CV

Introduction

My name is Gareth Stephenson, and this is a summarised version of my CV. My career has been somewhat back-to-front, having gone into the workplace first after high-school, and then later studying at a tertiary institution, armed with a view of applying real-world experience against theoretical knowledge.

The CV starts with listing:

  1. my work experience for the past 10 years
  2. the technologies that I employ to perform my work
  3. my involvement in the software development community
  4. work I have done in a research and development capacity
  5. qualifications
  6. testimonials
  7. other notable achievements.

Work Experience

This is a list of the companies I have worked at in the past 10 or so years. More can be provided upon request (dating back to 1998).

Driven Alliance


Duration: 2016 – Present
Position held: Software developer

 

DStv Digital Media


Duration: 2014 – 2016
Position held: Senior developer

 

nVisionIT


Duration: 2013 – 2014
Positions held:

  1. Senior developer
  2. SLA manager

 

3fifteen Technology Solutions (Britehouse)


Duration: 2006 – 2013
Positions held:

  1. Intermediate developer
  2. Senior developer
  3. Development manager
  4. Delivery manager for Nedbank outsource (related ITWeb article)

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Technologies Employed

These are the technologies, languages & frameworks I have learnt and used in my career.

Microsoft Technologies

  1. C# (from version 1.0)
  2. Microsoft SQL Server (from version 7.0)
  3. .NET Framework (from version 1.0)
  4. ASP.NET WebForms and MVC (from version 1.0)
  5. Visual Basic (from 6.0)
  6. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
  7. Windows platforms

Oracle Technologies

  1. Java (from version 1.6)
  2. MySQL
  3. Oracle database (9i)

Web Technologies

  1. JavaScript
  2. HTML
  3. Nodejs
  4. PHP (from version 3)
  5. Some AngularJS (from version 1)
  6. Some React

Other Technologies

  1. MongoDB (from 2.6)
  2. Scala (from version 2.10)
  3. Python (from version 2.6)
  4. Apache Spark (from version 1.6)
  5. Linux platforms

Source Control Systems

  1. Git
  2. SVN
  3. Team Foundation Server
  4. Visual SourceSafe

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Software Development Community Work

Below is a list of community driven events, conferences and podcasts that I have spoken at or been a guest speaker on.

Presented at JSinSA (link) in 2013 (link).

 

Presented at the Developer User Group (link) in Johannesburg (link) and Pretoria (link) in September 2016.

 

Co-facilitated a Global Day of Code Retreat (link) in October 2016 (link).

 

Presented at DevConf ZA (link) in March 2017.

 

Spoke on The ZADevChat Podcast (link) after the DevConf ZA presentation (link).

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Research & Development Work

Work done outside of my normal day to day skill set.

Apache Spark Pi Cluster for Distributed Computing

The Raspberry Pi cluster I built is the unit that was displayed at DevConf 2017. The unit was based off a prototype that I constructed for one of my WITS CPD course modules.

A blog post regarding this project is currently in development.

IBM Research | Africa Pi Cluster for Video Wall Management

I was approached by IBM Research | Africa in South Africa and asked if I would be interested in building a Raspberry Pi cluster for them.

A full breakdown of what happened in the project can be viewed in my blog post (here).

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Qualifications

Microsoft

Qualified as a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD): Enterprise Applications (since 2006 to 2012).
All certificates can be downloaded (here).

The transcript can be validated by visiting (here), using the following details:

Transcript ID: 766617
Access Code: GAStephenson

Below is a copy of the Microsoft Transcript.

Download the PDF version (here).

 

University of the Witwatersrand (WITS)

Qualifications acquired while working through the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering’s (JCSE) Continued Professional Development (CPD) Programme.

Introduction to Software Engineering

The overall objective of the course is to focus on each phase of the software development lifecycle which presents practical techniques and methods. It also focuses on the overall management of the development process.

Software Development Methodologies, Analysis & Design

The course is aimed at students with an interest in developing modern computer software. Software design in presented within the context of the software engineering process. The focus is on the practical aspects of modern object-oriented analysis and design techniques.

Database Systems

The aim of the course is to cover the principles underlying information modelling and database design and implementation. The application of these principles to important engineering tasks is then presented. In particlar the course covers, geospatial information as an important engineering application, and knowledge management as an important information management application.

Software Project Management

The course focused on the overall management of the development process. A complete software project management methodology was presented.

Software Technologies & Techniques

The primary objectives of the course is to extend basic material and concepts introduced at the undergraduate level and provide a richer insight into the rapidly changing technical area of software development.

With the above attained credits, I have enrolled to complete my Masters of Engineering: Software Engineering (MEng) at WITS University.

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Testimonials

Microsoft AppFactory

We invited Gareth to the AppFactory to speak about his career as a software developer and in the Q&A section he identified we had a communication issue in the team. He explained the practice of mob programming and recommended we implement it to allow for better communication and improve the quality of code. We have started using mob programming to great success and Gareth has been available with more guidance and tips. We’ve seen a marked improvement in: productivity, quality of code, communication of ideas and resolving issues, and knowledge transfer to the interns. We’re grateful to Gareth for showing us how to improve communication within the team and want to invite him to speak again to our next group of interns.


André Odendaal
AppFactory Mentor

 

IBM Research Lab | Africa, South Africa

Gareth developed a rack-mounted Raspberry Pi cluster for the IBM Research lab in Johannesburg. The cluster is used to drive screens on a video wall. Gareth did an impeccable job building the unit, with attention to details such as cooling, pre-installed software configuration, power supply quality testing, a polished and professional look to the final unit, and so on. He was always available and willing to assist in any way possible, and he has great technical knowledge and skill. It has been a pleasure to work with Gareth.

Toby Kurien
IBM Research Lab

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Other Notable Achievements

First Raspberry Jam in South Africa, came in second place

Demonstrated the Raspberry Pi cluster I had built and won second place.

Check out the (ITWeb news link), (MyBroadband news link), (TechSmart news link), (IOL news link) and (htxt.africast podcast) to see more about this event.

 

MTN Business Mind2Machine Awards

Nominee in the MTN Business Mind2Machine IoT Conference & Awards 2017 for “Best Enterprise Development Solution” (representing Driven) (link)

 

 

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