Employment record (most of the work was done as freelancer)
- 2014-2019: Helicon Books, Herzlia Pituach. Development of a Readium-based EPUB reader application for the Android.
- 2014: Google Ireland Ltd., Dublin, Ireland. Site Reliability Engineer (SRE). Unfortunately, my actual role was limited to debugging the recruitment and onboarding process of deaf SREs in Google.
- 2012-2014: Various Android application development projects, mostly done on my own.
- 2011: SanDisk Corp. (was acquired by Western Digital), Kfar Sava. Flash memory controller firmware engineer.
- Various software maintenance tasks - adding minor features, researches how to improve certain aspects of user experience.
- Development of test software to assist in testing certain aspects of user experience.
- 2010: Provigent Ltd. (was acquired by Broadcom Inc.),
Herzlia Pituach. Development of an embedded system software written in C and running under Linux for a board integrating some of the company's SoC devices. Most of my work was in two areas:
- Additions to the SNMP agent running in the system.
- Design and implementation of the module responsible for managing the system's alarms.
- 2009-2010: OrSense Ltd.,
Nes Ziyona. Documentation and integration testing of an embedded system
software written in C.
- 2009: Cognicious Ltd. (now, Mindojo), Ramat Gan. Maintenance and continued
development of the Django-based backend of the Website operated by
the company.
- 2006-2007: Mennen Medical
Ltd., Yavne.
Reimplementation, using Qt4, of
the GUI part of a Motif-based legacy application running under Solaris 10.
- 2000-2005: Ozicom Communications Ltd., Tel Aviv.
- Developed Hebrew-enabled
versions of the FAX and SMS applications
of the Nokia 9110 Communicator. The applications run on the GEOS
operating system.
- Implemented Hebrew localizations of Symbian OS, versions 6.0 and 6.1,
used by the Nokia 9210 and 9210i Communicators and the Nokia 7650
smartphone.
- Implemented Hebrew localization of Symbian OS, versions 7.0 with
UIQ, used by Sony-Ericsson P800, P900 and P910 smartphones.
- Design of methods for entering text in Ethiopic
script using a standard 12-key cellular phone keyboard, and implementing
them in Ethiopic text entry and display software for Symbian OS based
cellular phones with Series 60 GUI.
Development environment used: actual compilations were performed in
MS-Windows 2000 running in a VMware virtual machine. All other work
(translation files management, version control, etc.) was performed
under GNU/Linux. Most of the script files were written in Python.
Under my technical leadership,
the team in Ozicom was
world champion in the areas of Hebrew support for Nokia 9110 GEOS
and Hebrew localization for several Symbian OS based smartphones.
- 2000-2002: Oridion Medical
Ltd. (now part of Covidien/Medtronic),
Jerusalem.
- Help in documenting and testing the software used in the
BreathID product. Since the software runs under LabVIEW, I also learned
to work with LabVIEW.
- Developed an implementation of the Nellcor SHIP serial communication
protocol for a 8051 based platform, which needed to interface with a
plug-in card using this protocol.
- 1999: Aduva Inc.. Converted
pnpdump (from the
isapnptools package, which is used to configure ISA PnP plug-in cards under GNU/Linux)
into a library.
- 1996-1999: Mennen Medical
Ltd., Kiryat Weizmann, Rehovot.
Various projects for
software development and maintenance, utilizing:
- Implementation of Perl Scripts
- C++ based software
- WordPerfect macro language
- 1996-1998: KMI Software Systems Ltd.,
Hod Hasharon. Projects in C++,
Windows 3.11/95 platforms.
- 1993-1995: Spegas Industries (later, Oridion Medical Ltd., now part of Covidien/Medtronic),
Jerusalem. Various projects of software
verification and validation for medical instruments.
- 1993-1999: Association of the Deaf in Israel: Datacomm Coordinator
(as volunteer).
The work included:
- Internet-related technical support for members and employees.
- Keeping track of new technologies and forming recommendations
for maximizing their benefits to the hearing impaired.
- Net manager for the Windows for Workgroups LAN of the Helen
Keller Center.
- 1992-1993: Silicom Ltd., Ra'anana: Software and electronics engineer:
Logic Design of a pocket adapter for connecting laptops to Ethernet.
Development of drivers which allow the aforementioned pocket adapter
to be used in commonly-used LANs.
- 1991-1992: Mennen Medical
Ltd., Kiryat Weizmann, Rehovot.
- Development and testing of software which uses pattern matching
techniques for analysis of waveforms in order to extract medically
meaningful information. The work was carried out on a SUN workstation
in the SunOS environment.
- Analysis and design for implementation of software for real-time
waveform display in X-Windows environment.
- 1990-1992: Keshev, Organization of hard-to-hearing and deafened.
Development of
Computer Assisted
Notetaking (CAN) software, written in C++
in the MS/DOS and Turbo C++ environment.
- 1990-1991: Gran Computer Industries, Kfar Sava. Software Engineer.
- A project for Spegas Industries (now Oridion Medical
Ltd.), software was developed for an embedded
medical instrument, which uses a microcontroller from the 8051 family. The
software was written in PLM/51 with parts in ASM/51. The project provided
also the opportunity to advise the hardware engineers - in troubleshooting
and in optimizing the hardware. Experience in real-time programming.
- A Project for addition of extensions to the BIOS of an IBM PC/AT
compatible card, designed to serve as a dedicated controller.
- 1987-1989: Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot:
Thesis Work. I Got introduced to the world of material analysis
by the RBS and NRA methods, using the Van-De-Graaf 2MeV accelerator in the
department of Nuclear Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science.
Software, which computerized parts of the analysis of the results, was
written in FORTRAN 77.
- 1984-1990: TDD
(Telecommunication Devices for the Deaf) project. Volunteer
work, which involved development of a standard, and implementing software
in 6502 assembly language.
- 1980-1986: Intel Israel (74)
Ltd., Haifa.
- Logic and circuit design of integrated circuits.
- Failure analysis and design for improvement of manufacturing yield
of integrated circuits.
- Architecture definition of new integrated circuits.
- The following integrated circuits were designed and/or transferred to
production: 8207 (dual-port DRAM controller), 8087 and 80387 (numeric
coprocessors which work with the 8086 and 80386 microprocessors).
- 1976: Computer Operator in OMC ("MALAM"), Jerusalem.
Languages
Fluent in Hebrew and English.
Communication Skills: In spite of deafness, proven high level of
communication skills with project managers, peers and customers.
However, special arrangements may be needed to help me become effective
participant in meetings. Usually, my projects
are structured in such a way that I don't have to participate in
meetings with more than 4 eyes.
Publications
- M. Bazes, J. Nadir, D. Perlmutter, B. Mantel and O. Zak, "A Programmable
NMOS DRAM Controller for Microcomputer Systems with Dual-Port Memory and
Error Checking and Correction", IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. SC-18,
p. 164-172, Apr. 1983.
- U.K. Chaturvedi, U. Steiner, O. Zak, G. Krausch and J. Klein,
"Interfacial Structure in Polymer Mixtures below the Critical Point",
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 63, pp. 616-619, Aug. 7, 1989.
- O. Zak, "Computer
Assisted Notetaking (CAN)" (pp. 42-43) and
"The
Trilingual CAN System" (pp. 44-45), ISAAC-Israel yearbook, Vol. 10,
July 1994.
Education Information
- 1989: M.Sc. in Physics, Feinberg Graduate School,
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot.
- 1980: B.Sc. In Electrical Engineering (Summa Cum Laude),
Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa.
Personal information
Born in Israel. Exempt from military service due to deafness.
Have car driving license (type 02).
