About Me...

The Person

As you have probably gathered, my name is Karl Nicoll BSc (Hons). I originate from the United Kingdom. I was born in the city of Lincoln, a small historical city in the east-midlands of England.

As a child, I attended a comprehensive school where I also stayed to study Information Technology, Physics and Psychology until I was 18. In 2005, I left the comfort of my hometown to complete an undergraduate degree in Computer Programming at the University of Teesside, in the North-East of England, where I got a First-Class honours for my efforts.

Since completing my degree, I have since remained in the North-East to work for the National Health Service (NHS) as a systems developer.

The Developer

As a software engineer and developer, I am highly accustomed to efficient algorithm design and implementation. To this end, I enjoy the challenge of creating solutions to complex problems, and revel in the satisfaction of successfully designing and implementing a solution to a complicated problem.

A personal interest of mine is human-computer interaction, and the methods in which it is possible for people to interface with machines and vice-versa. My university dissertation was in fact a proof-of-concept application that demonstrates how gesture recognition with a Nintendo® Wii Remote can be used to control a slide show presentation.

I also have an interest in Artificial Intelligence, and specifically evolving systems. I am keen to be involved in developing an evolving system, and in particular implementing multi-agent evolving systems.

I am also a good web-developer, and a enthusiastic supporter of Web standards (Note the "XHTML Valid" image at the bottom of each page). I have experience developing and deploying web applications and have done so for corporate systems for work experience. I am also a keen follower of the progress that is being made into "cloud" computing and how it is becoming possible to implement web-systems that are increasingly replacing local systems.

Check out my Portfolio to see some of my work, past and present...

The Computer User

My love of computing, and everything encompassing the subject began at an early age, where I was given an unwanted computer by a family member. The computer itself ran MS-DOS, and had Windows 3.11.

What frustrated me though was that I wanted to be able to make the computer do exactly what I wanted, and to be able to do things that the computer could not do, but I did not know what it entailed. This resulted in me pursuing GCSE certification in Information Technology when I was 15, and then an AVCE certification when I was 16.

As well as being a born developer, I'm also a computer gamer, playing many different games on the PC when there's nothing else to do.