about

I am a freelancer who designs and makes creative technological projects and helps others to do likewise

My professional website is at tangibl.co.uk

Contact

• Email

  brendanarnold@gmail.com

  Twitter

  @brendanjarnold

Personal statement

• I have been working freelance as a technologist since early 2013 and hugely enjoy the working with clients to realise creative technological projects, especially as part of a small team.

Previous work - Robotics

• Developing animatronics for a theme park in Porto

  This involved working with fabricators and project manager in an intense (total 40 days) R&D period to determine, test and implement a reliable control system for six-axis life-like movements in 'Henry' an animatronic Portuguese explorer.

  The final system comprised of a Maxon EPOS2 microcontroller which drove a slave CANbus network hosting four of the axes as well as slave Arduinos driving a servo and a stepper motor for the remaining axes. I wrote a NodeJS webapp which quickly and easily generated arbitrary curves for the client to input into the code to obtain the desired movements.

Previous work - Apps

• RBTE 2014, a Windows Phone app for the Retail Business Technology Exposition at Earls Court

  A Silverlight based Windows Phone 8 app which was developed for a client in a rapid timeframe.

  The app pulls live JSON data and a bitmap based interactive floor map from webservices and features reporting via Flurry.

  RBTE 2014 in the Windows Phone Store
• Pocketailor, a Windows Phone app for finding the right size clothes

  A project where I designed, programmed and marketed a database driven app for Windows Phone 7 and 8. Based on Silverlight and developed in Expression Blend and Visual Studio.

  The app has been featured on several occaisions in the Windows Phone store in the UK and worldwide.

  Pocketailor in the Windows Phone Store

Expertise

• Roles

  • R&D – 6 years academic research and short-term freelance research projects for clients
  • Consulting – working with artists to realise projects at BV studios, Bristol
  • Data analysis – results in top-tier peer-review journal and PhD thesis
  • Software engineering – Building front and back-end web and mobile app systems, control software and analsis workflows in academia and for clients
  • Robotic system engineering – Small scale greenfield client projects and self funded projects including basic electronics
  • Design – User Experience (UX) and information architecture (IA) for mobile apps, MyOxygen
  • Training – Experience graduate level teaching physics and computing

  Specific

  • Primary Languages: Python, C#.NET, XAML, C (Arduino), Javascript, HTML5, CSS
  • Other Languages: IEC61131-3, LabVIEW, Matlab, Processing, Delphi, PHP
  • Technologies: NodeJS, Windows Phone (Silverlight), Arduino, jQuery, BackboneJS, Responsive web design, Git, PaaS (Microsoft Azure, AppFog)
  • Methodologies: Agile techniques, object-oriented programming, test driven development, event driven programming, state machines

Education

• PhD - Correlated electron systems research

  Bristol University, 2008-2012 – Including work at magnetic facilities, intrument hardware and software development, measurement, analysis, demonstrating and tutoring

  Masters - Dilute magnetic semiconductor research

  Trinity College Dublin, 2006-2008 – Including work at synchrotron facilities, instrument maintenance, measurement, analysis and demonstrating

  Undergraduate - Physics with study abroad

  Bristol University with year at Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, 2001-2005