Richard Taylor BEng PhD

summary

Experienced computer scientist and software engineer.

Strong background in commercial research and a proven record in commercial software development.

Successful in leading teams using Agile Scrum, Kanban and Waterfall methodologies.

Robust object-oriented design in C++, Java and Python.

Excellent problem solver.

experience

2011 - 2012 : Accenture : Application Technical Architect

Nokia outsourced all Symbian software work to Accenture in 2011.

2009 - 2011 : Nokia : Senior Software Engineer

Scrum Master in an Agile team of 6-10 engineers spread across multiple UK sites. Developed, deployed and supported business-critical build tools used by thousands of individual developers on single machines, and by delivery organisations on massively parallel build clusters. Reduced the maximum system build time from 65 hours to 8 hours. Supported Linux, Windows, 32/64 bit, GNU make and Electric Accelerator.

Switched to a Kanban model when the Symbian ramp-down started. Learned about the practicalities of Agile and distributed software engineering, the importance of continuous integration and comprehensive unit testing.

2006 - 2009 : Symbian : Senior Software Engineer

Technical Lead of a new (Linux and Windows) fast parallel build system for Symbian OS. Worked with Symbian teams, Nokia and Sony Ericsson on requirements, scheduling and delivery.

Successfully completed and deployed the tools within Symbian. Began roll-out to Symbian licensees. Maintained backwards compatibility with the old tools throughout, with a smooth migration path to the new tools.

Moved to Agile Scrum methodology in 2008. Trained by RadTac as a Scrum Master. Mentor to several Graduate Engineers.

Symbian was a very well organised software company. Learned a lot about development methodologies, code-line management and proper code reviews (which were recorded for reference and not just rubber-stamps). Learned Python, ARM code and compilers, UML, parallel processing and an awful lot about GNU make.

2005 - 2006 : FujiFilm Electronic Imaging : Principal Software Engineer

Software architect and team leader in charge of "Rendering and JDF" for FujiFilm's "next generation work-flow" product. This was a lead product for the Adobe PDF Print Engine (or "Monza" as it was called during development). Liaised directly with Adobe during their alpha and beta testing programme.

Learned how to recruit and direct contractors, XML processing in C++, and how to deal with an organisation that resolutely sticks to unachievable objectives.

2004 - 2005 : PepperDog : Technical Director

A founder of PepperDog, the software company specialising in image matching, face detection and object tracking. Did a lot of promising work with Computer Associates on door-logging (recording time-stamped images of people passing through) and other biometric systems: selling custom demonstrations for a range of niche markets.

Learned the difference between research software and the business of commercial software development for actual clients.

1995 - 2004 : Canon Research Europe : Senior Researcher

Won a gold medal from Canon in 2002 for contributions to the patent portfolio. Involved in over 30 patent applications relating to image processing and machine learning techniques.

2000 - 2004 Senior Researcher Visual Communication Group : research of tools for enabling effective collaboration across networks. Designed and trained neural networks (using image sequences and 3D head models) to perform face detection, gaze tracking and face recognition.

Initiated and led projects to develop automatic face annotation for photograph albums and to investigate the application of visual learning algorithms to handwriting recognition.

Learned Java, network / multi-processing, and a lot more about practical machine learning.

1995 - 2000 Researcher Computer Vision Group : research and development of tools for extracting 3D information from digital images and video. Initially large-scale photogrammetry, camera calibration and stereo matching, for arbitrary objects. Eventually the project focussed on "small" objects and was finally developed into a commercial software product 3D.SOM.

Also developed software to fine-tune the stereo rectification of a 3D camera adapter being built by a colleague in Japan; and produced a system for the production of time-lapse sequences using a hand-held camera.

Learned how to do Object-Oriented design properly, write fast and maintainable C++ code, STL, Perl, cross-platform programming and the importance of code reviews. Tried to learn Japanese, with modest results. Contributed Netscape::History module to CPAN.

1992 - 1995 : University of Bath : Post-doctoral Researcher

"Design by Virtual Manufacturing": a 4-person joint project between the schools of Mathematical Sciences and Mechanical Engineering, to investigate how desktop Virtual Reality techniques can be used to assist the computer-aided design and manufacture of engineering components. The project generated a lot of interest from academia and industry, and was invited to demonstrate at The Royal Society New Frontiers In Science Exhibition in June 1995.

Learned C++, OpenGL, OpenInventor, HTML and svLis on Silicon Graphics. Also, how to code in a team with proper source control.

