KnowledgeBase Consulting Services - Derrick Brown's Resume

KnowledgeBase, Inc.
880 South Cobb Drive
Suite 2114
Marietta, GA 30060
770.794.1562 (office)
425.732.8083 (FAX)
dbrown@inetnow.net

Public Speaking and Freelance Writing

General Internet and Computer Consulting

Web Site Production and Hosting

Web Site Publishing

Camps

Our Sponsors:

Derrick S. Brown
880 South Cobb Drive, #2114
Marietta, GA 30060
770.794.1562

Email address: dbrown@inetnow.net
WWW Home Page: http://www.ubp.com/KB

EXPERIENCE

Present Activity

Founder and Director, KnowledgeBase, Inc. (http://www.ubp.com/KB)

• KnowledgeBase’s mission is to educate and empower using computers and the Internet as means to the end of producing proficient, purposeful people skilled in reading, writing, math, leadership, entrepreneurship, and critical thinking. Our current programs and activities include:

• The Computer Academy, a twelve-hour introductory computer and Internet curriculum developed during the Summer of 1997, has introduced over one hundred people – the majority of whom are African-American residents of low-to-moderate income urban communities – to computers and the Internet since June 1998. The Computer Academy has also been licensed to Atlanta Public Schools (through Beecher Hills Elementary School), Fort Valley State University Agricultural Extension, and the Georgia Tech School of Biology.

We are currently developing two new programs:

Webpreneur. This one-year program will teach business and leadership fundamentals by allowing teams of youth and adults to conceive, plan, and run their own Internet-based businesses.

Life is a Business! Targeted specifically at youth, this three-week program teaches participants to manage their lives like businesses through creative activities that promote critical thinking and problem solving, as well as financial principles like saving and investing.

• Community Technology Center (CTC) Consulting. To support The Computer Academy, we designed a low-cost Internet-accessible computer lab using quality donated computers that we refurbished and configured ourselves. The computer lab functions as a model community technology center, which we built in Georgia Tech’s Student Center to host our camps and seminars, and use as the example to counsel and advise communities on establishing and sustaining similar centers in their communities.

October 1997 to August 1998

Database Consultant, Georgia Tech Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)

• Developed intranet databases on the Lotus Notes-Domino platform for ATDC, a technology business incubator housed on the campus of Georgia Tech.
• Served as proposal reviewer for ATDC’s Faculty Research Commercialization Program (FRCP), a program that awards $300,000 yearly to professors at Georgia research institutions who wish to commercialize their research.
• Served as Webmaster for Netcelerate (http://www.netcelerate.org), ATDC’s online entrepreneurial community.

October 1997 to March 1998

Computer Software Instructor, Chattahoocheee Technical Institute, Marietta, GA.

• Taught Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint, Word, and Access to classes attended by an average of eight students.

January 1996 to October 1997

Vice-President of Strategic Planning and Marketing, Black Graduate Student Infosystems, Inc. (BGSI)

• Directed the development of marketing strategies and new business development for BGSI’s primary product - The Universal Black PagesÔ(an Internet directory of African-related WWW resources (http://www.ubp.com)). BGSI emanated from the projects of the Georgia Tech Black Graduate Student Association’s Information Resources and Technology committee (see next section).
• Wrote BGSI’s Strategic Business, Marketing, Advertising, Consulting, and Electronic Commerce plans.

September 1993 to May 1996

President Emeritus, Georgia Tech Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA)

• Developed the Information Resources and Technology committee in September 1993 to promote the use of emerging information technologies like the Internet and World Wide Web.
• Created and taught two courses to the Georgia Tech community during the 1994-95 and 1995-96 school years: UNIXÔ Made Easy (16 Commands You Need to Know) (co-authored with Alou Macalou), and Simple UNIXÔ Tricks.
• Co-authored BGSA’s 1994-97 Strategic Plan.
• Served as the leader of this 80-person organization for the 1994-95 and 1995-96 school years.

June 1994 to September 1994

Consultant, AT&T Global Information Solutions (GIS), Atlanta, GA

• Studied the operation of an automatic document recognition system developed by AT&T GIS that used morphological image processing to remove degradations from scanned documents (morphological image processing is a set of algorithms that exploit the structural and spatial properties of objects in the image).
• Assisted with programming a demo of the automatic document recognition system using Visual Basic, a programming language that allows easy creation of graphical user interfaces (GUIs).
• Applied pattern recognition principles to implement an algorithm (using C programming) that mathematically determined dominant features to be used in the automatic recognition of small parts like nuts, bolts, and nails.

