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Lauren Bricker

Experienced Manager and Software Engineer with a Ph.D. and over 20 years experience designing and developing software. Particular areas of focus include Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Supported Collaboration, Educational Technology, and Computer Graphics.

Skills Summary

Management: Able to build and improve teams. Mentored employees in interpersonal, communication and technical skills. Counseled other managers to improve communication and team building skills.
Communication/coordination: Highly skilled at assisting people collaborate and find common ground.
Organization: Proven ability to effectively organize life cycle and end user documentation.
Design and Development: Experienced all phases of software life cycle. Designed and developed applications in numerous environments and languages (functional, object oriented, and logical).
Creativity: Recognized for creative solutions to problems and ability to communicate involved technical concepts using diagrams, sketches, storyboards. Other artistic endeavors include pottery, metalwork, jewelry, woodworking, landscape design, mosaics, and knitting
Hardware/OS: PC/Windows and DOS, Various/*nix, Apple Macintosh/OSX, DEC/VMS, Sun/OpenWindows;
Languages: Ada, Assembly, BASIC, C, C++, HTML, Java/JDK, Lisp, Modula-2, Perl, Prolog, Self, Smalltalk

Professional Experience
Performant/Mercury Interactive Bellevue, WA 2001
Program/Project Manager

  • Worked in partnership with Management, Sales, Marketing, Professional Services, Development and Quality Assurance to identify and select features for each release. Developed specifications for critical features.
  • Delivered project plan per release. Tracked customer requirements and deliveries as part of this process. Communicated timely project documentation to internal consumers. Implemented a project summary for each release to advise senior management about significant development issues.
  • Directed the delivery of product user documentation to client. Delivered documentation plan per revision. Coordinated with developers for information about product features. Personally produced final versions of the documentation twice and managed contractors to produce other releases.
  • Developed company wide development/test/software release process that improved coordination between groups.
  • Drove life cycle practices, including feature selection, design, and post mortems.
  • Performant was sold to Mercury Interactive in May 2003 for $22.5M (more than 3 times initial investment). Facilitated the transfer of engineering and quality assurance information between Washington and Israel.
Quality Assurance (QA) Manager
  • Directly supervised a technical team of four. Solved difficult interpersonal team dynamics. Instituted team meetings and reports that provided timely information and promoted open dialogue between team members.
  • Developed an efficient QA test plan procedure for each new release in coordination with other managers and team members. The plan established prioritization of test case execution and agreed upon schedule of engineering releases to QA.
Lead User Interface Architect
  • Directly supervised and mentored two engineers, including frequent development discussions, conducting annual reviews and setting objectives.
  • Designed and implemented a major portion of the OptiBench Graphical User Interface for Microsoft Windows in Java. Developed use cases and specifications for new features. Created icons. Continued coordinating this design effort subsequent to changing positions within the company.
  • Conducted usability testing through observations in makeshift test lab as well as observations of user training sessions. Developed customer questionnaires to gain additional insights in usability of the product.
Brickware Seattle, WA 1988-present
Independent software solution company.  Representative projects include:
  • Senior Software Engineer for SchoolSoft to design and develop their v1.0 product.
  • External design review team member for Logo Computer Systems Incorporated.
  • Maintain and enhance membership database for Secular Jewish Circle of Puget Sound. Edit and publish bi-monthly newsletter. Design and developed http://www.secularjewishcircle.org.
  • Initial design and implementation of http://www.penatesdesign.com/.
  • Design and implement website: http://www.brickerassociates.com/ (in progress).
  • Designed and implemented a common application program interface (API) for Ark Interface Kidspace and Workspace in Microsoft Windows with Visual C++.
  • Designed and implemented a Table Object in Windows in C++ for a presentation product by Asymetrix.
  • Designed and implemented user interface enhancements to FileShare, a distributed network file-manager.
  • Ported Proximity Technology’s spelling checker, hyphenation and thesaurus from DOS to Windows.
MathSoft
Seattle, WA
1999
Research Engineer
  • Project manager. Tracked project schedule and coordinated team members. Designed, implemented and tested an ActiveX control to support image processing and image annotations.  Developed and coordinated a workshop where professional teachers tested educational materials that used this control.
  • Designed and implemented enhancements to a pharmocokinetics application written in Java. 
University of Washington Seattle, WA  
Research Scientist/Human Interface Technology (HIT) Laboratory   1998
Project manager for phase II of the Virtual Playground (VP) project, a distributed, 3D virtual world written for PCs in Java. Responsibilities include designing and implementing enhancements to the system, developing schedules and budgets, and negotiating with funding source.
Research Assistant   1993 – 1997
  • Mathematics Experiences Through Image Processing (METIP) and CoImage. Designed Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and image processing applications aimed at encouraging Jr. High students in mathematics. Windows applications written in Visual C++, Borland Object Windows Library (OWL), and Visual Basic.
  • Facility for Kinetic Analysis (RFKA). Ported the Simulation, Analysis and Modeling (SAAM) II program from Sun/Open Windows to Windows using Visual C++. Responsible for determining and purchasing the development environment.
Teaching Assistant   Winter 1991, Winter 1992, Winter 1998
Taught undergraduate Introduction to Computer Programming II and Data Structures, and graduate level Human-Computer Interaction courses.
Ark Interface
Seattle, WA
1994 – 1997
Senior Software Engineer

Assisted in the redesign and implementation of Navigator 3.x, soley responsible for design and implementation of the Game Room. Lead Engineer for Kidspace 3.0. Implementation for Windows in Visual C++.

Adonis Corp./ConnectSoft
Bellevue and Redmond, WA
1990 – 1993
Software Engineer
  • Designed and implemented a front end to Blood Pressure monitors for Windows in Visual C++.
  • Technical Lead Engineer, Clip-Art Window Shopper. Designed and implemented: keyword search engine; information exchange; requesting, storage and retrieval of user information and communications via modem. Edited Quick Clips newsletter for customers.
  • Central Point Software. Designed and implemented a Microsoft Windows version of PC Tools.
Caddex Corporation
Woodinville, WA
1987 - 1988
Software Engineer
Designed, implemented, tested and integrated spelling checker, dictionary and thesaurus user interfaces for a networked desktop publishing product for Windows. Designed table of contents and index generators.
Boeing Company
Seattle, WA
1985 – 1987
Software Engineer
Defined software requirements for the Flight Path Management and Navigation functions of the Advanced Tactical Fighter project. Prototyped these functions in Ada on a DEC VAX/VMS system.
Education
University of Washington Seattle, WA 1990 - 1998
Computer Science MS 1993, PhD 1998. Thesis: Cooperatively Controlled Objects in Support of Collaboration
University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 1982 - 1985
Theoretical Mathematics and Pre-Medicine, B. S., Honors College