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Personal Details

Full Name: Robert John Crowther
Phone number: +44 (0) 7887 761 430
Email address:
Preferred role: Front End Web Developer, Webmaster, Systems Administrator
Nationality: British
Marital Status: Single
Address:
95 Wentworth Avenue Finchley, London. N3 1YN. UK.
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Profile

An intelligent and articulate graduate, I bring keen analytical and excellent communication skills to any environment. My experience in development, IS infrastructure and project management allow me to provide end to end support during system specification, development and implementation or to focus on a problem area.

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Work Experience

7/2008 – present, Infrastructure Support Consultant, Service Works Global Ltd, London (Full-time).
Manage implementation, service delivery and third line technical support for fully managed application hosting platform based on VMware, Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005.
5/2004 – 7/2008, Technology Manager, Service Works Global Ltd, London (Full-time).
Leader for a team of three people doing web and other interface development plus product R&D and another team of two people providing infrastructure support for the entire company.
4/2002 – 4/2004, TCS Associate, London Southbank University & Service Works Ltd, London (Full-time).
Fulfilled the roles of Web Developer & Infrastructure Manager. Oversaw development of new web products, evaluated new technology, supervised several infrastructure projects including migration to Windows 2003.
5/2001 – 4/2002, Web Developer, Short Term Contract, Service Works Ltd, London (Full-time).
Helped develop web interface to existing database based product, using Visual Basic, Javascript, XML and HTML. Additional network support and system administration role, Windows 98/NT/2000.
2/2001 – 4/2001, Webmaster, Work Placement, iwant2b Ltd, Edinburgh (Placement).
Responsible for technical/code aspects of new ‘iwant2bhealthy’ website, plus some design and editing work and maintaining and updating existing iwant2b directory sites using Dreamweaver. Helped to integrate new shopping cart using ASP technology to access a SQL Server backend. Exposure to web marketing & SEO techniques and also log analysis software.
4/1992 – 12/1999, Licensed Premises Security, Various, Edinburgh (Part-time).
Door steward at various licensed premises around Edinburgh.
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Publications

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Skills

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Education

10/1990 – 7/1994, Honours Degree in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science at Edinburgh University.
Final Year Project: Modelling Communication Systems via a Cellular Automaton Specialist Modules: Algorithms and Data Structures; Programming Methodology; Operating Systems; Computer Communications; Computer Graphics; Software for Parallel Machines; Communication and Concurrency; Distributed Computing; Knowledge Representation I & II; Computational Syntax; Computational Semantics; Machine Learning; Connectionist Computing.
8/1986 – 6/1990, Robert Smyth School, Market Harborough, Leicestershire.
A–levels: Maths; Physics; English Literature; General Studies. GCSE: Maths; English; English Literature; Science A; Science B; Humanities; Design; Commerce and Business Studies; Classical Studies;
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Training

3/2007, Introduction to Programming ArcObjects with VBA, ESRI UK, Aylesbury (certification)
Five day course providing a foundation for application development using VBA and ArcObjects for typical GIS programming tasks
7/2005, Introduction to Enterprise Project Management
Scope Education. Using Project 2003 with Project Server.
12/2004, Project Management
Custom training course, New Horizons. Project management using the PRINCE2 methodology.
7/2004, Project Management Fundamentals
Training course, New Horizons, London.
3/2004, Querying SQL Server 2000 with T–SQL
Training Course, Systematix, Reading. Basic and Intermediate SQL programming.
2/2004, TCS Module 4, Exploring Business Opportunities (Globalisation)
Introduces Associates to auditing and benchmarking techniques which can be used to assess the strategic impact of external factors on businesses and familiarise them with the issues raised by a chosen external factor.
2/2004, Project Server 2003 Administration
Training course, ProjectLearning.Net, Leeds. Installing and Configuring Project Server.
9/2003, Art of Leadership Conference, Edinburgh
Workshops and Keynote speeches aimed at building leadership skills.
6/2003, TCS Module 3, Business Management Skills
Develops in Associates the skills and understanding needed to contribute at a senior level to the development of small, ambitious companies and business units.
7/2002, TCS Module 2, Improving Personal Skills and Teamwork
Enables Associates to work effectively in a commercial environment as individuals and team members. Associates are encouraged to take responsibility for managing their own careers and personal development.
6/2002, TCS Module 1, Developing Project Management Skills
Equips Associates with skills in planning, organising and communicating that are needed to initiate and manage their TCS projects.
9/2000 – 1/2001, Internet Technologies Course at Net Resources, Edinburgh
Covering HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver, Flash, and Paintshop Pro.
1/2000 – 8/2000, ‘Up for Learning’
Various modules through Jewel and Esk Valley College, East Lothian. Including ‘Customer Care’, ‘Managing Change’ and various MS Office modules.
3/1998, Save a Life
Edinburgh Red Cross, half–day first aid course.
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Interests

