I have always been interested in science and technology. At secondary school I built a tuneable liquid organic-dye laser (suitable dyes are pictured on the left) and developed a system for projecting and photographing full-colour Schlieren images (false-colour pictures of density variations in a transparent medium) such as the one on the right showing heat rising from four candles.

I intended to study applied physics and electronics at Durham University but during the first term I used computers extensively and decided that computer science was more interesting. In 1975..77 an honours computing degree was not available at Durham University, but a General Science degree offered maximum exposure to computing and also allowed the study of many other scientific disciplines. During university vacations I gained valuable work experience at Varian Data Machines (now part of Unisys), working on development of the MP/3 operating system and its compilers.

On leaving Durham with a BSc in General Science, I obtained a job with PMA Ltd., a software development company in Horley, Surrey. The job involed telemetry and real-time computer systems.

My first project was the design of a system for real-time monitoring and control of water for the Qatar Water Authority. This involved detailed system analysis, data structure design, and programming specialist devices for monitoring water levels and flows in reservoirs and water towers. Other functions included raising alarms and controlling valves and pumps. There were several trips to the Middle East. The hardware was DEC PDP/11, software: RSX11M, and RTL/2.

The second part required more trips to Qatar, this time as trouble-shooter for a previous project, monitoring and controlling electrical switch gear on the Qatar national grid. Again, PDP/11’s but Fortran and assembly language.

After two years with PMA and extended periods in the Middle East I was invited onto the board of Euro Computer Systems Limited, a software consultancy in Redhill, Surrey. As technical director I helped develop techniques for porting sophisticated mini-computer software onto small (< 64k RAM!) personal computers running under CP/M.

Notable successes were the BARD reinforcement scheduling and detailing system for the Cement and Concrete Association, and FORPA a government-funded program for adjusting prices of building contracts allowing for indices of inflation, for the Computers in Construction Association (CICA).

Also of note was our version of the STRESS program from M.I.T. for the linear elastic analysis of skeletal structures. So popular was it (due to its speed and capacity) that we decided to market it together with suitably powerful micro computer as a turnkey engineering system. New version os STRESS was developed, STRESS3 and bundled with pre- and post-processor software. I worked in close conjunction with several computer suppliers and manufacturers (Sirton, Wego, CCS) to develop the ECS 2200/2300 Engineering Microcomputers and these were sold with much success to civil and structural engineering practices and authorities during the early and mid-1980’s.

By the mid 1980’s ECS had sold to seven of the ten largest civil and structural companies in Great Britain as well as dozens of local and regional authorities. During this period as well as direct selling of our turnkey systems, we employed the services of GTS (General and Technical Systems) in Loughborough to market our engineering software products. From 1984 to 1987 our STRESS3 package was their No. 1 best-seller and until the recession at the end of the 1980’s it never left their top three.

In 1987 I established a separate consultancy called Software Development Services. Initially this was to serve as the software wing of ECS with ECS handling the sales, hardware supplies, orders, customer support and so forth.

During the 1980’s I, in collaboration with the late Nick Prescott of NJPCEL in Manchester, developed specialist extensions to our STRESS suite: Wavefront for the calculation of wave loadings on oil rigs and SteelCheck for the calculation of punching shear forces in welded tubular-construction steel structures (such as oil-rig legs).

In 1989 ECS employed a Czech-born director and began developing the Czechoslovakian market shortly after the collapse of communism in that country and during a savage recession in the UK that all but buried the engineering sector (sales of STRESS stopped completely). I visited Czechoslovakia (later the Czech Republic and now Czechia) several times during 1991 and 1992 and installed a variety of systems including 65 PC’s for the Czech Customs and Excise authorities, and Unix mini-computers, networks, and X-terminals for the Czech Air Traffic Control services based at Prague international airport.

In late 1992 it was amicably decided that ECS and SDS would part. I resigned as director of ECS to concentrate on developing software and SDS/SDSL have been my full-time work vehicle since.

During 1993 SDS decided to promote the CAIRO School Reporting system, originally written for Caterham School, at the BETT Education technology show in Olympia. It was the start of 8 years of success with a powerful reporting product that was adopted by dozens of schools. CAIRO is no longer actively promoted because of competition from large companies that provide accounting and management suites for schools – often bundling their (often lamentable) reporting package for free. Nonetheless, CAIRO had a good run and earned SDS a lot of revenue through some tough times when other markets were suffering.