Benjamin Kamen
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Email: resume AT benjammin.net
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Synopsis:
Highly adaptive Engineer/Analyst with over 25 years of computer/electronics
engineering experience. Knowledge covers a wide range of concepts at
levels of complexity ranging from circuit level electronics design to computer
systems to large scale networks enabling the ability to view situations from a
multitude of perspectives.
Culminating from all this previous experience, I've learned to architect, plan,
provision, implement and maintain complex systems which helped bring success to
the companies I've worked for through either the realization of substantial
savings in operating costs or through the systems requiring little maintenance
or repair.
As an excellent self starter typically needing no guidance/supervision, since 1992
my roles of employment have been reporting directly to senior management/staff at
the companies I've worked.
Past employments include supervisory and instructional roles as I have also
managed project groups as well as trained employees through seminars, training
sessions and one-on-one assistance bringing better productivity through
employees which have a better understand of the company's product, their environment and the
technology in it.
Skills Summary
Inventions:
Scientific Papers/Publishings:
General Electronics: (Test & Measurement)
Computer Technologies:
- Operating Systems: (Alphabetical Order)
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- Hardware Platforms: Intel x86, Dec Alpha, Motorola
680x0 & PowerPC (Mac & IBM RS/6000), Sparc/Ultra-Sparc (Sun), 6502, 6800.
- Embedded MicroControllers: MicroChip PIC Series (programming and design), Motorola 6805, Parallax Stamps I & II, ARM
- Languages: C, TCL/TK, Perl, VHDL, Basic, Assembler (for 6502 & MicroChip), Unix Shells(ksh,bash)
- Networking:
- TCP/IP, IPX, PPP, NetBIOS/NetBeui, 10/Fast/Gigabit Ethernet using both Copper and
Single/Multi-mode Fiber (and some Token Ring), 802.11 (w/WEP, AUTH and more), IPsec,
VPN Tunnels
- Services: NFS, NIS, DNS, TFTP/FTP, HTTP/HTTPS, SMB, DHCP/BOOTP, NTP, RADIUS, RSYNC, SMTP w/AUTH & STARTTLS,
VoIP, Legato Networker, Veritas Products, WebSense and more.
- Hardware:
- Cisco Certifications: Cisco IP Telephony (Call Manager 3.x - VoIP)
- Email/Anti-SPAM: Norton SMTP Gateways, Sendmail (UNIX), SPAMassassin, MIMEdefang
- VPN, IPsec (Netscreen/Unix/Windows)
Telecommunications Technology:
- Resources: POTS, T1/E1 (ISDN-PRI/BRI, Robbed Bit
Signalling - E&M Wink/Immediate Start, FrameRelay, ETS300, DASS2 and more...),
T3
- Hardware:
- PBX's:
Other Skills of Interest:
- Aviation (Presently hold a current Private Pilot's License - If needed, I can hop in a plane and go where needed.)
- Electronics Hobbyist (Schematic/PCB Design, Layout, fabrication, etc...) (Surprising, eh? It's not just a job)
- Designing & Operating personal Internet Domain/WebServer/MailServer
Detailed Employment History Summary
Engineering Consultant - Jun.2005 to Present
Eclypse International - Jun. 2008 to Present
Job Duties: Consulting Design Engineer
Univ of IL (Illinois Natural History Survey) - Jun. 2006 to Present
Job Duties: Radar Data Analyst, Tracking Radar Engineer, Electronics Engineer
NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) - Mar. 2006 to Mar. 2006
Job Duties: Consulting Hardware Design Engineer
Finish up the final 'C' firmware development/debugging/testing
of a Microchip PIC18F series based atmospheric weather sensor.
Bozsi Engineering, LLC. - Aug. 2005 to Jan. 2006
Job Duties: Consulting Hardware Design Engineer
This was another multi-job role in electronics engineering utilizing my skills
in PCB design, manufacturing, assembly, QA and test. Also used were my skills with
computer IT needs concerning the company network.
Innotech, Inc. - Nov. 2005 to Jan. 2006 and Jan. 2006 to Jul. 2006
Job Duties: Consulting Hardware Design Engineer
- PCB design of an RF Transmitter for wildlife use. (Includes design assistance and SCH capture)
- PCB design of the RF receiver for use with the transmitter. (Includes design assistance and SCH capture)
- Consult in testing/verification of afore mentioned system.
SPEC, Inc. - Jun. 2005 to Jul. 2005 and Nov. 2005 to Present
Job Duties: Consulting Hardware Design Engineer
- To design a high-speed SRAM memory module (Design, PCB, Assembly and Test) for the CERFboard255 from Intrynsic, Inc.
