Biographical and Career Summary
Dr. Warren Keith TOOMEY
- Date of Summary
- Tuesday, 22nd September 1998
- Name
- Warren Keith TOOMEY
- Classification
- Lecturer,
School of Computer Science, University College
UNSW, ADFA, Canberra, ACT 2600
- Qualifications
- Ph.D (CompSci), U.N.S.W, 1998
- B.Sc (Honours) IIa, U.N.E, 1984 - 1988
- Mar 1995 - present
- Associate Lecturer, School of Computer Science,
University College, ADFA, Canberra.
My duties have included preparing, co-ordinating and lecturing 1st Year
Information Systems, 3rd Year Software Engineering and Systems Administration,
Masters-level Operating Systems and Data Network units;
tutoring 1st Year Information Systems and 2nd Year Data Communications units;
and administrative duties as required.
As a member of the Computer Science Curriculum Review
Committee, I have assisted in the complete review and redesign of the ADFA
Computer Science Curriculum, with major input in the areas of Operating Systems,
Data Networks, Compilers, Computer Architecture, Theoretical Computer Science
and Comparative Programming Languages. This review is ongoing.
- Apr 1992 - Mar 1995
- Teaching Fellow, Department of Computer Science,
University College,
ADFA, Canberra.
My duties included being enrolled full-time in a PhD by research, and
lecturing & tutoring duties. My PhD has focussed on the improvement of wide
area computer network efficiency at all levels, and specifically at minimising
wide area network congestion.
My teaching duties included lecturing 2nd Year Operating Systems and 3rd Year
Data Networks units; tutoring 1st Year Computer Science for Engineers,
2nd Year Computer Architecture, 2nd Year Data Structures, 3rd Year Data
Networks and Masters-level Data Networks units; and administrative duties as
required.
- Sep 1989 - Apr 1992
- Research Officer, Department of Computer Science,
University College,
ADFA, Canberra.
My duties were to conduct research into the design and implementation of
RHODOS, a generalised distributed operating system, on a number of
workstations connected by an Ethernet local area network.
During this period I designed and built several RHODOS subsystems, namely
the Memory Management server, the TCP/IP network stack (from BSD Unix), and
a new communication protocol RRDP. Implementation was done in C and C++.
I spent several months reverse engineering the hardware design of the Sun 3/50
workstation, as this information was unavailable from Sun Microsystems, and
I began the difficult implementation of the RHODOS Nucleus on top of the `bare'
3/50 workstation.
- Mar 1989 - Sep 1989
- Unix Systems Administrator, Department of Computer
Science, University of New England, Armidale NSW.
My duties included the maintenance of user accounts, installation of programs
and large packages from both source and binary distributions, filesystem
maintenance and partitioning, Sendmail configuration, host-level network
management, file backup and restores, and kernel configuration & rebuilding.
The department machines included a Pyramid 90x minicomputer running OSx,
a dualport Unix operating system (SysVR2 and 4.2BSD), a Sun 3/50 running
SunOS 3.5, & various PCs and Macs.
- Feb 1988 - Sep 1989
- Help Desk Assistant, Computer Centre,
University of New England, Armidale NSW.
I was the first point of contact for user enquiries and problems. I also
helped people in the use of the Gould mainframe computer and various aspects
of its Unix operating system.
- Feb 1988 - Sep 1989
- Tutor, Department of Computer Science,
University of New England,
Armidale NSW.
My duties were the tutoring of 1st Year Computer Science & 1st Year Business
Computing units, and administrative duties as required.
- Feb 1987 - Dec 1987
- Private H.S.C Tutor, Tamworth NSW.
During my year off from University, I tutored twenty students in H.S.C Physics,
Chemistry, and 2, 3 & 4 Unit Mathematics.
- 1984 - 1988
- Undergraduate student, University of New England, Armidale.
