Programm - Tutorials - Produktvorträge - Ausstellung - Pressemitteilung
Program - Tutorials - Product Presentation - Exhibition - Press report

David A. Thomas Founder Object Technology International Inc. and Bedarra Corporation

Dave Thomas has a wide spectrum of experience in the computer industry, which spans engineering, business, and computer science. He has worked in the research lab, small business and university as well as medium and large corporations around the world. Unlike many that only conceive new ideas in the lab, Dave has repeatedly transferred them into successful products and services.
Dave Thomas has over 30 years of experience as a developer, professor, consultant, architect, manager, president, and CEO. During the last 18 years, he has specialized in the design and implementation of tools and applications using advanced software technology. Projects and products have included the successful development and implementation of application development tools and systems for client-server systems for banking, insurance, embedded systems, manufacturing, networking systems, electronic publishing, integrated circuit testing, defense, and instrumentation.
Dave has held academic positions in Engineering and Schools of Business and Computer Science. Dave holds an adjunct research professorship at Carleton University, where he was previously director of the Object-Oriented Research Group. From an initial team of just three professors and six graduate students, several successful companies have evolved, including Object Technology International; The Object People; and Objectime. This group has also educated hundreds of developers for companies such as Dy-4, Cognos, Corel, Mitel, Newbridge, Nortel, and IBM. He was a principal contributor to the academic graduate and undergraduate programs in the Schools of Business and Computer Science.
Dave is widely published in the software engineering literature. He has served on the OOPSLA and ECOOP conferences program committees for the past 12 years. His speaking engagements include keynote addresses at many major industry conferences as well as seminars and courses on software component technology. In recognition of his pioneering work in object technology, Dave was elected to the IBM Academy.
Dave is the founder, past CEO and president of Object Technology International Inc. OTI is a unique software technology company. While many companies focused on centralized development, OTI adopted what is now called the virtual company model. The company located its labs where it could hire the best people and join them with its customers. OTI has labs in Ottawa, Canada; Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Raleigh, USA; Zurich, Switzerland; and Amsterdam, Netherlands. The company has an impressive list of object/component-technology firsts in applications that range from embedded multiprocessors to mainframes. OTI has generated over 300 person years of R&D without any outside investment and had profit sharing from its inception. OTI is now a wholly owned affiliate of IBM. OTI has been described by IBM as one of IBM's "most precious and effective business units". OTI's Just In Time Software process has delivered numerous product lines on time and budget.
Prior to the sale of OTI to IBM, OTI supplied critical technology to Digitalk which was sold to Parc Place Systems in 1995; Sybase, Siemens Nixdorf, Hewlett Packard and numerous lead users such as Allen Bradley, Credit Suisse, Nortel, Sprint, JP Morgan, and the Daimler Group.
Dave has been the principal visionary and architect for IBM VisualAge Java/Smalltalk tools and virtual machines as well as IBM's over all object/component strategy. The VisualAge family spans the entire range of industry platforms from PDAs, Windows and Unix to AS/400 and IBM 3090. In 1988 when few had heard of "embedded system" or "virtual machine" OTI partnered with Tektronix to build a family of instruments using embedded object technology. His work in working in embedded systems, has been a major contribution to the IBM Pervasive Computing (PvC) initiative and Visual For Embedded, Java Edition. In this role he has worked directly with IBM executives to chart the technical and business path of Java technology and scripting technology.
He is a member of the IBM OTI board of directors, AmikaNOW! and an advisor to numerous other companies including Beachtech, Hewson Bridge and Smith Ltd., ICHU, Objectime, Blueprint Technologies, Transform Research, Windward Systems, Microstar, and Tetranet. He has been a personal advisor to founders at Objective Systems, Palladio Software (both acquired by Rational), Knowledge Systems Corporation, Digital Composition Systems, and Dy-4 Systems. He is currently on the advisory board of Computer Science at DalTech, Acadia University, and a past member of the OCRI board, and Algonquin College. He has served as reviewer for NSERC strategic grants, and in industry university initiatives including TRIO, ITRC, SERC. He has served on international standards committees in software technology.
In 1997, Dave Thomas formed Bedarra Corporation, a privately held management consulting company that helps clients develop technology-leveraged products and services, new R&D programs and modern "Just In Time Software" processes. Bedarra clients include major corporations exploring new business opportunities or improved software development processes, early stage start up companies, and investors pursuing technology investments. Bedarra has major focus in the areas of distance education and e-Business.

Keynote: Building Embedded Systems Using Objects, Components and Virtual Machines

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