- Verilog HDL design for to be utilized as a data aggregator in a system for unexploded munitions detection.
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To assisting with the design/prototype & assist in test, a PIC18F
microcontroller based sensor utilizing 'C' for use with radiosondes for
atmospheric research. (This included everything from SCH capture to PCB
layout to assembly to code to test.)
- To creat test plan and conduct wireless survey for single pilot operation of afore mentioned munitions detection system.
AZ Apps, Inc. - Jul. 2006 to Oct. 2007
Job Duties: Consulting Hardware Design Engineer
- Writing of firmware and steer implementation
of PIC 18F Microcontroller based system subprocessor. (Including SCH
design assistance)
- Writing of Verilog HDL for FPGA design
for custom bus sensor subsystem. (Including SCH capture and final
system implementation/debugging)
University of Illinois - Jun. 2003 to Jun. 2005
Job Duties: Assistant Research Scientist (Hardware Design Engineer)
This position for the Illinois Natural History Survey involved working on a
scientific research grant through the National Science Foundation concerning
the automated tracking of various radio transmitter tagged wildlife. Aspects
of this job included:
More info to come on this later as this is my present job and work is in progress.
Consultant- Mar. 2002 to Jun. 2003
Job Duties: Information Systems/Networking/Electronics/Telecommunications Consultant
Clients I've worked with since my last place of employment have been:
- Resource Communications, Inc.
- Park Ridge School District 64 - General Network Maintenance and Emergency Support
- Liquid Container - General Network/IT Support
- Village of Bolingbrook - General Network/IT Support
- Windy City Flyers - Web Site relocation/reprogramming project, internal server rebuild from Windows to
Linux,
VHF Radio Repair/Installation and other various hardware needs.
- Data Cable Technologies - Emergency Data Recovery
- Sellers Edge - Technology Liquidation Consultant
- High Ridge Partners - Technology Liquidation Consultant
- Gordon Kapes, Inc. - Network/IT Development Support
- DK Heating, Inc. - Computer/IT repair/support needs
- net7software, Inc. - Computer/IT Consulting
- Lipson & Potter Jewelers - Computer/IT Consulting
Resource Communications, Inc.- Apr. 2001 to Mar. 2002
Job Duties: Technical Director and Networking/Telecommunications Consultant
Example internal projects were:
- Brought company Email Services in house to new IMAP/POP3/WebMail/SMTP Server.
- Brought new internal DNS/DHCP Server online.
- Brought new internal Web Server and external Service Department Web Server online.
- Assisted in planning and installation of new computer room power distribution for new UPS system.
- Brought Internal Mail List Server online.
- Put new Firewall and associated corporate to home VPN's online.
- Assisted with internal user issues with desktop applications.
Examples customers I worked with were: (this list is only a sample and not intended to be complete)
- Park Ridge School District 64: Park Ridge has a medium to large scale network
consisting of a main office with 3-T1's to the Internet with 8 T1's to the various
schools in the district. The system was mainly comprised of Apple Macintosh workstations
with some MS-Windows. Novell and Apple was the make-up of the file and authentication servers with Linux
supporting the internal DNS and DHCP functions.
- Evanston Township High School: Work at Evanston consisted mainly of installing a new
Cisco Catalyst 4000 series switch with Layer-3 capabilities to replace the previous equipment
of a Cisco Catalyst 5000 with a Cisco 3640 series router.
- Oxford Bank and Trust: Oxford was having persistent problems with the ATM located at
two branch circuits out in Naperville, IL. I successfully brought all communications
online after years of trouble to a state of virtually maintenance free operation.
- Richardson Electronics: Basic guidance and support here when the technical staff at Richardson
had questions regarding products they purchased from Resource.
- Hackney's Family Resturants: Successfully installed Firewall equipment at restaurant locations
to bring company VPN WAN online via DSL Internet connectivity.
- Web Solutions (ISP): Provide technical advice concerning TCP/IP Networking and Communications
for Web Solutions' various Cisco routers and T1's to customers.
Open Port Technology, Inc.- Feb. 1995 to Feb. 2001
Job Duties: Final Position: Technical Director
Previous Positions: Manager of LAN, Hardware R&D, In-House/On-Site Customer Support and Member of the
Advanced Technology Group.
In 1995, Open Port consisted of 6 owners when they asked me to come aboard.
Two owners made up sales. Two of the owners were programmers.
One was business development. The last one was engineering.
There were no other employees yet.
Thus, working at Open Port meant wearing many different hats.
