1. KENNETH E. CHIRKO
TheOriginalUltranerd@gmail.com
QUALIFICATIONS: Twenty-nine years of real-time embedded systems software
engineering experience with consultant,project leadership, technical
liaison, research, design, implementation, mentoring, and technical
support responsibilities. I have excellent oral and written
communication skills. I am amiable and have the abilities to work as
team leader, team member and independently.
COMPUTER
SKILLS:
Languages: C, C++, Java, Java Script, Tcl/Tk, PLM,
Pascal, Fortran, Assembler, Windows API,
OWL, X/MOTIF, UIM/X, HTML,
OracleSQL, PERL, AWK, UML, and SDL.
Operating Systems: RTXC, UNIX, VRTX, MTOS, PSOS, RMX,
NucleusPlus, Green Hills velOSity, Windows, and
MSDOS.
Modeling Tools: Rhapsody,Visio, Enterprise Architect
Configuration
Management: ClearCase, StarTeam, Synergy, Kiln
EXPERIENCE:
06/14 to present GHSP, Grand Haven, MI
Contract Software Engineer
 All facets of real time embedded software development including
requirements gathering, design, implementation and unit testing for a shift-
by-wire gear shifter.
 The toolset used consists ofKiln and Tortoise for the CM System, IAR C
Compiler, IAR Workbench, Renesas E1 JTag Debugger, waveform
generator, and digital oscilloscope.
 Designed, implemented, unit tested and integrated a four-port Serial
Peripheral Interface (SPI) device driver for the Renesas RH850
microcontroller.
 The SPI device driver, which supports both polling and interrupt-driven
modes of operation, is used in the polling mode in the bootloader and
interrupt-driven in the application.
 Designed, implemented and unit tested the systemchronometric statistics
module, which gathers and validates task timing statistics.
 Enhanced the Melexis Triaxis (3-axis Hall effect) sensorsoftware module
that determines gear shifter position to use the SPI device driver, improve
performance and error handling.
 Augmented the Freescale SBC (System Basis Chip) software module. The
systembasis chip is used,rather than the microcontroller, to manage low-
power situations.
 Enhanced the RH850 Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) device driver to
detect and report 0% and 100% duty cycle states.
 Designed and implemented the LED device driver, which controls a

2. TLC5917 LED constant-current integrated circuit.
08/11 to 6/14 Delphi, Kokomo, IN
Contract Software Engineer
 The project was to be an integration of existing software blocks
onto a new tuner hardware platform. It immediately became a
development project with little integration. The tuner supports XM
satellite radio and both AM and FM analog and High Definition
(HD) radio. The tuneruses the Renesas (NEC) V850
microcontroller and iBiquity (NXP) SAF3560 Cayman and
SAF7741 Durana DSP chips.
 Responsibilities included requirements gathering, reverse
engineering, analysis,design, implementation, unit testing, release
and software team liaison to project management.
 Learned the V850 microcontroller, the Cayman and 7741 DSP for
this project.
 The RTOS was a proprietary round-robin task scheduler with
mailbox, timers and interrupt handling support.
 I mapped microprocessors ports,modified interrupt service
routines (ISRs), established power-moding, initialization timing
and set ports to meet low-current requirements.
04/10 to 8/11 Brockwell Technologies, Inc., Huntsville, AL
Senior Engineer / Analyst
 JBC-P Responsibilities included Software Technical Lead for the
Network Services Gateway of the U.S. Army Joint Battle
Command – Platform (JBC-P) and Software Technical Lead for
Joint Capabilities Release (JCR) Defect Report resolution.
 IDMOSA Responsibilities included model driven design using the
IBM Rhapsody modeling tool suite to develop UML software
architecture models for the U.S. Army Integrated Data Modem
Open Systems Architecture (IDMOSA).
 Created Activity Diagrams, Sequence Diagrams and State Chart
Diagrams using the Harmony Work Flow.
 Used the State Chart diagrams to verify the Activity Diagrams.
08/08 to 2/10 General Dynamics, AIS Division, Inc., Scottsdale,AZ
Contract Software Engineer
 Responsibilities included, software development technical lead,
software requirements gathering, design, implementation, unit
testing,design reviews, and code reviews of the GPS-III, phase A,
Thin Communications Unit software solutions.
 Software Development Technical Lead for the Special Test
Equipment (STE) 11/08 – 01/10
 Customer liaison between the General Dynamics GPS-III software
development team and Lockheed-Martin 11/08 – 01/10
 Real-time embedded systems software development of the
ColdFire based router for the GPS-III, phase A satellite.
 Software development adhering to FAA DO-178B, DO-278,
customer (Lockheed-Martin) standards and General Dynamics
internal standards.
 Developed Software Requirements Specification (SRS), Interface
Requirement Specification (IRS), and Software Test Plan (STP)
for the Thin Communications Unit for GPS-III constellation.
 Customer acceptance of SRS, IRS, and STP contributed to