I obtained my Bachelor of Science (Honours), IIa. Major in Computer Science,
with a minor in Pure Mathematics. Computing was done on several Unix systems
using Pascal, C, Fortran and Lisp. Topics covered in the Honours year were:
Artificial Intelligence, Theoretical Computer Science, Advanced Database
Design, Software Verification, and a major thesis on an implementation of
the GKS graphics standard for Unix.
As a person who has primarily worked on Unix platforms, I have extensive
knowledge of both K&R and ANSI C, with several 1,000+ line programs to my
name. This includes a strong understanding of the standard Unix system calls.
I am also well versed in Perl, with programs like `Src2html' used around the
world.
Other Unix-based languages that I can program competently in are shell
scripts, Sed and Awk, Lex and Yacc. In the course of my teaching career,
I have also become very familiar with both Ada and Pascal.
Systems Administration Experience
As noted in my career history, I was employed as the sole systems administrator
for the Department of Computer Science, U.N.E in 1989. From 1992 to the
present, I have also been the systems administrator for the Unix server
minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au, which provides services such as FTP, WWW and
mailing lists for a large community of Internet users.
In this capacity I have gained the skills required to configure Unix kernels,
modify kernel source code, port, compile, install and maintain 3rd party
software, perform system security analysis and strengthening, and deal with
users on a continuing basis.
I have presented a number of papers on system security analysis and
strengthening at conferences within Australia.
As part of teaching and systems administration experience, I have become
deeply involved in the design and implementation of TCP/IP networks and
network code, and have made several modifications to the BSD Internet
code in order to improve Internet security.
I am experienced at installing and maintaining Internet applications such
as Wu-FTP, Apache WWW server and associated secure CGI scripts, Sendmail 8,
Bind 4.8/4.9, POP servers and other specialised servers, with programs such
as TCP Wrappers used to strengthen network security and provide audit trails.
As part of my personal interest in Internet security, I helped to install and
configure the Navy Internet firewall, which was in use at ADFA until 1998.
I have also given several seminars and conference presentations on the topic
of Internet security.
- M. InfSc Data Networks,
- Semester 2, 1996-1997,
lecturer, 2 hours lectures & 1 hour tutorials/week.
- M. InfSc Operating Systems & Real-Time Languages,
- Semester 1,
1996-1997, lecturer, 2 hours lectures & 1 hour tutorials/week.
- Information Systems 1,
- Semesters 1 & 2, 1995-1996, lecturer,
2 hours lectures, 1 hour
tutorials & 6 hours laboratories/week.
- Systems Administration 3,
- Semester 2, 1997, lecturer, 2 hours lectures
& 4 hours laboratories/week.
- Software Engineering 3,
- Semester 1, 1997, lecturer, 2 hours
lectures/week.
- Data Communications 2,
- Semester 2, 1995, tutor, 2 hours
laboratories/week.
- Computer Science Core B2,
- Semester 2, 1995, tutor, 2 hours
laboratories/week.
- Computer Science 1,
- Semesters 1 & 2, 1995-1996, tutor,
1 hour tutorials/week.
- Operating Systems 2,
- Semester 2, 1992-1994, lecturer, 2 hours
lectures & 4 hours
laboratories/week.
- Computer Science 1EE,
- Semester 1, 1993-1994, tutor, 2 hours
laboratories/week.
- Data Networks 3,
- Semester 1, 1993, lecturer, 2 hours
lectures & 2 hours laboratories/week.
- M. InfSc Data Networks,
- Semester 1, 1992-1993, tutor, 2 hours
laboratories/week.
- Computer Architecture 2,
- Semester 2, 1992, tutor, 2 hours
laboratories/week.
- Data Structures 2,
- Semester 1, 1992, tutor, 2 hours laboratories/week.
- Business Computing AFM 171-1,
- Semester 2, 1989, tutor, 2 hours
laboratories/week.
- Computer Science CS 110-1,
- Semester 1, 1988-1989, tutor, 4 hours
laboratories/week.
