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Karla Parussel
BSc(HONS) MSc
PhD
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Tel : Please email
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D.o.B XX/XX/74
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Email: Click on Contact above
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Location: Munich, Germany
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EDUCATION
PhD in Biologically inspired Artificial
Intelligence. Stirling University 2002 - 2005
MSc in Evolutionary & Adaptive Systems.
Sussex University 1997-1998
BSc(Hons) Computer
Science (2:2) University of Kent at Canterbury 1994-1997
MAIN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
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G++, Borland
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JDK, J2EE
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Learnt as and when required by the
job.
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SKILLS
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See publications
for details.
Biologically inspired
neural networks,
artificial neural
networks,
self-organisation. genetic
algorithms,
cellular-automata,
artificial-life.
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Java to
VRML /
C++ to
VRML /
Java to
Java to
XML /
Java to
JavaScript.
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Knowledge
engineering, complex
neural networks
& social
interaction.
See website
for examples.
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Java
agent architecture, C++ academic research
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Java
agent architecture & Inter-Life, C++ academic research
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Java
agent architecture & Inter-Life, C++ & Java academic
research
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Used
at Netdecisions for web development
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Academic
research and web hosting uses Linux
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Predominantly
used in industry
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TOOLS
CAREER PROFILE
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07 / 2011 – present
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European Southern Observatory (Top IT
services)
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Software engineer
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Working in the
Software Development Division on the ALMA project using Java,
Spring and Oracle.
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12 / 2008 – 06 / 2011
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University of Stirling
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Research Assistant
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Initially employed on a fixed
term two year contract to provide tools and technical support for
the Inter-Life project. The contract was extended for half a year
and then continued for a few months afterwards on a freelance
basis paid by the University of Glasgow.
The aim of the project was to
support skills development of young people to enhance their
management of educational and social transitions in their lives.
The project used the Second Life and OpenSim platforms to provide
heavily scripted virtual environments. In-world objects were
scripted using LSL to track data such as local chat, personal
reflections, positional and rotational information and social
clustering. A back-end server was implemented in Java to store
this data using MySql. This information could then be replayed
back in-world or using Java client programs at a later date. Tools
were created to help establish a community. These allowed users to
see who else was in-world and the likelihood of other people
coming in later on. Communications were enabled between in-world
avatars and out-of-world users using Skype and Twitter. Tools were
also created to enable the secure creation and management of users
for the Inter-Life system. I wrote the technical sections for two
grant applications submitted by other members of the department. I
am due to be joint-author on several papers produced by the
Inter-Life project and also wrote a journal paper in my spare time
that was accepted and published.
Reason
for leaving:
Funding ran
out.
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01 / 2008 – 12 / 2008
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Self-funded
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Researcher
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I moved back in with my parents
so that I could work full-time on expanding the framework I use
for my academic research. I used this period to develop my skills
so that they were current and were also useful for freelancing.
The framework is written in C++ for the Linux platform. Beforehand
it was used to evolve agent controllers for use in artificial
worlds. It is now possible to evolve functions for use with data
sets that are read in from heterogeneous sources. I have
distributed the framework using parallel processing techniques,
multi-threading and sockets. A GUI is currently being developed
for it using Qt. I also developed a ‘free energy automata’.
This was written in Java for multi-core platforms using a GUI and
2D graphics. The aim was to explore how the flow of free-energy
into an open-ended system can allow for interesting forms of
self-organisation.
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01 / 2007 – 12 / 2007
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University of Hertfordshire
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Research Fellow
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I was informally offered a
position as research fellow by the external examiner the day after
the viva of my PhD to work on the Humaine project. The project
finished at the end of 2007 and therefore funding was only
guaranteed until then. Research was a continuation of my PhD. I
researched temporal processing using self-organising spiking
neural networks, neuromodulation and also how neural networks can
be used to provide signals to each other. The experiments were
coded in C++ for the Linux operating system. I was also the
project supervisor for two MSc students.
Reason
for leaving:
Funding was
for one
year only.
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11 / 2005 – 12 / 2006
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Smith’s Aerospace
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Senior R&TD Engineer
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Employed in the R&TD
department as part of a team to develop and debug existing fleet
user management software. The role required me to work closely
with the aeronautical engineers developing algorithms that they
could use whilst drawing upon my software engineering knowledge
and expertise. I designed and implemented envelope-estimation
software for use in arbitrary dimensions, as well as curve- and
distribution-fitting algorithms. During this time I also worked on
the thesis of my PhD during the evenings.
Reason
for leaving:
External examiner
offered me
a position
the day
after my
PhD viva.
