This page lists some of the work I’ve done in a professional capacity, as well as my own personal projects that I’ve worked on over the years.
Minerva
My final year project (forming my dissertation) of my BSc degree was centered around profile-based e-learning. Through extensive research, and my personal interest in networking, I arrived at the research question of ‘Can a distributed architecture be applied to profile-based e-learning?’, which I am currently working on by attempting to create such a system. You can view the various papers and my conclusions on my Dissertation page.
PABS
The PA Booking System (PABS) is a joint project between myself and Paul Nicholls, brought about as an online inventory to manage and track equipment, eventually moving towards an online hire booking system that would facilitate internal and external events to allocate equipment accordingly. The system was developed through our work with the Van Mildert PA Committee, and we continue to manage the website for them, as well as making the package available as a managed system for sale to other companies.
Typhos
As part of my second year course at university, I took part in the Software Engineering Group (SEG) module, involving team programming to design, develop and deliver a product to a fictitious customer. This project involved working with a given format of data files to extrapolate wind speed data for the United Kingdom, and using this data to plot and simulate wind farms and electrical infrastructure, presenting various options through a Java graphical user interface
Phoenix
Another part of the SEG project in my second year at university was developing a custom Content Management System for a customer – East Durham Trust. The original specification was drawn up with the customer, and through a series of studies we gathered their requirements, eventually settling on a final design, which we then implemented and delivered in accordance to a strict time frame.
Pizza Top Meadowfield
The new owner of a Pizza takeaway in Meadowfield, Durham, approached me to create a simple website for him, with Search Engine Optimisation and a view to running the website as an electronic store-front including point-of-sale technology in the near future. This project is still undergoing
Poynton Bells
Poynton Bells is a site about bells and bellringing (a hobby of mine) at one of my local churches; St. Georges, Poynton. The ringers wanted a website that could be easily managed to present an attractive and informative front-end to visitors, whilst hiding a small community area for members of the band to hold discussions and manage various activities.
Using my knowledge from FsPortal and other works, I built up a small number of systems that enables them to carry out various activities with a minimum of effort
FsPortal
FsPortal was a site dedicated to offering high-quality add-on downloads for Flight Simulation products, such as those provided by Microsoft and X-Plane. It started life back in October of 2007, quickly establishing a valued user-base and offering hundreds of files. I was involved in the original business plan for FsPortal, and coded the entire of the site from scratch. Some systems from FsPortal are even licenced for use on other websites! Ryan Jackson and myself then took on the job of managing the site and its staff on a day-to-day basis
The design for the website, from the templates through to the modular systems, was entirely masterminded and built by myself over the summer of 2007 before launch. Many areas of the site, such as an integrated forum and internet radio station, were also made but never released.
Unfortunately, during the summer of 2009 it was decided that the time pressures of maintaining the site to a useable standard were too high, and the site was closed
Sharpenews
For several years, I was employed by the SharpeNews Network (later YPMania, now closed) as a Chief Web Engineer, placing me at the helm of a small team dedicated to producing new and exciting features for the website, alongside providing 24/7 maintenance support across their entire network.
During my time with SharpeNews, I leant a lot about server and code optimisation in a do-or-die atmosphere. One wrong line of code could bring down their entire server, causing a massive financial backlash for the company. I also gained valuable experience in a management role, delegating tasks around a team and managing their time schedules, dependant on expertise and availablility.
Milo Cleaning
Milo Cleaning approached me during 2007, wanting a small cost-effective website to advertise their upcoming business, along with assistance with server setup and management, which I was able to advise them on. Using rapid-prototyping and fast client-developer communications, I was able to create a suitable set of webpages for their business within a matter of days, which, combined with my consultancy on servers, culminated in a happy customer.