Paul Boddie

Maintaining Web applications such as JASPAR and UniBind, these having been written in Python using the Django Web framework. Additional functionality was also developed and introduced, and a variety of housekeeping work was undertaken, such as porting the software to Python 3 and corresponding compatible Django version, auditing bundled resources, and writing a software licence manifest compliant with the REUSE specification.

Developing deployment scripts and automated deployment techniques for Web applications and establishing an appropriate deployment environment for these applications, this employing virtual machines running the Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution.

Developing processing pipelines concerned with the packaging and publishing of data via the JASPAR and UniBind applications. The objective of this work was to formalise the way in which computed data would be prepared for deployment within each Web application, and the work was pursued whilst also having to continually adapt to ongoing modification and reorganisation of the upstream data computation activities.

Investigating Web application deployment using container technologies such as Docker and Podman, using tools such as Buildah for container preparation. Although container images were considered for direct deployment, the use of containers was more helpful as a way of producing simple software packages for eventual deployment in a virtual machine environment managed using OpenStack.

Developing a text-mining solution for a research project at the RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, seeking to find relationships between fragments of text, previously transcribed from audio material, building a simple database of fragments and relationships that could then be navigated by a adventure-game-style explorer program. This explorer program was incorporated into a sensor-driven solution in order to integrate the material into a improvised theatrical performance.

Activities included investigating natural language processing libraries and part-of-speech taggers (for Spanish), developing solutions in Python (initially version 2.7, porting to version 3.x), establishing functional requirements in collaboration with researchers, and advising students developing a mobile-based solution for the performance work.

Analysis and refinement of an existing database storing proteomics information (employing C++, Qt and SQLite).

Development of software for a service publishing the stored data on the Web, using Python to produce the Web interface, PostgreSQL to organise the data (including text search capabilities), JavaScript in the Web interface to provide dynamic features such as incremental content updates, along with various CSS features for a declarative and modern site design.

Development of a text-mining solution (Bioscape), initially using Lucene and Xapian, but later employing a dedicated inverted-indexing solution, also employing relational database storage (PostgreSQL) and Web visualisation of text-mining results.

Redevelopment of a data integration solution (iRefIndex), previously under maintenance as a Java and MySQL solution, and the development of associated tools such as tabular data parsers and XML data parsers. Technologies involved for new development include Python, SQL (PostgreSQL), POSIX Shell, XML, XSLT and a selection of GNU/Linux tools.

Maintenance of a data visualisation solution (iRefScape) written in Java for the Cytoscape visualisation platform.

Public documentation and Web site development and maintenance involving MediaWiki and MoinMoin, including theme/skin and extension development and involving HTML and CSS wrangling (and Python development for the latter).

Version control repository maintenance and administration, initially involving CVS and ViewCVS/ViewVC, subsequently involving Mercurial and hgweb, with theme development undertaken for the latter.

Provided development assistance to a group deploying a portal based on Galaxy in order to integrate the SAML 2.0 authentication/authorisation mechanism with the existing Galaxy code.

Implementation of file transfer technologies using Jython, various relational database systems and a proprietary search solution.

Evaluation of alerting features within a proprietary search solution, developing prototypes using Jython, Java and Apache Struts.

Implementation of Web user interfaces and supporting services (including Web services) for a public sector data access application, using JSP and Java, SOAP, XML, XSLT, Apache (Axis, Cocoon, Tomcat, httpd) and C++ technologies.

Acting as "release manager" for release 1.0 of an internal Java-based Web application development framework, performing quality assurance, writing documentation, developing new features and supporting interested parties. This framework has been used in several Ementor projects.

Development of new Web services for a customer in the online classified advertisements market, using JSP and Java technologies. Development of XML services and tools using XSLT, Java and various third-party libraries (such as Apache Xerces/Xalan).

Developing database "emulation" software in Java in order to re-create the behaviour of one database management system (UniData) on another (Sybase ASE).

Re-implementing components of the company's user interface technology in Python in order to facilitate application development on open database platforms.

Participating in working groups, led by a major consultancy group, to improve company procedures. Preparing proposals for improved revision control systems and documentation.

Integrating third-party fax software (Zetafax) and commerce software (Navision, Visma) with the company's product (Infer) using tools such as Python, Samba and standard Unix utilities.

Developing interactive electronic forms as part of a small team using the C, C++, and Java programming languages and Oracle database access tools.

Investigating more effective development methods in order to improve productivity and re-use within the project. Prototyping software in the Python programming language and utilising CORBA-related products (such as Xerox PARC's ILU).

Providing user support for the project's software. Responding to reports through the use of the Remedy request tracking system. Maintaining existing software through the development of updates and fixes.

Developing a tool for operators to carry out basic maintenance tasks for the EDH project, using the Perl programming language (supporting Oracle database access and the Curses terminal output toolkit).

Developing an early World Wide Web viewing capability for the EDH project, where EDH documents were converted from an in-house format to HTML, using the C programming language, in conjunction with proprietary project libraries.

The Andrew Stewart Prize, during university studies.

The Governors' Silver Medal, academic achievement at Advanced Level.