Became a Chartered Engineer in 1995 as a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers which later became the IET (resigned in 2011).

education

1986 - 1992 : University of Southampton

1989 - 1992 Ph.D (Computer Vision) Electronics and Computer Science

"Colour Object Recognition Using Shape-based Aspects": doctoral research investigated the application of a 2D shape descriptor based on fractal geometry and perceptually meaningful colour metrics to image understanding. Objects were modelled as lists of unique 2D views, or Aspects, described in terms of the derived shape and colour descriptors.

Learned C and LISP on Unix. Joined the British Machine Vision Association in 1991 (still active). Contributed the swirl module to XScreenSaver.

1986 - 1989 B.Eng (First Class Honours) Electronic Engineering

Final year options: Computer Systems Architecture, Digital System Design, Information Theory and Signal Processing, Integrated Circuit Design, Intelligent Knowledge-based Systems, Software Engineering.

Final year project: "Model-based Visual Inspection": automatic visual inspection of thick-film hybrid circuits by comparing lines detected in images to lines in the original CAD models.

1985 - 1986 : Ministry of Defence

3 months of basic engineering training and 6 months of project work at SETC Bromley. Followed by industrial attachments at DGDQA Woolwich (engineering drawing practises) and RAE Farnborough (developed a remote controller for a speech-recogniser and data-storage device). The MoD also sponsored my first degree.

1978 - 1985 : Baysgarth School

Prizes : Computing (1983), Maths (1985).

A Levels : Maths (A), Physics (A), Chemistry (B), Further Maths (C).

AO Levels : Additional Maths (A), General Studies (B).

O Levels : Biology (A), Chemistry (A), Computer Studies (A), English Language (A), English Literature (A), Geography (A), Maths (A), Physics (A), French (B).

publications

Patent titled "Build Process" for Symbian Software Ltd. 2008.

2 patents titled "Image Processing Apparatus" for Pepperdog Ltd. 2005.

Adam Baumberg, Alex Lyons and Richard Taylor, "3D S.O.M. A commercial software solution to 3D scanning", Graphical Models, volume 67 issue 6, pp 476-495, November 2005.

Adam Baumberg, Alex Lyons and Richard Taylor, "3D S.O.M. - A commercial software solution to 3D scanning", First International Conference on Vision, Video and Graphics, pp41-48, (Bath, UK) July 2003.

30 patents, mostly titled "Image Processing Apparatus" for Canon Inc. 1996-2003.

Adrian Bowyer, Gary Bayliss, Richard Taylor & Philip Willis, "A Virtual Factory", International Journal of Shape Modeling, Vol. 2, No. 4 (1996) pp215-226.

R.I.Taylor, G.M.Bayliss, A.Bowyer, P.J.Willis, "A Virtual Workshop for Design by Manufacture", ASME Computers in Engineering 1995, (Boston, USA) Sep 1995.

Gary Bayliss, Adrian Bowyer, Richard Taylor, and Philip Willis, "Process planning for free", Proceedings of the conference on Virtual Reality and Rapid Prototyping for Engineering, Ed. James Powell, published by DRAL & EPSRC, January 1995.

G.M.Bayliss, A.Bowyer, R.I.Taylor and P.J.Willis, "Virtual Manufacturing", Proceedings of CSG94: Set-theoretic Solid Modelling Techniques and Applications, pp353-365 (Winchester, UK) Apr 1994.

P.J.Willis, A.Bowyer, R.I.Taylor and G.M.Bayliss, "Virtual Manufacturing", Proceedings of the International Workshop on Graphics and Robotics, (Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany) Apr 1993.

R.I.Taylor and P.H.Lewis, "A 2D Shape Signature Based On Fractal Measurements", IEE Proceedings on Vision and Image Signal Processing, Vol. 141 No. 6 pp422-430, December 1994.

R.I.Taylor, "Colour Object Recognition Using Shape-based Aspects", PhD Thesis, University Of Southampton, September 1992.

R.I.Taylor and P.H.Lewis, "Colour Image Segmentation Using Boundary Relaxation", Proceedings of the 11th IAPR Conference on Image, Speech and Signal Analysis, v3 pp721-724 (The Hague, Netherlands) August 1992.

R.I.Taylor and P.H.Lewis, "A Fractal Shape Signature", Proceedings of the British Machine Vision Conference, pp178-184 (Glasgow, UK) September 1991.

interests

Crosswords, films, football, T'ai Chi, writing.