June 1993 to September 1993

Member of Technical Staff, The MITRE Corporation, Reston, VA

• Studied and implemented (through C programming) algorithms that detected the endpoints of speech waveforms in the presence of significant noise.
• Used DragonWriter to develop an air travel information service as part of an effort to evaluate performance of MITRE's experimental speech recognition system versus a commercial system.
• Learned C programming and C-Shell programming in a UNIXÔ environment.

January 1992 to September 1992

Member of Technical Staff, The MITRE Corporation, Reston, VA

• Simulated operation of the following two satellites using the Signal Processing WorkSystem (SPW) Ô :
• Defense Satellite Communication System Phase III (DSCS III)
• Tracking & Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS)
• Wrote "Simulation of DSCS III Using the Signal Processing WorkSystem (SPW)", an internal document distributed to other MITRE divisions that used the aforementioned satellite simulation.
• Participated in internal course: "Signal Processing WorkSystem (SPW)".
• Performed troubleshooting on an interfacing problem between SPW and the Hewlett-Packard arbitrary waveform synthesizer (AWS).

May 1991 to August 1991

GEM Co-op Student, The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA.

• Studied classical methods of spectral analysis, which is concerned with estimating a signal's power as a function of frequency.
• Assisted Dr. Thomas P. Bronez with the writing of "Alternate Windows for Multi-Window Spectral Analysis", which Dr. Bronez presented at the 1992 International Conference of Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP).
• Studied principles of direct-sequence spread spectrum communication to support efforts to investigate optimum low-probability-of intercept (LPI) waveform theory.

EDUCATION

Clemson University, Clemson, SC. Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering awarded in December 1991. 3.5 grade point ratio, graduated cum laude.

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. Master's degree in electrical engineering awarded in March 1994 (Coursework emphasized areas of signal processing, communications, controls, and mathematics). 3.4 grade point ratio. Passed electrical engineering Ph.D. preliminary exam in September 1994 and performed research in the area of image processing (residual vector quantization techniques) until January 1996 (took leave of absence to start a company).

Interpersonal Skills:

Effective communicator (both through speaking and writing), teacher, disciplined leader, good rapport with co-workers.

Computer Skills:

Well-versed in Internet and World Wide Web research
Languages: HTML, ANSI C, Visual Basic, FORTRAN
Operating Systems: UNIXÔ (C shell programming, AWK), Windows95Ô
Software: Lotus NotesÔ , MATLABÔ

PUBLICATIONS

In Progress: 1999 KnowledgeBase Computer Academy Curriculum. A 132-hour Internet and computer hardware curriculum that targets novice, intermediate, and advanced audiences.

June 1998: 1998 KnowledgeBase Computer Academy Curriculum. A 12-hour introductory Internet and computer hardware curriculum containing the following modules:

INTERNET

Introduction to the Internet
Building Web Pages (The Basics)
Using Internet Search Engines

HARDWARE

How To Build A Computer
Taking Care of Your Computer
Solving Computer Problems

October 1997: The Internet Club (TIC). TIC is a curriculum written to introduce 14-17 year-old students to research uses of the Internet.

January 1997: BGSI Electronic Commerce & Direct Marketing Plan, BGSI internal document.

January 1997: BGSI Information Technology Consulting Plan, BGSI internal document.

December 1996: BGSI Advertising Sales Plan, BGSI internal document.

July 1996: BGSI Marketing Plan, BGSI internal document.

June 1996: BGSI Strategic Business Plan, BGSI internal document.

November 1995: Simple UNIXÔ Tricks (Impress Your Friends!), BGSA internal document.

October 1994: UNIXÔ Made Easy (16 Commands You Need To Know), BGSA internal document.

October 1994: Avoiding the Grants Applications Pitfalls, published in the 1994-95 edition of MS / PhD magazine.

September 1992: Simulation of DSCS III Using the Signal Processing WorkSystem (SPW), MITRE internal document.

January 1992: Equiripple Windows for Multi-Window Spectral Analysis, co-authored with Dr. Thomas P. Bronez of the MITRE corporation and presented at the 1992 International Conference of Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP).

AWARDS

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Fellow, 1994-95, 1995-96
• National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering
and Science, Inc. (GEM) Fellow, January 1991 - December 1993
• Tau Beta Pi - Engineering Honor Society, member
• Eta Kappa Nu - Electrical Engineering Honor Society, treasurer 1990-91

ACTIVITIES

• Georgia Tech Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA), president 1994-95, 1995-96
• National Society of Black Engineers, chapter president 1990-91
• Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, member

REFERENCES

Available upon request