Mark E. Smith
Principal Consultant, 7B Software, Inc.
13800 Coppermine Road
Herndon, VA 20171
1789 Coral Way South
Vero Beach, FL 32963
Telephone Office: 772.231.0227 Cell:
336.681.1747
mark.smith@7Bsoftware.com: http://www.7Bsoftware.com
I
have hands-on experience in:
Designed, developed and delivered real-time, interactive visualizations
using the D3 (data-driven documents), AngularJS, ReactJS,
Redux, and Ionic Javascript frameworks. Implemented a metadata-driven capability that allows rapid
visualization capability, rather similar to Tableau Software’s visualization
builder. The visualizations are
used in the FDA to facilitate regulatory review of new drug applications and
Phase 1 animal studies. Implementation
also included an Ad-Hoc Query capability.
Result: the FDA now has one place that they go to get their
Animal Studies and Human Studies data, using a completely modern UI/UX.
Designed, implemented, and delivered a new release of US Special
Operations Temporal Planning software.
This software provides rapid creation and deconfliction
of asset routes (planes, tanks, drones, ships, and people) and fast mission checklisting. During
this engagement, I invented a new method to generate fully functional
PowerPoint (down to the atomic element level).
Result: USSOCOM now plans, briefs, and executes their missions using
a completely modernized software package.
Architected and developed a Master Page and Page Layout for
the Indian River Medical Center intranet site.
This effort was focused entirely on hospital staff user experience
(UX). I did an evaluation of existing
“well-liked” health care sites in order to guide the design and to achieve CIO
buy-in. The design allows departmental
control of some of the branding, but the overall master page branding is
controlled by CIO. Result: The modern
SharePoint architecture maximizes efficiency of IT staff (they don’t have to
navigate through multiple legacy systems any more), while maintaining hospital
enterprise governance of the major look and feel elements.
Developed a data cleaning and visualization process for the Air
Force for Spectrum Technologies.
Utilized ASPRunner to create an easy-to-use, web-based data input
capability, and integrated this with Tableau Software’s mashup and presentation
capabilities to provide the customer with clean, actionable views on the data. Result:
the Air Force has an efficient and easy to use web presence for project
management tracking.
Developed a fully integrated, geospatial-temporal-checklisting tool for two NATO customers. The tool, a follow-on
to the earlier SOFTools and DISA Timeline Viewer tools, allows military
planners to create plans, allocate assets, and associate the plans with various
map technologies (including Northrop Grumman's C2PC). Result: NATO Special Operations partners have access
to the same planning software used by USSOCOM, allowing international forces to
collaborate on all rescue and elimination missions worldwide.
Responsible for
architecting the Air Force Reserve Command's Semantic Enterprise Architecture
at Robins AFB in Warner Robins, GA. The
architecture is based on SOA principles and leverages ontologies and metadata
to create a discoverable and meaningful system.
The architecture is being used to deploy a Senior Leadership Dashboard
based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) visible to the highest levels of
command in the Air Force Reserve. We
used a combination of IBM Rational System Architect and best-practice discovery
techniques to determine the “as is” and “to be” states of various Reserve
Command systems. Result: The Air Force Reserve Command used these results to create requirements
and deploy a SOA, which was a radical change from their highly siloed and inefficient “system of systems” legacy situation.
Also demonstrated a data mining and analytics approach that allowed
the Reserve Command to aggregate both business and costing data, as well as
location-dependent reservist deployment data, into actionable interactive
dashboards. Utilized
Tableau Software as the COTS platform.
Responsible for architecting and authoring a response for the Air
Force’s Netcents-II RFP. Duties included crafting an approach and
solution for an advanced Metadata Environment, and for a Remote Network
Management System. I utilized my
knowledge of the integration and development of military software systems and
SOA concepts to prepare the response. I
gained direct experience in Semantic Web technologies (RDF/OWL), metadata
(extraction techniques, DDMS, and native XML databases), cloud computing and
virtualization (with Google Hadoop), and visualizations and dashboards for
Situational Awareness. I developed a
prototype Network Management System using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT).
Result: Delivered a competitive proposal to NetCents
II, which was instrumental in LGS Innovations’ award on May 15, 2015.
Responsible for winning, executing, and
retaining a multimillion dollar government program.
Also responsible for the architecture
and development of the Timeline Viewer--an event scheduling tool similar in
concept to Google Calendar, and written in Tcl/Tk and C++--as part of this medium-sized military planning
and scheduling research program. Responsibilities included small team
management and project tracking as well as chief architect and chief
programmer. Project succeeded in web-enabling a complex thick client using
novel web server technology (the ServilizerTM) and transitioning the program
from a thick client to a SOA-based web services client. Responsibilities were 80% software
development and 20% project management.
We used Jboss as the app server container
technology for this project. Result: USSTRATCOM now has the ability to
do long-term strategic planning using a single modernized software system.
Developed a Personnel Locator System
that tracks and displays mobile RFID tags on a visual display representing a naval
destroyer. Created an
easy-to-use administrative GUI for the system. The Personnel Locator System was written
entirely in Tcl/Tk.
