Ian Hurst

BSc (Hons)

Director

Ian joined PTP in September 2015 to fill the newly created role of Engineering Manager, bringing extensive experience of project management, engineering management and multi-discipline systems engineering to the PTP team. Ian became a shareholder and director in December 2016. He obtained his degree in Computer Science and Electronics from University of London and has had a long career working in a number of industries and with a number of technologies including automotive, fuel cell and heating control systems, vehicle electronics, print scheduling and printer electronics, set-top boxes, mobile phones, email systems, data acquisition and analysis software, automated test systems for electronics products and CAD/CAM software.

Ian has over 20 years’ experience of building and leading both small and large teams to deliver technically challenging and complex software and electronics products through the whole lifecycle covering many disciplines of the field, including PC and embedded software, analogue and digital electronics, as well the development of FPGA code and ASIC design.

Areas of Expertise

• Project Management
• Systems engineering and requirements capture
• Software development
• Electronics system design
• Control systems
• Embedded system design
• Model based design

Luiz Coutinho

MSc

Senior Systems Engineer

Luiz has a degree in Electrical Engineering, followed in 1993 by a master’s in Robotics with a thesis concerned with the use of hydraulic manipulators for deep water operations in the Brazilian pre-salt oil fields.

Before joining PTP in March 2016, he worked in different types of industries including communications, oil & gas, mining, metals, logistics and software. After more than 20 years developing software for different platforms, Luiz has also acquired substantial experience in industrial automation, prototyping, digital electronics and embedded applications.

Areas of Expertise

• Software development
• C#
• C/C++
• SQL database
• PLC and HMI
• GUI Design
• Robotics
• Embedded Development
• Digital Electronics

Chris Wallbank

BSc (Hons)

Senior Systems Engineer

Chris’ computer experience began in his early years before the BBC and Spectrum computer was born. This led to completion of an engineering course followed by a degree in Computing for Real Time Systems. Since leaving education, he worked within the semiconductor equipment manufacturing industry developing real-time embedded control systems using C and C++ under a number of different operating systems. After moving to Hitachi where he was working on multilingual software development for intelligent whiteboards, before joining PTP in 2007. Since working with PTP he has worked in a wide a range of areas including semiconductors, motor engine manufacturing, car drive simulation, pharmaceutical tablet generation and chemical testing.

Recent Projects

• Machine control of PC based pharmaceutical chemical testing equipment.
• A high precision throughput pick and place system for automotive component testing using Beckhoff embedded architecture.
• Incorporating National Instruments PXI system with hundreds of synchronized inputs and cRIO FPGA data collection and analysis capability for use with generators.

Areas of Expertise

• .Net C
• Visual Basic
• C/C++
• SQL
• National Instruments LabVIEW
• National Instruments LabWindows/CVI

Specific NI Experience

Experience using NI hardware from PXI systems, cRIO, USB and network cDAQ to basic single standalone single modules.

David Barr

MEng

Senior Systems Engineer

David joined PTP in February 2015 as a Systems Engineer having previously worked for Park Air Systems in Peterborough as a Production Engineer. David has experience across a wide range of programming languages which he has deployed during development of automated test systems, particularly in the area of air traffic control radio testing.

He has extensive experience working with National Instruments software languages and is an NI Certified TestStand Developer as well as a Certified LabVIEW Architect. David has a First Class Honours Degree (MEng) in Electronics and Computer Systems from Loughborough University. Dave was promoted to Senior Systems Engineer in June 2016.

Areas of Expertise

• National Instruments LabVIEW (CLA)
• National Instruments TestStand (CTD)
• C
• C++
• VB
• MATLAB
• Mathcad

Gideon Simon

PhD MIET

Senior Systems Engineer

Gideon has over 20 years of experience developing software.  Specialising in image analysis and numerical algorithm development, he has developed applications for

• Scientific equipment
• Industrial process and inspection systems
• Medical devices and pharmaceutical applications

He has used a wide range of languages and tools in his career including

C#, C++, C, Python, MatLab

Used to working in multi-disciplinary teams, he is a qualified scrum master. As an undergraduate Gideon read Engineering Sciences at Cambridge and did his PhD at the University of Surrey

Seamus Rafferty

BSc (Hons)

Systems Engineer

Seamus joined PTP in June 2017 from e2v technologies where he worked as a Software Engineer. He has mainly worked on developing software for semiconductor & RF component test systems and has gained experience in several programming languages whilst having particular expertise in LabVIEW. Seamus’ experience over the years has enabled him to develop specialist knowledge in various technologies and communication protocols such as PID control, fuzzy logic, RS232 and TCP/IP. Seamus also has experience with a large range of National Instruments hardware technologies such as Flex-RIO, IMAQ, PXI and DAQmx.

Seamus graduated from Anglia Ruskin University in 2016 with a first class honours in Computing, for which he was also awarded the BCS best graduate award.

Areas of Expertise

• National Instruments LabVIEW (CLD)
• C#
• C++
• C
• SQL Databases
• PHP

Kenneth Sandman

MEng

 Systems Engineer

Kenneth joined PTP in May 2017 as a Junior Systems Engineer. He graduated from Durham University in 2015 as a Master of Engineering with a degree in General Engineering, specialising in Electronics. During the course of Kenneth’s degree he worked on a variety of projects including a dissertation on the conversion of thermal radiation into useful work through the use of a micro rectifying antenna, which was investigated by the implementation of several C based simulations.

Prior to joining PTP, Kenneth worked for Cosworth Electronics where he was responsible for developing test procedures and scripts for the validation of automotive data recorders, gaining an understanding of in-vehicle communications and best practice testing procedures in the process.

Areas of Expertise

• Digital Electronics
• Automotive CAN
• C
• Java

George Warwick

BEng

 Systems Engineer

George joined PTP in August 2019 as a Systems Engineer. He graduated from University of Bristol in 2016 with a BEng Electronic Engineering degree. His dissertation project concentrated on developing LabVIEW code to programme FPGAs to look at the possibility of full-Duplex for increasing data transmission of wireless devices while other projects included replacing Leon3 SPARC architecture to a cortex M0 processor, designing a bridge to integrate the cortex M0.

Prior to joining PTP, George worked for GHD, Cambridge where he was employed as an Electronics Engineer within the electronics department, working on developing a range of new consumer electronics products from early stage development through to mass manufacture.

Areas of Expertise

• Digital Electronics
• LabVIEW
• C