"Rick's time at ITT was well spent as he quickly became a valued member of ITT. The environment
was challenging - a large quantity of work, dynamic environment with numerous changes,
and several obstacles in both test and design - yet Rick handled it all with remarkable aplomb.
I would highly recommend to anyone looking for firmware, test,
and/or code development to seek out Rick for their particular projects.
It was a pleasure having him on my team."
Jamie Davis
Test Function Group Manager while at ITT
"Rick's efforts to design and develop test platforms have contributed to our program's successful
development and reliable product delivery. Rick's skill set allows him to contribute
engineering services for PC applications software, firmware testing for embedded
processors on specialized hardware, and systems level testing.
Rick was extraordinarily helpful in redesigning and developing improvements
to our product's main communications and test platform. Rick had taken input from many
people who use our test platform and developed critical improvements
required to increase communications test coverage. Several organizations
now continually use his software to test and communicate with our devices.
Rick quickly became a well-respected member of the team for development,
test and support tasks throughout the projects in which he was involved.
His unique ability to come up to speed quickly and contribute to the group will be an
asset to whomever should be fortunate enough to work with him in the future.
We highly recommend Rick for additional engineering opportunities."
Jim Wise
Specialist Engineer while at Eaton
"Rick is very passionate and devoted to firmware development engineering with a wonderful
focus on the task at hand. I was amazed by his accomplishments amidst
some very difficult circumstances (The hardware was not working yet).
Rick created a HAL [hardware abstraction layer] so that he could
continue development until the hardware was available."
Jim Forkin
Electrical Engineer while at Eaton
"I would like to take this opportunity to recommend Rick Lewis.
I worked as a hardware development engineer at Eaton during 2007. At this time,
I was tasked with developing hardware based on a ColdFire processor in a
new power monitor/control device for the Company.
During this time, I had the pleasure of working closely with Rick Lewis who had the
assignment to write device drivers and diagnostics firmware for the device.
He showed his ability to analyze the problems encountered and develop
innovative solutions. His understanding of digital and analog hardware also aided the process.
As I understand it, this product was the first developed by Eaton using this line
of processors and Rick's expertise was essential in getting the product from prototype to production level.
I would highly recommend Rick Lewis for any firmware development support you may have."
Keith Hamilton
Owner, Hamilton & Associates, administering contract between ASTL Systems and Eaton
"I want to thank you for the work you did for K.A. Hamilton & Associates [while at Eaton].
Your positive attitude and hard work have enhanced our reputation with our clients,
and we appreciate your efforts. It has been a pleasure working with you.
Best wishes for your continued success."
Richard Hansen
Software Consultant while at GE Transportation
"I have worked with Rick and find he does excellent work. He is thorough and well versed
in all areas of hardware and software. He strives to complete tasks on time
and continuously takes on more work as he finishes assigned tasks."
Jim Bernitt
Hardware Consultant while at Datascope
"Rick and I worked together at DataScope for approximately a year in the 2008 time frame.
The project involved an embedded ColdFire micro-controller along with
both digital and analogue circuit functions.
I was engaged by the company as an Electronics consultant and was responsible
for the design of this electronics module. Rick was there on the same basis
as an embedded firmware/software engineer and was responsible
for developing/modifying/integrating operating firmware into the module
to elect functionality. In addition, he was to provide a suite of test
functions so that the design could be tested and proven.
Rick provided all of the above tasks and in addition proved his versatility.
He functions excellently in both team and one-on-one situations.
He is accommodating and an sheer pleasure to work with.
He is also one of the most competent embedded firmware engineers that I have been
involved with over the years. Rick understands hardware and the
synergistic nature of hardware and software. This is an essential skill
for embedded systems and is absent in many of today's firmware engineers.
Rick also knows how to use test instruments and tools when required.
I would not hesitate to employ Rick's services in any of my own projects should the need arise.
Your project will most definitely benefit from his presence."
Chris Bahr
Regulatory Affairs Document Specialist while at Datascope
"I had the opportunity to work with Rick at DataScope Corp., Mahwah, New Jersey.
Rick always proved to be well prepared for project meetings and demonstrated
a superior knowledge base of our product line. At DataScope Corp.,
Rick was viewed as an exceptional team player and a formidable
independent and productive colleague. He is worthy of only the highest accolades."
Steven Linahan
VP Operations and Supply Chain while at Tipping Point (now HP)
"Rick is a very talented and knowledgeable diagnostics and test developer.
He demonstrated very sound and thorough test development skills
on our motherboard based security products."
C. Kevin Archer
B2B Financial Services Sales Specialist while at NCR
"Rick is what business people call a "kick ass" programmer. Nobody doubts that Rick can/will deliver
results quickly and efficiently. At a time when NCR was snail-pacing along a
software development track for our newest financial services platform,
Rick lit a fire under our whole department (before we ever even hired him)
by producing installable code for a project we were still trying
to create specs for! "
Brian Murray
Software Consultant while at Gadlight
"As the unofficial team leader, Rick preached testability as part of development.
He created a test bed that was part of the development that served
as an auto-regression "smoke test." This test system communicated directly
with the tools that Rick created for debugging. This very clever system, written in Perl,
running on a PC, caught many bugs, some of which didn't show up until 50 or more runs of the smoke test.
"Even though I've been in software development for many years,
I always look for things I can learn from other engineers. And I'm happy to say
that I definitely was able to add to my bag of tricks knowing Rick Lewis,
and would not hesitate to recommend him."
Erick McManus
Software Consultant (While at Gadlight)
"Rick took over for another engineer who had not done a good job on our project in
its' early stages. Rick improved our situation in many ways. He put into place the BSP
and many other major system components for our initial development boards and prototype hardware.
I think what makes Rick stand out is his committment to making software easy
to debug and test from the start. He put into place an excellent
serial debug command line interface, system logging, and commands
for automated testing. He also wrote the initial Perl automated test scripts
for the device until we could get a QA guy in place for him to hand that off to.
That testing and debugging environment was crucial
to our ability to demonstrate prototypes to people with confidence.
Rick writes very readable code and I always appreciated his work ethic
and commitment to doing his best even under working conditions that were sometimes difficult."
Dave Berry
Student Consultant while at Angelo State University
"Rick and I were students together for two years at ASU. There were a number
of students in the program, but as with many programs of challenging curriculum,
there was a core of the best students that were always at the forefront
and Rick was one of those. He was involved in tutoring other students.
He was very active in the student computer science club.
This CS club built from kit form, an Altair 800, the first "home PC".
It was serial number 15, which truly put Rick on the cutting edge of PC
technology from the beginning. He was active in the school's business computer
center where most of the top students worked and were active.
He did all of this while working to support himself through school.
Rick was also one of my best and closest friends during this time.
He was one of the top students in the program."