Supervision of compulsory 3rd year projects: two students in
semester 2, 1997; two students in
semester 2, 1996. Client for compulsory 3rd year projects: five students in
semester 2, 1997.
My objectives in teaching are to provide students with an
understanding of the topic being taught, and the implications
of the course material within the scope of the field and within society as
a whole. I encourage students to use their initiative to find out more
about the parts of the course that interests them, and I encourage students
to interact with each other and myself, to increase the understanding
of the topic being taught.
1994: Early use of the World-Wide Web as a means of distributing
lecture notes, assignments and other course information in a hyperlinked
multimedia format.
- M. InfSc Operating Systems,
- Semester 1, 1998,
lecturer, 2 hours lectures & 1 hour tutorials/week.
- Systems Administration 3,
- Semester 2, 1998, lecturer,
2 hours lectures & 4 hours laboratories/week.
- Information Systems 1,
- Semesters 1 and 2, 1998, lecturer & course
co-ordinator,
3 hours lectures, 1 hour
tutorials & 2 hours laboratories/week.
Supervision of compulsory 3rd year projects: two students in semester 2, 1998.
Supervision of Masters student for Masters project commenced in September, 1998.
Computer Network Efficiency in both Local Area and Wide Area Environments.
Design and Implementation of Centralised and Distributed Operating Systems.
Computer and Communications Security.
For my PhD, I was involved in the study and improvement of computer
network efficiency in both local-area and wide-area networks.
One major problem on connectionless packet networks such as the Internet is the
lack of congestion control; transport protocols like TCP use indirect
evidence such as packet loss or increases in round-trip delays to deduce the
existence of network congestion, and to take corrective action. The only
other congestion mechanism is the `source quench', which can be used to inform
a source of packets that there is a congestion problem in the network, but
not where in the network nor the size of the congestion.
I designed a new network-level congestion mechanisms that allow the
information on the location and size of a congestion point in a network to be
sent to all packet sources that are causing the congestion. Given this
information, the sources can react to minimise the congestion.
My Ph.D has been submitted, examined, minor corrections made, and has been
approved by the Higher Degree Committee.
I will graduate at ADFA in November 1998.
- A Look at Recent Network Security Vulnerabilities, seminar given
to the Canberra chapter of the Network Professionals Association,
July 1997.
- Installing and Configuring FreeBSD, invited workshop given at
the AUUGWet'97 conference, Darwin, February 1997.
- Monitoring Network Connection Attempts on a FreeBSD Server, 1996
AUUG Canberra Summer Conference, Canberra, February 1996. Presented
again at the national AUUG conference, Melbourne, September 1996.
- The PDP-11 Unix Preservation Society, 1996 AUUG Canberra Summer
Conference, Canberra, February 1996.
- FreeBSD, keynote address at QUESTnet'95, Bond University,
September 1995.
- TRUMP - A Fast Reliable Transport Protocol for Distributed
Systems, 3rd IEEE Singapore International Conference on Networks,
Singapore, September 1993.
- The Nucleus - Microkernel for the RHODOS Distributed Operating
System, IEEE Region 10 International Conference, Melbourne,
November 1992.
- A Fast and Reliable Transport Protocol for Real-Time Distributed
Systems, Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation Conference,
Melbourne, August 1992.
- 1992/1993
- L.P. Brown, G. Gerrity, W.K. Toomey, Australian
Telecommunications & Electronics Research Board, Evaluation
of some Security and Reliability Protocols over Packet Radio,
$4,000.
- W. Toomey, TRUMP - A Fast Reliable Transport Protocol for
Distributed Systems, Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE Singapore
International Conference on Networks, Singapore, September 1993.
- W. Toomey, A. Goscinski, G.W. Gerrity, The Nucleus - Microkernel
for the RHODOS Distributed Operating System, Proceedings of the
IEEE Region 10 International Conference, Melbourne, November 1992.
- A. Goscinski, W. Toomey, A Fast and Reliable Transport Protocol
for Real-Time Distributed Systems, Proceedings of the Emerging
Technologies and Factory Automation Conference, Melbourne, August 1992.
