Eric J. Lingerfelt, IT Specialist II
I am a software developer specializing in web-deliverable or desktop-based client/server application systems. These network-driven systems usually involve three parts:
- a web-delivered or desktop-based graphical user interface (GUI) on the client
- a relational database in conjuction with executable simulation codes on a remote webserver
- a common gateway interface (CGI) layer used to communicate between the two
I have developed an expertise using object-oriented languages along with several advanced software development kits, common databases, and server-side scripting languages. By utilizing the "model-view-controller" architectural pattern, I am able to generate, distribute, store, and structure the data (the model), generate a user-friendly suite of input, analysis, simulation control, and visualization tools (the view), and handle the interaction between model and view while employing appropriate validation techniques (the controller).
The View
I have five years experience programming input, analysis, simulation control, and visualization tools that range from "easy-to-use" to advanced user interaction. One successful technique I employ is the "windows wizard" motif where the user's path to highly controlled. Using this motif, the user is prompted to enter a small amount of input one step at a time until the process is complete. This technique has been successfully employed in several of my projects where the user is expected to begin usage quickly with little or no training. Dozens of tools within the Computational Infrastructure for Nuclear Astrophysics (CINA), Big Bang Online (BBO), and A Regional Simulation to Explore Impacts of Resource Use and Constraints (RSim) follow this example.
Other GUIs I have developed follow a different design perspective. Often well-trained users are expected to interact with a more complicated GUI configuration in combination with intricate, highly customized components. In this situation, GUI layout, design and readability are very important. Good examples of this software development practice are the Interactive Conceptual Model (ICM), British Petroleum's Advanced Probabilistic Tubular Design Toolkit (Toolkit), QUALCONN: Drilling Engineering Association Project 151, and the visualization interface controls for CINA and BBO.
The Controller
Before server (or desktop)-based simulation codes are executed or databases are read and written to, the user's input and interaction on the client-side must be validated, processed, and propagated throughout the system. During my experience producing software for the sciences, I have learned and created many techniques to ensure that this is done properly.
The Model
The client/server applications I develop usually have four parts to the model:
- a client-side, hierarchal system of customized data structures
- a client-side package of classes for CGI communication
- a server-side relational database and simulation executables
- a server-side set of CGI modules to manage communication between the client-side GUI and the remote services
About Me
I received my B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from East Tennessee State University in 1998 where I conducted spectroscopic and photometric measurements of Mira variables at the 0.9m Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy. I was also awarded the Outstanding Graduating Senior in Physics award by ETSU.
In the fall of 1998, I entered graduate school at the University of Tennessee Department of Physics and Astronomy. While a graduate teaching assistant at UT, I became very interested in physics and astronomy education. In 2001 I received the Robert C. Lide Citation for Outstanding Laboratory Development for my contribution to a set 10 virtual astronomy laboratory prototypes. The following summer I was subcontracted by Lightcone Interactive, LLC to develop and program interactive content for Biology: A Guide to the Natural World, 2nd ed., by David Krogh which was published by Prentice-Hall Publishing.
In 2001, I was granted a full research assistantship from the Tennessee Center of Excellence for Educational Technology. During this time I explored current and past technologies for data analysis and visualization for the sciences and developed my Master's Thesis, REACLIB aLIVe!: the REACLIB Library Interactive Viewer. This software greatly facilitated analysis of the REACLIB thermonuclear reaction rate library which is utilized in simulations of a wide variety of astrophysical phenomena including the Sun, the Big Bang, and exploding stars.
After receiving my M.S. in Physics in December 2002, I was employed by the UT Physics department as IT Specialist I and subcontracted by Lightcone Interactive, LLC as the lead developer and project manager for the Interactive Worked Examples (IWEs). The project required meeting a weekly deadline and successful management and training of five independent subcontractors. The IWEs, which is a set of 93 highly-interactive physics education modules, is included with some of America's best selling college physics textbooks. Also at Lightcone Interactive, I was a lead developer for the Virtual Astronomy Laboratories. This redesign and extension of my earlier work concluded with 20 educational modules which are still incorporated with two of America's best selling astronomy college textbooks.
On August 1st, 2003, I began working full time with the Experimental Astrophysics Group at ORNL as a subcontractor to develop the Computational Infrastructure for Nuclear Astrophysics at nucastrodata.org. Over the next four and a half years, I would work with experimental nuclear astrophysicists and server-side programmers constructing this online software suite. CINA provides an "end-to-end" solution whereby, the lengthy (sometimes ~decade-long) process of evaluating and converting nuclear data into thermonuclear reaction rates, analyzing and grouping these rates into rate libraries, utilizing these libraries in explosive nucleosynthesis simulations, and visualizing these simulations now took minutes! Our suite has users in 69 institutions in 20 different countries. At the end of 2004, I was promoted to IT Specialist II as we continued to develop more sophisticated tools for CINA.
In 2006, our Group began developing the bigbangonline suite, the world's first online, freely-available software suite for Big Bang Cosmology. This not only introduced new data management challanges, but visualization challenges unique to Big Bang nucleosynthesis and its cosmological implications. Our suite has been used for several research projects and a significant expansion is planned for the future.
Besides working on ORNL Physics Division and educational software projects, I am employed by two private sector companies and have been contracted by the ORNL Environmental Sciences Division (ESD). In conjuction with the University of Tennessee's Department of Computer Science and ESD, I helped develop RSim. RSim is an environmental decision support system designed specifically for military installations. It explores the impacts and constraints of resource use by projecting future land cover changes and their impacts on environmental conditions by allowing users to calculate and visualize these projections through a platform-independent, user-friendly software package. As a software developer for T N & Associates, Inc, I worked with a team of ecologists and environmental scientists to develop the ICM. The ICM is an interactive web tool that facilitates literature retrieval based on conceptual models for the EPA/NCEA Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS). As an independent subcontractor for Hecate Software, Inc., I develop client/server applications for the oil drilling industry. Toolkit is a set of software tools used to explore a large database of oil drilling pipe casing properties and simulate pipe collapse and burst scenarios, while QUALCONN is a set of software tools used to explore an integrated reliability test database for casing and tubing connections that addresses design engineering, purchasing, quality, operations, installation and management needs.