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Tom de Havas
I am always interested in challenging and creative applications for my skills and experience in;
- Robotics
- Software Development
- Industrial Design
- Teaching/Training
- Dynamics
- Public Speaking
- Research
- Business
This page provides overviews. Click links or use the menu for more information on particular subject areas.
Location: I live in North West Italy 40 minutes drive North of Imperia and 40 minutes drive West of Albenga, I am 2 hours by train from Genova or Nice from where I can fly anywhere in Europe. I can stay where necessary for contract work. Italy I love, she is now my home and I hope she will soon accept me as one of her people. I am a European.
Languages: Clear English without an accent. I am learning Italian of course but have yet to reach a seriously useful level. I still use google translate a lot.
Rates: Variable depending on how much use I can be to you and my interest in the work on offer, but the initial assessment is always free. Once I start a job I finish it and I am good at estimating time scales correctly even on innovative projects.
Mobile 1: 00 3934 9394 9050
Mobile 2: 00 44 7709 016601
Email: tomdehavas@gmail.com
Software Development
I have managed a software development team of about 6 people for about 5 years programming in C++ and Java. I have also programmed in VHDL, C++, C, Ada, ARM asm, 68000 asm, 6502 asm.
I created this and other website in HTML and CSS and this and almost all my websites are served by a server I wrote from scratch in Ada.
More about Software.
Teaching/Training
I can provide training seminars for business, engineering and personal development I have arranged activities for adults and children.
- Business
- Engineering
- Personal Development
More about Teaching and Training.
Dynamics
For the live interactive simulation click on the image. The objective was to establish practical navigation algorithms for use in self navigating craft and vehicles.
The simulation is of a craft with GPS, magnetometer and linear and angular accelerometers using a Kalman filter to improve the sensor readings.
Kalman filtering was used in the Apollo Guidance Computer and continues to play an important role in autonomous navigation and now robotics.
Public Speaking
Here are some recent talks;
- Making the Technology for Tomorrow's International Security - for the Xi'an International Maker Faire in China.
- Supporting a New Generation of Innovators and Entrepreneurs - for the Westminster Higher Education Forum in Whitehall London.
- Truth, Opportunity and Failure - St Pauls Cathedral to the Occupy Movement.
- Remembrance Day in Berlin - 11th Nov 2006 - The taking of and laying of a wreath of poppies in Berlin with 2 minutes silence.
Research
I have independently researched the following topics;
Systems Theory - On 25th Feb 2013 I presented as a seminar to the Department of Computational Intelligence at the University of Kent at Canterbury called "Representation, Compositional Meaning and a Concept of Concepts". Download the paper behind the presentation.
Economics - Developing a fundamental ongoing examination and development on economics and money. (1 Year)
Torture - An examination of the use of torture in interrogation. (6 Months)
Mass Destruction - An Examination of the role of Weapons of Mass Destruction in warfare in response to the UK's decision on Trident. (4 Months)
Medway Makers
8 September 2014 - Founded Medway Makers The objective is to build an active maker movement in the Medway towns, which already have active arts communities and some speciality technical and craft clubs, but don't appear to have a place for combined creative technical culture. I aspire to bring Science & Technology, Art & Design, and Innovation and Industry into the same place.
Science Faction Ltd
25 September 2014 - I incorporated Science Faction Ltd as a company for the development of science and technology related products and services in particular related to education. At present the focus is on teaching real world science and technology skills through activities and games. See the Science Faction website for more details.
Jan - May 2014 Designed and built the valve radio in the picture. Receives from about 1Mhz through to about 10MHz i.e. medium wave to short wave. Picked up Beijing Taiwan etc after 6pm when they start transmitting. Uses speaker not headphones. Circuit is my own design. This is my valve electronics prototyping board. Why valves? Because I am just a bit young to have really had to use them so this was more of a fun exercise!
Nexus Alpha Ltd
Business Background
I have 12 years experience of business, in technology and design. I was a co-founder and director of Nexus Alpha Ltd bespoke transport information systems.
Over 13 years I and my business partner took our business, Nexus Alpha, from the back room, to a limited company (in 1994) to 25 employees and a turnover of £1.5 million in 2005 when I sold my half of the company to him. Nexus Alpha Ltd (NAL) remains an important supplier of transport information hardware and software to all the UK rail companies, some county councils and some other organisations.