- G.W. Gerrity, A. Goscinski, J. Indulska, W. Toomey, W. Zhu.
RHODOS - A Testbed for Studying Design Issues in Distributed
Operating Systems. Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE Singapore International
Conference on Networks, September 1991.
- G.W. Gerrity, A. Goscinski, J. Indulska, W. Toomey, W. Zhu.
Can We Study Design Issues of Distributed Operating Systems
in a Generalized Way? - RHODOS. Proceedings of the Symposium on
Experiences with Distributed and Multiprocessor Systems II, Atlanta,
March 1991.
- W. Toomey.
RBCC: A Rate-based Congestion Control Scheme for Packet Switched
Networks,
Technical Report CS 96/?, School of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
May 1996.
- O. Mohammadi, W. Toomey, L. Brown.
DUAL - A Packet Format for a New Amateur Link Layer,
Technical Report CS 95/1, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
January 1995.
- W. Toomey. NCS - A Simulator for Congested Networks,
Technical Report CS 93/10, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
May 1993.
- W. Toomey. TRUMP - A Fast Reliable Transport Protocol for
Distributed Systems, Technical Report CS 93/1,
Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
January 1993.
- M.J. Hobbs, W.K. Toomey, G.J. Wickham, Booting of the RHODOS
Distributed Operating System, Technical Report C92/3, Department of
Computer Science, Deakin University, Geelong, August 1992.
- W. Toomey, J. Indulska, A. Goscinski, G. Gerrity.
The Design of the RHODOS Nucleus.
Technical Report CS 91/29, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
September 1991.
- W. Toomey, The Hardware of the Sun 3/50 Workstation.
Technical Report CS 91/15, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
May 1991.
- P. Reynolds, W. Toomey.
The Implementation of the RHODOS Network Manager under Unix.
Technical Report CS 91/9, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
February 1991.
- A. Goscinski, J. Indulska, P. Reynolds, W. Toomey.
The Development of the RHODOS Network Manager.
Technical Report CS 91/8, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
February 1991.
- W. Toomey. Emulating a RHODOS Process Environment under Unix.
Technical Report CS 90/49, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
December 1990.
- A. Goscinski, J. Indulska, W. Toomey, W. Zhu.
Operations of RHODOS' System Processes.
Technical Report CS 90/29, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
June 1990.
- A. Goscinski, J. Indulska, W. Toomey, W. Zhu.
RHODOS Nucleus Calls.
Technical Report CS 90/28, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
June 1990.
- W. Toomey. Memory Management in RHODOS.
Technical Report CS 90/19, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
May 1990.
- G. Gerrity, A. Goscinski, J. Indulska, W. Toomey.
Interprocess Communication in RHODOS.
Technical Report CS 90/6, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
February 1990.
- C.J.S. Vance, W. Toomey. Kbuild - Building the RHODOS Kernel.
Technical Report CS 90/5, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
February 1990.
- G. Gerrity, A. Goscinski, J. Indulska, W. Toomey, W. Zhu.
The RHODOS Distributed Operating System.
Technical Report CS 90/4, Department of Computer Science,
University College, University of New South Wales, Canberra,
February 1990.
- W. Toomey. An Implementation of GKS in C.
Dissertation submitted to the University of New England in part
fulfillment of the requirement of Honours in Computing Science,
November 1988.
Within School
Curriculum Review Committee, 1993 - present
Information Systems 1st Year Co-ordinator, 1996 - present
Computer Science 2nd Year Co-ordinator, Semester 1, 1993
Within University College
Proposed Computer Engineering Degree Committee, 1993 - 1996
Teaching Committee of the ADFA IT Review Working Party, 1994
Service to Professional Associations
Chair and secretary of the Canberra Packet Radio Group, 1994 - 1996
Membership of Professional Associations
Member of the Australian Open Systems Users Group (AUUG)
Warren Toomey
11/16/1998