Chris Rossbach Engineering Data

[non-traditional format]

 

My resume has not seen an update in several years, due to a long tenure in my current position. I’ve included it with a meager attempt to bring it up to date at the end of this document, on the assumption that its inclusion is a formality worth undertaking. However, my choosing to place it lasts reflects my perception that the type of information being sought in the request for my bio is of a more detailed nature than one might expect in a traditional C.V. I hope the reader will forgive the clearly non-traditional and perhaps overly narrative or personal approach taken below.

 

Overview Notes:

 

 

Most of my work over the last several years has been in distributed systems architecture, which has gained me strong experience creating and documenting high-level architecture, design, and doing implementation of systems on a variety of platforms, including application servers from Sun, BEA, and Sybase, and database servers from Microsoft, Oracle, and Sybase. My architecture and development efforts have contributed to a number of deployed services, including a few for which I did not just the architecture and design, but for which I wrote every line of code all the way down to the stored-procedure level. However, it deserves mention with emphasis that the bulk of my experience prior to the .com boom was in writing C code, which I still enjoy as sort of a homecoming when I actually get the opportunity to do some coding.  

 

Recent technical efforts have included research and cultivation of some background in security and cryptography, ongoing development and enhancement of signature validation biometrics software which I invented for @pos, development of a new cryptographic technique based on irrational numbers, as well as conducting extensive research into payment protocols and security concerns related thereto. Additionally, I have a long-standing informal role as technical liaison for legal issues and IP-related efforts.

 

Generally speaking, since Symbol’s acquisition of @pos, my responsibilities have been truly various. “Systems Architecture and Special Projects” probably best describes my de facto position, since while my formal role is supposed to be primarily about systems architecture, I get called on very often to deal with urgent matters, regardless of my level of background with the project in question. Examples of this pattern abound, but most recent illustrations of this pattern include:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Formal Recent Projects, executed under less-urgent conditions (I.e. what I’m supposed to be doing):

 

 

 

Other slightly less recent Special Projects of Potential Interest:

 

 

1.      FSG’s version, written in C, which has diverged considerably from what I consider to be the ‘current’ version—this divergence I attribute to a number of barriers including cumbersome and intermittent access to FSG’s systems, as well as a lack of formal allocation of my time to the project except when urgent requests come in from FSG.

2.      A C++ Version re-written from scratch to reflect a better architecture and to build a frame-work which will allow me in the long term to make the algorithms more adaptable and to automate analysis of performance. Back end for this version is switchable between between Oracle 8i, and MS Access.

3.      A J2EE version implemented as a set of EJBs running in BEA’s Web Logic Server, with a servlet front-end and Oracle 8i back end. The original vision behind this implementation was to construct a generic authentication server that ultimately integrated other biometric and non-biometric authentication methods. As I mentioned above, this was all spare time development, so while the framework exists and hooks exist for other authenticators, signature validation is the only one completed and tested. I also wanted to see signature validation EJB get integrated into the ReceiptCity/Crossvue/Resolve framework, since it is a natural fit functionally, and since I also did the architecture for the Crossvue services, it should be a more or less snap-in endeavor. Ongoing lack of clarity about the fate of the Crossvue services has kept this from ever becoming a priority.    

 

·        Delivered a talk on Signature Validation and Recognition Techniques at last May’s Technical Conference in Sanibel, FL.

 

·        Over the last few years, Llavan has asked me to cultivate a strong background in security, so I’ve done a lot of research in this area. Its an understatement to call this a broad field, so I won’t attempt too much detail here, except to say that I’ve tried to keep a broad scope to maintain my usefulness as a resource in this area, while allowing myself a few areas of special interest including biometrics and cryptography. Of course everyone loves cryptography.

 

·        Wrote and submitted a white paper outlining a cryptographic method based on the use of irrational number for deriving key material. Of course, the existence of well-defined standards in this area completely makes this sort of research and development unnecessary for Symbol, but it interested me, and ideas are better shared than not, so I wrote it and submitted it anyway.  There has been no groundswell of interest, for reasons that I think are more or less obvious.

 

 

Relevant Efforts for @pos prior to Symbol’s Acquisition:

 

 

Almost Completely Irrelevant Background of the non-technical variety:

 

More information about any of the items categorized as “Irrelevant” can be found at www.rossbach.to, with the caveat that maintenance of the site is a low priority, and you’ll likely encounter some broken links (particularly to my resume) that I hope you’ll not hold against me. I’m aware of issues with the site, but it’s a low priority in light of all of the above.

 

My Formal Resume