3. successfulSoftware Specification review (SSR) and Preliminary
Design Review (PDR) earning full software milestone payment to
General Dynamics.
 Continued to work toward the Critical Design Review (CDR).
 Designed and implemented a Green Hills velOSity RTOS
benchmarking application used to evaluate RTOS performance of
priority and time-sliced tasking models.
 Established the standard software development platform and a
basic software application for the software development team to
use as a start in application development.
 Participated in development of the Thin Communications Unit
Software Design Description (SDD) using the IBM Rhapsody
UML based modeling tool.
 Partnered with the embedded Software Task Lead to develop a
more efficient software development schedule; software delivery
time was reduced by 18 months resulting in 100% of the milestone
award fee attributed to software.
11/06 to 7/08 DCSI, now Aclara Powerline Systems Inc., St. Louis, MO
Contract Software Engineer
 Lead ZigBee software design engineer for DCSI, since 11/06.
 Real-time embedded systems software development of a ZigBee
enabled electric meter on Freescale S08 and Microchip PIC18
platforms.
 Significantly contributed to a demonstration project for
commercial metering using a Freescale S08 microcontroller and
ZigBee radio device interfaced to a Microchip PIC18
microcontroller.
 Led the demonstration project for a residential metering solution
using the same ZigBee radio device and microcontrollers.
 Significantly contributed to a demonstration project using a ZigBee
enabled iPhone to shed a ZigBee enabled residential load using the
Freescale solution.
 Designed, implemented, unit and integration tested the
manufacturing RF test for a custommodule, which uses an Ember
EM260 ZigBee radio and PIC24 host processor.The test uses the
Ember EM260 manufacturing library.
 Created a ZigBee firmware developer’s guide that instructs
engineers as to how to implement ZigBee profiles and clusters on
the ZigBee device.
 Responsibilities included, software development lead, software
requirements gathering, design, implementation, unit testing,
integration testing of the software solutions,design reviews, code
reviews, and new hardware troubleshooting.
5/06 to 10/06 Phoenix International, Fargo, ND
Contract Software Engineer
 Real-time embedded systems software development of a VTi
agricultural display using CodeLab C and C++ and the
NucleusPlus RTOS on an ARM9 platform.
 Developed a GUI tool to communicate with and transfer data files
to the VTi using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET C++ on a PC.
 Used the UML in Visio and Rhapsody for the design of an
ISO11783 file server for the VTi.
 Responsibilities included software requirements gathering, reverse

4. engineering of the existing product,design, and implementation
and testing of the software solutions.
4/04 to 4/06 General Electric – Transportation Systems, Grain Valley, MO
Senior Software Engineer & Contract Software Engineer
 Real-time embedded systems software development of the ITCS
(Incremental Train Control System) using Green Hills Multi C and
Assembler on a Freescale ColdFire multiprocessor platform, and
Microsoft C on an Intel 80186 processorplatform.
 Responsibilities include software requirements gathering, reverse
engineering of the existing product,design, implementation,
testing of software safety solutions and mentoring of junior
engineers.
1/04 to 4/04 Kodak Health Imaging, Oakdale, MN
Contract Software Engineer
 Real-time embedded systems software development of a medical
dry imager using Keil Software C and on an Intel 8051 processor
platform.
 Analyze, debug and develop software solutions to field problems.
 Responsibilities included software requirements gathering, reverse
engineering of the existing product,design and implementation of
the field problem solution.
8/03 to 12/03 Alliance-Bally Gaming, Las Vegas, NV
Contract Software Engineer
 Real-time embedded systems software development of a slot
machine using C and PSOS on a Motorola 68332 processor
platform.
 Develop the new software architecture for the existing EVO slot
machine.
 Responsibilities included software requirements gathering, reverse
engineering of the existing product,and design of the new slot
machine software.
7/02 to 7/03 General Electric – Transportation Systems, Grain Valley, MO
Contract Software Engineer
 Real-time embedded systems software development of a railroad
Hot Box Detector using C and RTXC on a Motorola 68332
processorplatform.
 Responsibilities included software requirements gathering, design,
implementation, unit testing, integration testing,and mentoring of
engineers.
 Solved a five year old systems software problem relating to axle
spacing and freight car recognition.
7/00 to 7/02 Motorola, Inc., Elk Grove Village, IL
Contract Software Engineer
 Real-time embedded systems software development of a Daimler-
Chrysler Telematics controller using C and RTXC on a PowerPC
processorplatform.
 The controller included on board GPS, DSP and embedded cellular
telephone components.
 Responsibilities included software requirements gathering, design,
implementation, unit testing, integration testing,and mentoring of

