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About Me

Personal Details

Name: Stella Power
Gender: Female
Nationality: Irish

Employment History

  • Senior systems developer, Transaction Network Services (TNS)
    November 2005 - Present
    Redesigned and implemented a new billing system for TNS International. This was written in C and had a PHP interface with management and reporting capabilities. It also involved the installation and configuration of a freeRadius server. Developed new reporting and monitoring tools for the TNS Online Customer and Administration Interfaces. This involved substantial development using PHP, Smarty and MySQL. Both of these systems were designed to handle high traffic and load volumes.
  • Assistant systems development manager, Doolin Technologies
    March 2004 - Oct 200
    Managing and assisting junior developers. Project management, including specification and design, scheduling, UAT and release management. Team leader on a number of large scale development projects. This role also involved a significant portion of system development.
  • Systems developer, Doolin Technologies
    June 2001 - Feb 2004
    Used Perl, C and PHP to design server and client applications, along with management and reporting systems for Alphyra Transaction Services, now know as Payzone. These systems handled financial transactions and were designed to run in a 24x7 environment and required high levels of security and resilience. Variations on APACS-30 to deploy prepaid phone top-ups as well as interfacing with systems using financial protocols APACS-30 and ISO-8583. Other projects included writing a SMS engine, utilities for managing users and a helpdesk system.
  • UNIX tutor, Department of Mathematics, Trinity College Dublin
    Oct 1999 - May 2001
    Topics covered included UNIX basics, C programming, HTML and LaTeX text formatting.
  • Research assistant to Dr. Peterson, Physics Department, University of Connecticut
    June - August 2000
    Worked on a geophysics project entitled "Analysis of Mars Analog Tufa Samples", which involved performing thermogravimetric analysis, mass spectrometry, as well as using other analytical packages.
  • Research assistant, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Baltimore, Maryland
    June - Sept 1999:
    Worked on a computational astrophysics project with Dr. Giavalisco entitled "The Simulation and Detection of High Redshift Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field". This involved having to write many C programs to create realistic spectra for the galaxies, and the use of data analysis and photometry packages.

Technical Skills

  • Strong web development skills with PHP, CSS, (X)HTML, XML, JavaScript and Smarty. Have designed and implemented user interfaces for many management and reporting systems, along with a touch-screen kiosk application.
  • Code contributor to the Drupal application framework, an open source content management system. Lead maintainer on the "Lightbox2", "FAQ" and "Avatar Selection" modules and the "Ocadia" theme. Co-maintainer on the "Code Review" and "Shoutbox" modules.
  • Highly experienced Perl programmer. Have designed and written a number of electronic transaction processing systems, as well as numerous auxiliary scripts.
  • Expert at designing and using MySQL databases, including integration with PHP and Perl scripts. Familiarity with PostgreSQL and Oracle.
  • Skilled C programmer, and have experience with GNOME API, OpenSSL, OpenGL and MPI programming.
  • Experience with Python and other scripting languages, including awk and bash/sh.
  • Experience with TCP/IP and near real-time messaging systems. Have written server and client applications to interface with systems using financial protocols APACS-30, ISO-8583 and variations thereof.
  • Thorough understanding of the principles behind secure service delivery, along with secure protocols and encryption systems.
  • Proficient at installing and configuring Apache and Lighttpd web servers.
  • Adept at using revision control applications, including CVS and Subversion.
  • UNIX and Linux expertise and LaTeX text formatting skills.
  • Familiarity with GIMP and Adobe Photoshop.
  • Experience with problem tracking and management systems, including Bugzilla, OTRS and Lotus Notes.

People and Project Management

  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
  • Team leader on a number of large scale development projects.
  • Project specification and design skills.
  • Experience in overseeing multiple concurrent projects, and in managing projects throughout their entire development cycle.
  • Practical knowledge of software release processes, including user acceptance testing.
  • Highly competent in writing functional and design specifications, user guides, system design documents and release documentation.
  • Ability to prioritise workload and work to exacting deadlines.
  • Able to cope well under pressure to deliver projects on time and to a high standard.

Miscellaneous Facts

  • Code contributor to the Drupal application framework, an open source content management system. I'm lead maintainer on the Avatar Selection, Frequently Asked Questions and Lightbox2 modules, along with the Ocadia theme. I'm also co-maintainer on the Code Review and Shoutbox modules.
  • 2000 - 2001: Member of the Central Societies Committee (CSC) executive, Trinity College Dublin.
  • 2000 - 2001: Treasurer of the Dublin University Physics Society.
  • 1998 - 2000: Chairperson of the Trinity Astronomy and Space Society (TASS).
  • Avid photographer, enthusiastic potter and studied "Silversmithing & Jewellery Design" in the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. See Stella Power Design for examples of my work.