About the Author

George S. Hartigan Jr. received his B.S. in Computer Science from the Thomas Edison State College of New Jersey (1989) and his MS in Software Engineering from Monmouth University of West Longbranch N.J. (1992).

Formal education was not the foundation of George’s career as he had already climbed to a Senior Member of the Engineering Staff at Concurrent Computer Corporation (CCUR) located in Oceanport NJ. While at CCUR George developed and maintained Computer Hardware, Operating System Software, and ported FORTRAN code to firmware thus meeting the performance demands of flight simulators of the 1980’s. During his tenure at CCUR he held the following positions providing him with a diverse background seldom found in the engineering community:

       1.       Bench level technician; repairing 32 bit computer modules to the component level.

       2.       Instructor, teaching a worldwide customer base; Hardware, Software, Firmware.

       3.       Engineer, developing engineering changes to CCUR’s  product suite.

       4.       Quality Assurance Engineer, integrating Quality into the development process for both Hardware and Software.

There was turmoil in the mid nineties and many of the early computer companies started to clear the landscape. The industry wanted commercial products at an affordable cost which would meet their demands. CCUR attempted to become cost completive; however, they were to slow to realize proprietary hardware and software would not meet the desire of customers wanting commercial off the shelf products that would meet their needs regardless of the manufacturer. "Standards" was the battle cry!

From CCUR, George continued his career at Digital Equipment Corp, where he achieved the level of Principle Member of the Engineering Staff while working as a Software Engineer. While at Digital, George worked in the Quality Assurance domain taking the lead role during the porting of the Common Desktop Environment from SUN's 32 bit platform to the Digital 64 bit Alpha Platform. He later lead the Quality Assurance of the companies Cluster solution as Digital Equipment Corporation merged with Compaq Computer Corporation.

After spending the first part of his career working close to the Jersey Shore; in 1999 George accepted a position as the Director of Educational Services for Interworld Corporation. Interworld, the developer of back-end Business to Business (B2B) and Consumer to Business (C2B) solutions offered George the opportunity to lead a team of Instructional Designers and Facilitators for the “DOT COM” community.

Interworld was located in the SOHO section of Manhattan. On September 11, 2001; George and his colleagues found themselves among the thousands of people trying to leave the city and return home to their loved ones. While being ferried from lower Manhattan to NJ, George considered entering the Defense Industry to offer his skills and experience to the needs of our Government. George accepted a position with Lockheed Martin Corporation to develop Training Simulation Software for the U.S. Army’s Maneuver Control System (MCS). During this period, George learned the culture of Lockheed Martin, their commitment to “Who we work for” and developed Computer Based Training Modules, System Administration Manuals, Soldier Operating Manuals for the Army’s Battle Field Command System.

Once having the experience of working in the Defense industry, George transferred from the MCS program to the newly formed U.S. Coast Guard’s DEEPWATER program. Beginning as a Technical Resource Manager with Cost Accounting responsibility, resource allocation, and working closely with program management, George quickly entered into the role of Lead Member of the Engineering Staff. In this role, George developed the Wireless solution between the National Security Cutter (NSC) Hull 1 and the Long Range Interceptor (LRI). During his almost six years working on the DEEPWATER program, George performed the following:

       ·         Lead Engineer of the Fast Response Cutter engineering proposal

       ·         Developed the proposal for the computer and networking solution of the NSC hull 2

       ·         Lead Engineer for the technical refresh of the NSC hull 2 due to end of sale of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) products

       ·         COMSEC certified to install, test, and operate during sea trials classified encryption equipment

       ·         TEMPEST Subject Matter Expert for the NSC surface assets

       ·         Liaison for Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Coast Guard Contracting Officer

       ·         IA Engineer responsible for identifying and correcting system vulnerabilities

In addition to George’s 5 day a week career, he has found time to lecture and develop new courseware at both Monmouth University and Brookdale Community College. At Monmouth University, George has developed four new classes offered at Monmouth including the well publicized special topics class “Systems Programming”. This special topics class was taught in the classroom which later became known as the “Hartigan Lab”. The purpose of this class was to introduce Graduate Students to all phases of System Programming from the building of a computer, installing operating systems, system applications including Electronic Mail, forming a local area network among the students, and connecting to the World Wide Web by connecting and configuring a firewall, router, and VPN concentrator. Early courseware of this work can still be found on the Monmouth University Web site at: http://bluehawk.monmouth.edu/hartigan/

But that is not all! In his free time between family and friends, George has found time to hold the position of Vice Commander of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, Flotilla 05N-16-01 located in Manasquan NJ. With a flotilla of over sixty members, the Vice Commander is responsible for leading and motivating twelve Flotilla Staff Officers (FSO). He performs this volunteer work while he is not restoring vintage amusement coin operated games, or rebuilding a Chevy 305 Mariner Engine. His most current restoration project is of a 1962 CJ5 Jeep Willy! Both George and his Son’s are combining their time and talents to restore this vehicle to its original Civilian Jeep (CJ5) condition within an acceptable budget which has not yet been identified or agreed upon by the family. On an early Saturday morning you may find George and his Sons rummaging through  the yards of local auto recycling centers.