intel, CTG STL OS (http://www.intel.com)
    

14. - Intern (power management, microkernel-based systems) -- 2007
    

15. • Motorola Australian Research Centre
    

16. - Intern (wireless sensor networks) -- 2000-2001
    

17. • UNSW Solar racing team (http://www.sunswift.com)
    

18. - Team member -- 1999-2005
    

19. - Assistant project leader -- 1999-2001
    

20. - Chief electrical engineer -- 2001-2005
    

21. - Mentor, strategist, know-it-all-old-croney -- 2006-2009
    

22. • UNSW Yellowshirts program (Orientation week leader) -- 2000, 2001, 2002
    

23. - Yellowshirt -- 2000
    

24. - Squad leader -- 2001, 2002
    

25. • National Youth Science Forum (http://www.nysf.edu.au)
    

26. - Participant -- 1998
    

27. - Staff -- 1999, 2003
    

28. - Presenter -- 2004
    

29. • London International Youth Science Forum (http://www.liysf.org.uk)
    

30. - Participant -- 1998
    

Professional skills

1. • Preferred languages: C, C++, VHDL, Python, ARM assembly, AVR assembly, bash
   

2. • Other proficient languages: Haskell, Java, Objective C
   

3. • Preferred platforms: AVR, MSP430, ARM, Xilinx FPGA
   

4. • Operating systems kernel-level experience: Linux, OKL4/Iguana/OK Linux
   

5. • Circuit board design (CAD: Protel, Altium, Eagle)
   

6. • Electronics experience: 32-bit system design (PXA255, PXA270), PCB design (8-layer, buried/blind vias, BGAs, etc), power electronics (switching converters), microcontroller-based design (see my projects page for a description of some of the systems I’ve built). FPGA-based PCIE add-in-cards. Networking infrastructure -- GbE, 10GbE.
   

7. • FPGA system experience: PCIE, GbE, low-latency system design, network packet timing and analysis.
   

8. • Hardware manufacturing (SMT soldering, reflow, BGA placement and reflow).
   

9. • System design and optimisation -- I can get your system working faster, for a lower cost, and less power, than you thought possible/probable.
   

10. • Project management
    

11. • Team communications
    

12. • Public speaking
    

Professional Interests

1. • On-line instrumentation and analysis
   

2. • Telemetry and data acquisition
   

3. • Low-level software design, implementation and optimisation
   

4. • Operating systems
   

5. • Project management
   

6. • Circuit board design
   

7. • FPGA-based system/logic design
   

8. • Real-time systems
   

9. • Control systems
   

10. • Embedded system design
    

11. • Solar powered systems
    

12. • Power electronics
    

13. • Renewable energy
    

Teaching Interests

1. • Microprocessors and interfacing
   

2. • Operating systems
   

3. • Experimental robotics
   

4. • Basic programming
   

5. • Engineering project management
   

Research Interests

1. • Operating system design
   

2. • Energy efficient software and hardware
   

3. • Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling
   

Other Relevant Interests

1. • Mechanical design (see Sunswift)
   

2. • Composite materials manufacturing
   

3. • Computational fluid dynamics
   

Academic Publications and Talks

See my publications page at http://www.snowdon.id.au/Publications.html

Professional Memberships

1. • ACM
   

2. • IEEE
   

Personal interests

1. • Skiing
   

2. • Sailing
   

3. • Gliding
   

4. • Tennis
   

5. • Piano
   

6. • Travel
   

Other

1. • Cranbrook school solar boat team mentor -- 2006
   

2. David Snowdon, 2011