The research for my masters thesis required the diagnosis of vertical motions within a large maritime storm.  I flew into one of the storms to help take observations, collaborated with Drexel University to obtain model simulations of the storms, wrote software to diagnose all possible forcings for vertical motion, wrote programs to visualize the results, evaluated the results, and detailed the results in a graduate thesis and a scientific journal.

The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Association needed a higher density and objective cloud drift wind product.   I ported the existing wind system from an IBM mainframe to IBM mini supercomputers and increased the level of automation.  The result was a faster process that created 10 times more winds, higher quality winds, and greatly reduced the need for manual quality control.

When hired to teach a course entitled "Contemporary Issues in Science", I was given guidelines only for assignment requirements, and no guidelines for how to conduct the lectures.  I chose a debate format for the classes, which allowed me to encourage open discussion.    The result was a healthy learning environment, in which the students learned from one another in a comfortable environment, and I received very high evaluations from the students in every class I taught.

Thomson Financial was committed to using a distance learning software package named epiplex, which involved a very complicated and time consuming workflow for production of training modules.  I realized that the epiplex software depended on text configuration files, and researched and implemented changes to those files to reset default conditions within the software and simplify the workflows.  This reduced the amount of necessary work to complete the project by a total of 300 hours, and led to a large reduction in mistakes during production.

Thomson Financial needed computer based learning for new employees in India.  I created a stand-alone presentation format using Microsoft Powerpoint with voiceovers, slide transitions, animations to highlight information, and the articulate plug-in to package the presentations in a format that could be viewed on any computer.  The training department used my presentation format to create over 30 training modules which were delivered to India, reducing travel costs for the training department, and continuing to be available for introductory training for prospective, new and existing clients.

The space science and engineering center needed someone to manage their atmospheric temperature sensing project.   I organized the project and the programs so they were more efficient, collaborated with dozens of scientists internationally for contributions to the project, and completed the fifth release of the software.  The result was a stable product that was used by the international scientific community as the basis for many other scientific projects.

The marketing department requested involvement of the training department for introductory presentations to new clients.  I participated in early presentations, and helped to define the standardized format for presentations in marketing situations.  The standardized presentations served as a format for other trainers to become involved in future marketing presentations, and our involvement in the marketing process freed the marketing department to concentrate on attending to the client's needs and winning the contract.

In march of 2007, I launched a software company named Nieman Office Worflows.  In four weeks time, I designed, created, tested and marketed plug-ins for MS Word, Powerpoint and Excel, which allow large-scale in-context changes in a large amount of documents.  The three products complete the NowSmith product line.  Their true power is my implementation of the exact same user interface and functionality across the three different programs. http://www.NiemanOfficeWorkflows.com.

The National Centers for Environmental Prediction were unsure if cloud drift winds were improving numerical weather forecasts.  I ported their current numerical weather prediction system to our computers and benchmarked it's accuracy before beginning an evaluation of all data sources that were included in forecast runs.  The results proved to the National Centers for Environmental Prediction that cloud drift winds were among the seven most beneficial data sources for improved forecast runs.

The documentation department needed to change the company name in over 2500 web documents.   I approached management with a solution, wrote programs for changing HTML and FrameMaker documents, collaborated with a programming contractor for APIs to decode the FrameMaker data format, and wrote programs for automating the processing streams in complete automation.   When I separated from Thomson, the project was beginning the production phase, and we expected it to save the company more than $50,000.

Working as a web development contractor, I conduct product management via several online services.  My customers benefit from online file sharing, management of contractor and customer tasks, and scheduling.

Without the benefit of experience in the financial industry, I needed to learn how to train my employer's clients in the subjects of account transfers, customer statements, customer portfolios, dividends, retirement accounts, new accounts, document tracking, customer ledger, and corporate reorganization.   I learned the material quickly using team cross-training, various organizational methods, and audio note taking.  As a result, I was training my first class within a month, and I was certified to train all subjects within six months.

In the spring of 2007, I launched three websites.  They are NiemanOfficeWorkflows.com, RailRoader.Biz, and AuctionResults.Biz. AuctionResults.Biz was built from start to finish in two weeks, including a fully featured GUI thin client to view auction results, MySQL database design and implementation, and a back-end processing system to automatically parse information from online auction websites.  The whole task was completed with Perl.  The front-end alone contains 5200 lines of code with extensive error checking, the ability to serve any page and remain in session, and a sophisticated notification system.  The entire GUI can be ported to any website in a matter of hours.