Result: Destroyers can quickly
locate, warn, and deploy sailors when an accident has occurred onboard ship.
Custom-developed SOFTools Execution
Checklist (“excheck”), used for
planning and tracking deployment of Special Forces assets. Widget was written
as a C++ wrapper on the Tcl/Tk
canvas widget, and is portable to all Linux, Unix and
Windows operating systems. Result:
USSOCOM uses this software to plan, brief, and execute missions worldwide, to
this day; software was used in historical events (including the rescues of
Private Jessica Lynch and Captain Phillips, as well as UBL elimination).
Invented a new, very high assurance
multilevel secure workstation, called the Ultra Thin
Enclave Client, or UTEC, for use in Secret or Top Secret environments.
Invention used aspects of both COTS ultra thin client
workstations, and high-assurance ``diode''-style networking components.
Invention required modification of the Beowulf network card driver on a Linux
kernel. Invention required in-depth knowledge of both TCP/IP and UDP/IP
protocols in order to achieve reliable framebuffer proxying
to support thin client capability. The
invention's communication software was written in Tcl. Result:
Patent US200200112181, “Multilevel secure network access system”, with
approximately 50 citations.
Responsible for design and development
of Naval shipboard damage control software, including presentation of
information allowing shipboard personnel to act quickly in the face of a
rapidly changing and potentially dangerous environment. The damage control user interface was written
in Tcl/Tk, and its
high-performance drawing primitives were written in C. Software was written on a Linux platform, and
utilized a thorough knowledge of client/server TCP/IP protocol principles.
Responsibilities also included integration of H.323 video technology into a
prototype shipboard application. Result:
Sailors have a real-time view of chilled water system damage on destroyers,
including the effects of the damage across other onboard systems.
I was the Security Lead for the design
of a Multilevel Secure (MLS) architecture suitable for
the DD(X) high-assurance shipboard environment. Assignment required in-depth
knowledge of Information Security, from research concepts to implementation
capabilities. Assignment also required considerable knowledge of technologies
that must coexist with the security capabilities, including early SOA
middleware and object oriented design techniques, damage control systems,
information warfare (especially TCP/IP-based attack and defense methods), and
routing. Result: A competitive DD(X) proposal including security technology that
has influenced many other security systems subsequently.
I was responsible for the design and
development of the GUI for DSPView, a UNIX, Tcl/Tk, and X Window-based development
environment for DSP dataflow applications.
I developed the DSPView "File
Viewer," which is a complete, object-oriented UNIX desktop manager.
Responsibilities included planning and giving many trade show and private
demonstrations of DSPView. Result:
A new, dataflow-oriented approach to linking features of naval signal
processors.
Additional Projects
Responsible for developing
modifications, debugging, and fielding service packs for a RISC UNIX kernel for
a large commercial email service with stringent reliability requirements. Work
required in-depth expertise with an AT&T UNIX kernel. Assignment also
required kernel-level expertise in TCP/IP and network card drivers.
Responsible for design, development,
and testing for a Java program that included both a GUI implementation (in Java
1.1 AWT) and an Oracle database server interface for a teleconferencing system.
Program was designed to be deployed as either a Java applet or as a Java
application. Implemented the program using the
"Model/View/Controller" design pattern.
Responsible for systems engineering and
development of firewall software that allows customers "outside" the
firewall to securely obtain access to "inside" corporate database
information in an Internet HTML/secure HTTP environment. Design required
configuration of HTTP server, CGI development in Perl, and custom firewall
software in Java and C++.
Responsible for requirements, market
study, security policy, and software development for a Firewall for a large
military customer. Work required ability to map customer
Internet requirements into firewall policies, off the shelf products, and
custom development.
Responsible for design of development
of the client and server sides of a secure encrypted telnet service.
Development included integration of certificates and Secure Session Layer (SSL)
primitives into the telnet service. Developed the secure telnet service under
Linux, and ported it to Sun Solaris, HP/UX, and Windows. User interface written entirely in Tcl/Tk.
Responsible for the design and
development of the GUI for SecretAgent®, a UNIX/X
Window, Mac, and Microsoft Windows application that supports file and email
encryption. Software
written entirely in Tcl/Tk
(for user interface) and C (for encryption software).
Developed a MS Windows client and UNIX
server for a generic Oracle and Informix database subrelation
database manager. Implemented MS
Windows GUI under Tcl 7.5/Tk
4.1, and generic template Informix and Oracle triggers under SPL and PL/SQL, respectively.
System engineering, design, and
development of AT&T Unix kernel and system
software for an Orange Book B1-rated secure version of Unix.
Design and implementation of the
operating system for a
Outbound Calling Management system.
Port of Unix System V Release 3 kernel
to a new PC platform.
Design and implementation of network
operating system features for a large customizable Wide Area Network, a
precursor to the Internet.
As the principal and owner of my independent consulting
company, 7B Software, Inc., my clients have included SAIC, AT&T,
Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, General Dynamics, Motorola, and Lockheed Martin, as well
as various military agencies.
I was a top-rated Member of Technical Staff for Bell
Laboratories prior to my consulting career with 7B Software.