5. engineers.
 Team leader and mentor for the design and development of the
DSP software.
12/99 to 7/00 Telelogic North America, Inc., Rolling Meadows, IL
Senior Applications Consulting Engineer
 Consultant to clients using the Telelogic Tau SDL Tool Suite
(UML, SDL, MSC, and TTCN) for the analysis, specification,
design,implementation, and testing of real-time embedded
applications.
 Responsibilities included assisting customers in the development
of their applications using the tool suite, providing technical
training in support ofusing the tool suite and technical support of
the tool suite. Required an understanding ofcustomer needs and
the problem domain in order to be effective.
9/97 to 11/99 Case Corporation, Burr Ridge, IL
Contract Software Engineer
 Real-time embedded systems software development using C on a
proprietary ARM processorplatform. Took over a failing software
project as Lead software engineer with 6 software engineers
reporting to me. Turned the project around and led to a successful
field delivery in the spring of 1998. The platform consisted ofan
embedded controller with both an LCD display and a touch screen
that provided a GUI interface to the user. Software development
included widget and framework design and implementation. The
purpose of the controller was to provide automatic product
application rate control for a seed planter.
 Responsibilities included: project leader, mentor, and liaison to
engineers, project and product management, and all facets of
software development.
3/97 to 8/97 Motorola, Inc., Schaumburg, IL
Contract Software Engineer
 Real-time embedded systems software development using C on
UNIX, and PSOS PowerPC platforms.
 Implemented an OSI layer two-communication protocol based on
LAPD for the transmission of packet data through a cellular
telephone system.
 Responsibilities included development, unit testing, integration
testing,and mentoring of junior engineers.
10/94 to 3/97 Motorola, Inc., Arlington Heights, IL
Contract Software Engineer
 Real-time embedded systems software development using C on
UNIX, 68000, and x86 platforms. Designed, implemented and
maintained features of the Man Machine Interface (MMI) for a
cellular telephone system.
 Project leader, mentor, and liaison to other engineers. Implemented
portions of the MMI GUI using UIM/X and MOTIF. Created a
testing environment for software developers.
 Created test tools using HTML and Tcl/Tk for the GUI interface
with Expect, DejaGnu and Perl having been used for the test
scripts.Used Oracle SQL to implement an Oracle database to store
the requirements, traceability matrix, test scripts,test cases,and

6. test results.
 Designed and implemented WWW pages using HTML and PERL
as a member of the Web team.
1/91 to 10/94 Tellabs Operations, Inc., Lisle, IL
Senior Member of Technical Staff (SMTS)
 Real-time embedded systems software development: C and
assembler on UNIX, MTOS and MSDOS platforms for OCN, T3,
T1, and E1 PSTN products.
 Design using the StP CASE tool and FrameMaker. Debugging:
Hewlett Packard 64700 emulator, Atron 68000 emulator, AMS
Z8000 emulator and Turbo Debugger.
 Created a microcontroller GUI application using the Microsoft
Windows API.
 Project leader and mentor for a Microtec compiler upgrade of
approximately 1 million lines of C code and an Informix database.
3/90 to 1/91 Motorola, Inc., Arlington Heights, IL
Senior Software Engineer
 Real-time embedded systems software development for the MMI
portion of a cellular telephone system.
 Responsibilities included: design using the StP CASE tool and
Interleaf. Code, debug and unit test using the C language on Sun
workstations running the UNIX OS.
7/86 to 2/90 Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL
Instrument Scientist
 Real-time embedded systemsoftware development using PLM286
and RMX286 on the Intel 320 development system. Debugging
with the SoftScope debuggerand the ICE286.
 Created a GUI application using the Cviews API that allowed
chemists to develop assays and manufacturing to validate a blood
and urine analyzer. Project manager for a host interface using the
Kermit protocol. Member of the corporate communications
standard committee.
4/84 to 6/86 Zenith Microcircuits, Elk Grove Village, IL
Senior Engineering Associate
 Test engineering software development using Turbo Pascal on a
Z100 microcomputer. Creation of an extensive small parts
database using Dbase II.
10/80 to 4/84 Elscint Imaging, Itasca,IL
Senior Engineering Associate
 Real-time embedded systems software development for the Intel
8751 microcontroller using PLM51 on an Intellec systemIII
running the ISIS OS. Hardware design and breadboarding for the
8751.

7. Education: Illinois Institute of Technology,Chicago, IL
MS in Computer Science
One year completed (One Third). 1992
Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, IL
BS in Computer Science (BSCS) 1986
Major: Computer Science
Minor: Mathematics
GPA: 3.41 (4.0 scale)
Directors list: spring 1985, fall 1985, spring 1986
William Rainey Harper College, Palatine, IL
AS in Science and Mathematics (ASSM) 1983
GPA: 3.23 (4.0 scale)
Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society: 1982
Honors list: spring 1981
Dean’s list: summer 1981
Trustees Honors list: summer 1982
REFERENCES: Available upon request.