The on street display pictured here was designed by me using "Solid Works" CAD. I also wrote the software for it. It is providing bus information in Scotland.
Business Experience
Although my work directing Nexus Alpha Ltd (NAL) included some specific things, namely;
There were also other more general issues I dealt with, that are common to nearly all businesses;
The systems and methods I used are very efficient are quite applicable today. Click on any of the links for details.
Business
I have 12 years experience of business, in technology and design. I was a co-founder and director of Nexus Alpha Ltd bespoke transport information systems.
I can provide Business Training based on practical experience directing Nexus Alpha Ltd in;
- Quality Managment
- Writing Specifications
- Managing Requirements
- Electronic and Mechanical Assembly
- Version Control
- Innovation
- Writing a Business Case
- Employing People
- Health & Safety
- Making and recording decisions
More about Business Training.
BBC Education
The majority of my BBC Micro work was for BBC Radio Schools. When looking at these images it's worth remembering that I had 4 colours and a screen resolution of 320 x 256, this used 20 Kilobytes of ram leaving 12 Kilobytes to write the program. There was generally 100 kilobytes of floppy disk storage and that was it. So I wrote almost everything in 6502 assembly language and pushed the system to its absolute limits.
December 1985 Program development and design for part of a mixed media pack involving TV, Radio and software; entitled "Technology and Design". I was responsible for four programs in this pack to teach about Pneumatics, Electronic systems, Motors and Levers. I used a theatre as a means of teaching electronics as a way of hopefully appealing to both sexes.
In the best of these programs, children can build electronic circuits and watch how the circuits control special effects in an on screen theatre. For this I had to write 6502 assembly language to emulate up to 64 electronic logic gates at high speed. The gate propagation time was 125ms. There was 3 bytes of un-used memory when this ran. (This was BBC Education financed by The Gatsby Foundation)
This was a very short animation project done on a BBC Micro. The sequence starts with a title frame and then the clear mountain is shown. The star becomes gradually brighter and as it reaches its brightest point a halo bursts out and its tiny flames move like blue fire. Then a lightning bolt strikes the mountain from the star and a host of tiny stars grow up to form the castle.
Interests
I have broad ranging interests from architecture and style to the system science of both engineered and natural systems. This has applications from writing more effective system specifications, to understanding organisations, societies and their function and dysfunction.
I want to help build organisations and societies where diplomacy rather than destruction is a primary form of conflict resolution. There are many social transformations needed to take humanity onward and I hope to play my part in that transformation even at the lowest level of influencing a new generation in the every day things that form the foundation for creating a peaceful and productive world.
Employers Include
I was formally director of Nexus Alpha Ltd which I sold in 2005.
I have also worked for;
- BBC Education,
- The Inner London Education Authority,
- Acorn Computers and
- the Department of Education and Science.
This hyperlinked CV gives you the chance to find exactly what your interested in in detail fast! But if you prefer not to do that then click on; Can I have a normal 2 page CV please!.
Publications
I have published programming books which sold over 10,000 copies through leading stores including W H Smith and John Lewis. I was there and involved at the start of the personal computer revolution.
Education
In 1985 I finished a Physics BSc (Hons III) from Bedford College, University of London, however my prime experience and education has come through my employment, business, independent work and interests.
Referees
Julian Coleman 07714 12531 - 97 Rochester Avenue, Rochester ME1 2DR - Former employer at BBC and former employee with Nexus Alpha Ltd.
Dr Peter Holmes 020 8205 4529 - 21 Colin Drive, London NW9 6ES Former employer and co-author of first book.
Hobbies
Sailing
Spare time in the Summer of 2016 was spent restoring this 1962 GP14 wooden sailing boat to sailing condition and getting her out on the Medway River to catch the last of the season.
Carpentry
I built this kitchen from plain wood, no flat packs or ready made doors here. All designed to go with the dresser in the house built in 1904. I followed the old methods with the exception that I used a router. I also did all the restoration, plumbing and wiring including removing the old floor to bare earth and laying the new floor properly of course.
Clothes Design
During the 1980s I designed and made many of my own clothes and costuemes including these shoes which generally lasted for 9 months of continuous wear.
Model Railways
I was getting a bit tired of doing everything on the computer so after a few years I took to model railways. There is a lot of skill in creating authentic scenery but of course I was soon putting my computing skills to work again. I could not resist writing the software to turn an arduino into a DCC multi-train controller.