At the end of 2010, I retired from the NSAC and created a business in order to carry on the bioinformatics work that I had begun with the NSAC Department of Plant and Animal Science. I have supported the scrapie resistance research initiative and am currently involved in the analysis of Aleutian mink disease virus using Next Generation Sequencing software on Compute Canada’s supercomputer systems. Software tools I have used include: Bowtie/Tophat/Cufflinks, CummeRbund, GOrilla, REVIGO, Velvet, ABySS, BWA, SAMtools, BAMtools, BCFtools and VCFtools.

Provided assistance with Microsoft Office.

Beginning in 2005, my teaching responsibilities increased to two computer programming courses (C and C++) and two computer applications courses offered by the Engineering department. As part of an interdepartmental research team, I was involved in genomics research with the Department of Plant and Animal Sciences and created a national Canadian database of scrapie resistance genotyping results using Microsoft Access, VBA and mySQL. A website, genenovas.ca, was created to assist Canadian sheep breeders in the use of molecular markers to accelerate the genetic improvement of their livestock. This website was actively used by Canadian sheep breeders until funding was removed in 2009. A limited version of the website is currently available in the link below.

In 1995, the Nova Scotia provincial government decided to amalgamate the management of their smaller computer operations, thus the responsibility for the operation of the NSAC computer center was transferred to the Resources Corporate Service Unit. Although I was seconded to this unit for almost a year, the college decided that I could better serve them in a joint posting as Webmaster and Distance Education specialist. As webmaster, I was intimately involved in the development of a new web presence for the college in 1998/99. As Distance Education specialist, I was part of the team which oversaw the offering of two NSAC courses via the World Wide Web. In the early days of the Internet, I taught a number of courses on the Internet and associated applications to the local community through the NSAC Center for Continuing and Distance Education.

I was involved in the selection of the first on-site central computer system for the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. I managed the Academic and Departmental computer systems beginning with their installation in 1984. Between 1984 and 1994, I supervised 6 persons in the position of programmer/operator. The systems I designed, implemented and maintained include a Student Information System, a Telephone Call Reporting System, a Dairy Quota System, a Farm Loan Board system and a Crop and Livestock Insurance system. I was also responsible for system maintenance as well as teaching a Fortran programming course for the Math and Physics department and responding to technical enquiries about Fortran, BASIC, SAS and VMS.With the arrival of two additional VAX minicomputers in 1990, I was responsible for the networking of the four VAXes on campus, as well as the design and implementation of a campus-wide fiber-optic backbone. When the NSAC joined the Internet in 1991, I was responsible for managing the campus Internet connection. I sat on the EDP Policy Committee since it's formation in 1988 and chaired the EDP Liaison Committee beginning in 1989. I coordinated the preparation of a departmental Long Range Systems Plans and presented it to Management Boards EDP Advisory Committee. I attended governmental MIS Coordinators meetings on behalf of the Department of Agriculture and Marketing.

My responsibilities consisted of the design and implementation of engineering computer applications, from the proposal stage through to contract completion. Applications consisted of mathematical simulations, data acquisition, data analysis, graphics and process control, all programmed in Fortran. I was also called upon to select appropriate computer hardware and software for Davis Engineering's in-house word processing and data base management requirements.Project were completed on various computer systems including DEC PDP-11/03, DEC-20, DEC VAX 11/780, IBM 370 and custom designed printed circuit boards using Intel 8085 CPUs.