I was the primary personnel where anything technical but non-programming
was concerned. The network we utilized was Unix/OS-2/Windows based and
communicated via TCP/IP and NetBIOS.
Scenarios typically consisted of a request to come in to design/implement
from the ground up a solution to a specific problem whether it be internally
based or at a customer's site. These solutions dealt with Open Port's
product line directly (i.e., specifying/installing of communications lines
to a customer for OPT's product to function with.) or possibly just
lending expertise to a situation outside the direct scope of Open Port
products or services. "Pre-Sales" or "Post-Sales" Engineer would be
a good way to describe this as both areas of the sales cycle
have been supported. Some brief examples are:
- Advising customers in their presales trial phase as to what
equipment and resources might be required.
- Supporting customers in post-sales situations where an unforeseen
problem needed resolution. (downed phone circuits or bad provisioning)
Open Port's original product was enterprise-wide fax which eventually matured
into carrier grade Internet Messaging. Open Port positions it as a Network
Operating System. Originally it ran on a multitude of platforms. Thus, the
operating systems with which I acquired experience in this environment
included:
- Windows ( 3.xx, 9X, NT 3.51, 4.0, NT Terminal Server)
- OS/2 (2.1 thru warp)
- Unix (IBM AIX[moderate], HP-UX[light], Sun[heavy], SCO[moderate], DEC OSF/1[light])
- Vax/VMS [moderate]
Job Duties included:
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Telecommunications Engineer:
OPT's Telecom infrastructure consisted of (8) T1's, (2) Mitel SX-200 PBX's
and approximately 175 phones at two downtown Chicago locations. I specified,
designed, implemented and maintained the entire infrastructure for the
duration of Open Port's ~5yr existance. The configuration included POTS as
well as T1 lines (originally Robbed-Bit but eventually switched to ISDN-PRI).
The Mitel system is a modular fiber-distributed system. This was broken out
into a star configuration throughout closets located on the floor of our
office space. Other than it's selection when purchased, I orchestrated it's
installation from start to finish. I would also recommend and implement all
changes in services with OPT's telecom infrastructure. Our carriers were
Ameritech, Focal Communications and US Sprint. For Internet services we used
UU.net(WorldCom). All these services (including our remote office) was
routed through an AdTran Atlas800 Integrated Access Device. These actually
were such flexible devices, I implemented/maintained several development
"mini-PSTN's" throughout the company for use in testing environments.
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Hardware R&D/Support Manager: Researching, specifying, recommending,
designing, prototyping and testing just about any new hardware including
computers, cabling, connectors, networking, telecom, special projects. The
support aspect of this title typically involved transferrence of knowledge to
other OPT employees once I had set up new hardware systems/test environments
for their use. Also, seminars for new employees on topics such as Telephony
or Networking were a regular occurrence.. Last, support included travelling
to customer sites to do product trial/production installation. Sites
travelled included UK/Europe and Asia as well as in the US.
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Network Engineer:
Open Port's network infrastructure consisted of 10/100/1000Mb Ethernet in
both copper and fiber-optic format. Some Token-Ring was also in use primarly
in the testing labs. The network protocol used was primarly TCP/IP with
little or no NetBIOS. We supported the full suite of TCP/IP services like
DNS, DHCP, NTP, NIS, LDAP, SENDMAIL, POP, IMAP and others. Connected hosts on
the network varied around 450-500 computers of all varieties from x86 to Sun
Microsystems to IBM to HP and DEC. I was responsible for researching,
recommending or designing and implementing new solutions for the network.
Projects included network renumeration, plant maintenance, training for new
employees, systems setup/administration. Maintainence of all Windows OS
computers was eventually passed on to the Information Services group, but I
continued to maintain core services on the network. Because I was still
responsible for all Telcom and Core network services, User-Dialup Services
was also a core function I maintained. Experience here included Ascend
MAX/TNT product line of WAN devices, ISDN-BRI hookup both in the office and
at employee sites.
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Electrical Engineer: Researching, recommending or design and
implementation of solutions providing safe and reliable power to the
sensitive computer and telecommunications systems of the company. Examples
included specification of new circuits and loading limitations for equipment
to be installed as well as the UPS systems installed to back them up.
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In-House/On-Site Customer Support Consultant & Member of ATG:
ATG, the Advanced Technology Group, consisted of myself and Open Port
Founders Marty Wegner, Omey Nandyal and Tony Dutra.
ATG would research new directions for the company product line through
innovative and sometimes whimsical examples of new applications. Also,
whenever there seemed to be an unsolvable problem, Marty (Chief Software
Scientist) and I would be assigned to jump in and fix/solve the problem.