11/2008, London Perl Workshop London Perl Mongers
Attended Web Programming Tutorial.
9/2008, Google Developer Day 2008 UK, Google, London (informal)
Attended sessions on Android, Google App Engine, Google Gears and V8 - the Chrome engine
5/2008, London Web Week 2008 (informal)
A series of daytime and evening events under a common banner, I attended talks on Microformats, Findability and the future of Flash
4/2008, onAIR London 2008, Adobe, London (informal)
A day of talks on building RIAs with Adobe's AIR platform - Flash, Flex and DHTML
12/2007, London Perl Workshop London Perl Mongers
Attended Beginners Perl Tutorial by Dave Cross
11/2007, DDD6, Microsoft Campus, Reading (informal)
Conference, I attended presentations covering IronRuby, Entity Framework, Inversion of Control, Dynamic Languages On .NET and MbUnit
10/2007, IT'S A MASHUP - the end of Business As Usual, BCS NLB, London (informal)
Presentation at BCS NLB meeting by Andy Mulholland (CEO, Capgemini).
6/2007, In-the-Brain of Erik Doerenburg on Why Agile Teams Fail, SkillsMatter, London (informal)
In this talk Erik discussed the most common reasons a team may fail when trying to execute a project using an agile methodology. He also covered how to learn from the mistakes of others, and avoid repeating new mistakes of your own.
5/2007, Google Developer Day 2007 UK, Google, London (informal)
Attended sessions on Google Maps API, GData API, Google Gears and Developing Mobile Websites
2/2007, WSG London Accessibility Meetup, University of Westminster, London (informal)
"The goal of these Web Standards Group events is to promote web-standards in such a way that attendees will go away having learnt something, or be inspired to create something great using web standards, whether they are seasoned standardistas or just starting out."
2/2007, WebDD07, Microsoft Campus, Reading (informal)
Conference, I attended presentations covering Microformats, CSS, Usability Testing, Ruby on Rails and Unobtrusive Javascript
11/2006, DevelopMentor Connected Systems Roadshow, Microsoft Campus, Reading (informal)
Two day seminar covering BizTalk, WCF, SQL Service Broker, ASP.Net Security and WWF.
11/2006, In-the-Brain of Dave Crane: Design Patterns for AJAX, SkillsMatter, London (informal)
Evening seminar.
3/2006, BCS/RSI Annual Lecture ‘Software for the 21st Century’ (informal)
Lecture discussing the implications of hardware parallelization and automatic verification for software development in the next century.
11/2005, London Web Frameworks Evening, London Perl Mongers (informal)
Seminar on ‘ActiveRecord style’ web application frameworks.
6/2005, SOA What? Perspectives on Service Oriented Architecture and what it means for the organisations that seek to embrace its promises.
Series of presentations at BCS NLB meeting.
3/2005, BCS/RSI Annual Lecture ‘Web Intelligence’
Lecture discussing the extent to which intelligent web services are evolving to cope with diverse sources of information on a global scale.
12/2004, London Perl Workshop (‘Learning Perl’ track)
London Perl Mongers. Understanding the basics of using Perl for web development.
10/1998 – 12/2000, Centre for Continuing Education, Edinburgh University
Evening classes in: Introduction to Philosophy – Parts 1 and 2; Existentialism and Belief; Bakhtin: Criticism and Theory; Wittgenstein: Language and Philosophy; Friedrich Nietzsche: Transfiguring Philosophy.
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Other

I have played American Football since I was fifteen. My Youth team won the national kitted championship in 1989 and I was chosen ‘Offensive Lineman of the Year’ in 1989 and 1990. Upon graduating to the senior team in 1991 I was chosen ‘Rookie of the Year’ and was also selected to represent Great Britain at the European Championships in Helsinki, winning a gold medal. After breaking my leg in 1992 I was unable to play for four years. I returned to the sport in 1996 and represented Scotland in 1997. For the London Mets I was selected ‘Offensive Lineman of the Year’ in all three seasons. I was recently involved with the Chiltern Cheetahs, we gained promotion from Division 2 of the British American Football League in 2004 and in 2005 appeared in the Division 1A final. Currently I play for the Farnham Knights who represented the UK in the EFAF Cup in 2009, playing games against teams from Amsterdam and Oslo. I also enjoy computer games and have helped to organise ‘LAN Events’ for up to 30 people in the North London area. As part of my involvement with these groups I have created and maintained several community websites.