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10 / 2002 – 10 / 2005
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Stirling University
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PhD student
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The topic of the PhD was to
emulate emotions and neuromodulation for use in intelligent and
autonomous agents using a non-symbolic bottom-up approach. The
functionality provided by emotions in natural agents was emulated
by modelling the same underlying processes in artificial agents. A
biologically plausible neural network using spike timing-dependent
plasticity was implemented and comparisons were made between
agents performing different tasks with and without the use of
global neuromodulators.
Reason
for leaving:
Funding for
PhD was
for a
fixed period.
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04 / 2000 – 09 / 2002
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Netdecisions Ltd
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Senior Developer
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Employed at the R&D
department. Initially researched and developed new technologies in
the areas of information visualisation, personal area networking,
agent architectures and the classification of user navigation of
web sites with a view to personalising content. The department
then focused on the development and implementation of the voice
equivalent of web sites. This involved identifying and solving the
issues that arose from implementing such a new technology. Having
initially learnt the Nuance Speech Objects library, I then
designed and implemented an XML data-binding tool for the dynamic
generation of XML languages, such as VoiceXML. This was achieved
by writing a program to generate Java bean libraries from XML DTDs
to read in, manipulate and render out XML documents. Consequently
Netdecisions spawned off a new company to exclusively develop
voice sites and which later became a market leader (Fluency
voice). This allowed the R&D department to focus on new areas
of technology. I was assigned to research the area of knowledge
discovery and knowledge management. I helped to develop a dynamic
grammar framework for the spin-off company. One task involved the
dynamic run-time translation of arbitrary Java objects to and from
Javascript data structures using reflection. I was given sole
responsibility for establishing coding standards and regular code
reviews and also frequently ran training sessions and interviewed
potential employees.
Reason
for leaving:
Started a
PhD in
Artificial Intelligence
& Computational
Neuroscience.
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09 / 1999 – 03 / 2000
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Arclight Strategy Systems
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Research & Development
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I was employed as the first
member of a new R&D department to add value to their existing
software projects. Researched and developed agent technology and
knowledge visualisation for use in knowledge discovery. A mark-up
language was designed in which meta-data could be extended at
run-time. This was visualised using automatically generated VRML.
The agents were designed and developed for use on palmtops in
wireless LANs. The code was written using 100% pure Java.
Reason
for leaving:
Company faced
threat of
closure and
could no
longer afford
to support
research.
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02 / 1999
– 08 / 1999
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Axcess Media
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A.I. Consultant & Programmer
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Evaluated the technical and
computational plausibility of creating adaptive Internet
applications and User Interfaces. The focus was on web
personalisation, desktop agents and web-site chatterbots for more
anthropomorphic Human Computer Interaction. This required sorting
through the hype and buzzwords surrounding the existing products
in the market place to see what was truly on offer. The role also
involved network programming and Internet development using a
variety of languages and tools.
Reason
for leaving:
Contract came
to an
end.
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10 / 1998 – 02 / 1999
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A.L. Digital
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Programmer
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Developed and maintained new and
existing Internet utilities. This included identifying problems
inherent in the original design and creating simple solutions,
fixing errors in existing code and fully documenting the work for
future maintainers.
Reason
for leaving:
Originally hired
for my
C++ skills
yet they
were never
used.
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08 / 1997 – 10/1997
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Context Ltd
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Programmer
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Responsible for creation of
object-oriented library and utilities used to assist in the
manipulation of tagged, legal text for use on CD-ROMs. Liased with
project co-ordinator to analyse the task in hand. I was
responsible for design, code, testing and documentation.
Reason
for leaving:
Started MSc
in Evolutionary
& Adaptive
System.
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PUBLICATIONS
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“Emotion
as a Significant Change in Neural Activity.” International
Journal
of
Synthetic
Emotions.
(2010)
1(1),
51-67.
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“Biasing
Neural Networks towards Exploration or Exploitation using
Neuromodulation.” ICANN
2007:
Proceedings
of
the
17th
International
Conference
on
Artificial
Neural
Networks
Part
II.
Volume
4669.
Springer-Verlag
889-898.
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“A
Bottom-up Approach to Emulating Emotions using Neuromodulation in
Agents”. PhD thesis.
University of
Stirling. 2006.
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“Cost
minimisation and Reward maximisation. A neuromodulating minimal
disturbance system using spike timing-dependent plasticity”.
Proceedings of
the Symposium
on Agents
that Want
and Like:
Motivational and
Emotional roots
of Cognition
and Action
at the
AISB-05 conference.
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INTERESTS & OTHER INFORMATION
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A-levels
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Computer Science, English, Design &
Technology.
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GCSEs
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Eight including English, Mathematics &
German.
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Hobbies
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Photography, carnivorous plants and growing
food.
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Sport
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Paragliding, hill walking and wild-camping
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