Other Responsibilities included:
- Open Port's 3x3 Video Wall
- In-House Training Sessions on Technology and OPT's Products.
- Providing Top-Level Technical Support/Training to the Engineering,
Client Services, Sales and IT Department.
This particular position had me doing so many different things, it's
difficult within the scope of this resume to list them here. The descriptions
above only touch on some of the tasks I engaged on a regular basis.
Open Port ran out of capital in November of 2000 shutting the company down.
I was asked to stay on as a consultant to shut down and liquidate the company
assets until the very end of operation in February of 2001.
Gordon Kapes, Inc. - Dec. 1992 to Feb. 1995
Job Duties: R&D Lab Technician,
Network Administrator and Computer Support Technician
Gordon Kapes, the owner, actually had 3 companies at the time I was
employed for which I performed tasks for all 3.
- Gordon Kapes, Inc. manufactured telephony equipment such as 'Power Fail
Transfer' equipment for PBX and Key systems, switched power supplies, and
computerized site monitoring equipment.
- Studio Technologies manufactured professional audio equipment such a
stereo simulators, microphone preamps, audio truck talent amps/mixers,
computer audio workstation switches and mixers.
- Open Port Technology was the third company which Gordon started with 2
other businessmen. This company produced products for use in the field of
computer based telephony initially focusing on fax technologies.
Daily activities included:
- R&D Lab Engineer/Technician.
- Debugging new product prototypes.
- Building product test fixtures.
- Write software/instructional test procedures for production
testing of new products.
- Assist/train technicians repairing product returns.
- Occasional Trade Show travel.
- Maintain Novell computer network w/DOS & Windows architecture
computers running over 10Mb IPX Ethernet.
While still an employee of Gordon Kapes, Open Port "rented" my services to do
various large scale projects with US West on new fax based bureau style
services out in Denver, CO. My charge was to specify, build and deploy the
prototype and some production industrial fax servers to be delivered to US
West. Eventually Open Port grew to the point of needing a full time employee.
At that point I was asked by the CEO of Open Port to join the company
permanently.
Shure Brothers, Inc. - Aug. 1989 to Oct. 1992
Job Duties: Electronics Repair Technician
- Using problem solving skills along with limited schematics and documentation
to troubleshoot and repair the wide variety of company audio products.
- Repairs consisted mostly of component level repair with some board level
repair. Products consisted of professional audio equipment such as mixers
(both powered and line level), VHF wireless microphones/receiver systems,
UHF mobile radio amplifiers, home theater products (surround decoders and amps),
CD players and teleconferencing products. Products utilized a mixture of
thru-hole as well as surface mount technology.
- Other tasks included designing test-fixtures when needed to help speed/aid repair
of products. The Service Department usually did not receive a duplicate
set of the testing equipment that our production facilities had for testing
products. So, we had to make our own.
- Handling customer phone calls concerning technical questions
about products in a pre-sales and post-sales capacity as well as concerning
repairs in process. We also had a walk-up counter at which we directly
interacted with customers.
- Technical Liaison Representative
between the Services Department and Quality Assurance in two different
new product development teams concerning the Shure's teleconferencing product
line.
- Working with the Advertising Department to help speed repairs
sent in by endorsing artists by being a direct contact within the Service
Department. This also included representing the company on-site for technical
support when artists came to town for performances and required assistance.
Post-Newsweek Cable - 1985 to Aug. 1989
Job Duties: Repair Technician / Lineman
- Original duties included writing repair manual for CATV decoders with
commonly found problems through my own repairs. (no reference schematics
were originally available.)
- Worked during a system changeout which involved removal,
inspection, accounting and packaging/shipping of over 16,000 CATV
converters. The core group for most of this consisted of myself
and 2 other co-workers.
- Maintained PC's located at the business office.
- CATV Linemen wiring up cities for cable TV. This position involved
everything from running plant cable/strand, clearance approvals,
map verification and running construction crews.
ComputerLand of Northbrook - Apr. 1986 to Dec. 1987
Job Duties: Computer Service Technician / On-Site Consultant
Computer repair and support. Systems consisted
of business and some personal IBM PC and Apple Macintosh computers.
Other items included printers, modems and typical computer accessories
both internal and external. Responsibilities included on-site customer service calls/installations.
Video Technology, Inc - Oct. 1985 to May. 1986
Job Duties: Electronics/Computer Repair Technician
Computer and Consumer Electronics repair and support. Responsibilities included customer service calls.
For more information, visit http://www.benjammin.net
or email resume AT benjammin.net
- References available on request.