Level N has carried out over 30 projects in its history. Here are some of the most recent, followed by a look back at four decades of engineering milestones.
Level N led the architecture and implementation of EPICS Secure PVAccess, a next-generation upgrade to the PVAccess protocol that brings robust transport-layer security to distributed control systems. This work introduced full TLS encryption, mutual certificate authentication, and support for fine-grained authorization models - critical improvements for facilities operating under modern cybersecurity constraints.
The project also delivered integrated certificate lifecycle management and support for external authentication providers such as Kerberos, LDAPS, and JWT-based identity systems. Secure PVAccess is now deployed at major scientific facilities including ITER, SLAC, STFC, FNAL, and ORNL, and plays a central role in aligning EPICS control systems with U.S. government Zero Trust cybersecurity goals.
Level N added IOC (Input/Output Controller) functionality - SoftIocPVX - to EPICS PVXS, advancing the next-generation SoftIOC intended to supersede EPICS Base with a modern, secure, and extensible architecture for the laboratories and research facilities that run EPICS worldwide.
Alongside this, Level N built a datastore that captures real-time control systems data and cross-correlates it in the time domain, giving machine-learning applications high-speed query access through an API and command line.
Level N returned to SLAC to rebuild AIDA - the unified data acquisition and control framework we originally created in 2002 - as AIDA-PVA, moving it to EPICS 7 and the PVAccess protocol. The new framework replaces the original Java and JNI layers with C and C++ services running against SLAC's OpenVMS legacy control systems, giving modern EPICS clients high-speed programmatic access to thousands of accelerator control devices.
Level N created the original designs and architecture for the Vocado School Management Software. We approached the problem from a completely different angle than that of competitors: we created an artificially intelligent expert system to manage the complex rules surrounding school management and student finance.
An entirely cloud-based solution, we were AWS pioneers and innovators back in 2007. Our team spanned four continents, and used advanced remote collaboration tools to remain highly efficient.
Level N oversaw the growth of the company to nearly 100 staff and consultants and took it through to its sale to Oracle. Running the Engineering and IT departments initially, towards the end Level N concentrated mainly on architecture and new technology. We developed the business from nothing to the number one school financial aid management software in the US.
Level N oversees Digisoft Education's technical direction, and designed and built its new Learning Management System - a cloud-based and on-premises solution for school management and online classes serving African school systems, built with Java, AWS, and Zoom integration.
Level N teaches the "Practical AI" course series at Marbella International University Centre (MIUC) in Marbella, Spain - affiliated with the University of West London, whose UK degrees MIUC students can graduate with. The courses give students hands-on experience with modern AI tooling - from prompt engineering to agent-assisted software development. This teaching work feeds directly into our agentic AI adoption service: the same material that trains students trains engineering teams.
As part of a tactical management team, Level N analysed the business potential of Surround from a technological standpoint, advising management and defining the platform and strategy upon which the company could secure funding.
The result was a hybrid blockchain solution based on IBM Hyperledger and Exonum, with multi-cloud delivery on AWS and Azure, incorporating big data and machine learning.
Level N provided the key Active Media intellectual property, architecting and developing the proofs of concept required to secure funding, and leading the team through due diligence.
The cloud-based solution used elements of blockchain technology (Ethereum) and involved digital media codec development in C++, with the wider platform coded in Java on AWS with Kubernetes and Istio. The platform lets content creators tag their media, automatically tracks media wherever it is played, and scales to billions of data points per day.
Level N designed and implemented the proof of concept for a new version of the AdServe product - AdServe | Studio - and moved the solution to the cloud. After helping AdServe secure significant funding by supporting the technical due diligence, Level N implemented an innovative placement engine, rolled out the production version, and mentored the team.
Level N moved Assessio's software development to a modern continuous integration and delivery pipeline with mono-repos, micro-services, and GitOps, and helped the team express their infrastructure as code using CloudFormation, Terraform, FluxCD, Helm Operator and eksctl. We also supported their clients with integrations and services in Java and Spring Boot.
Level N designed and built Flow, a certificate system for health passes and event tickets. Passes are issued as scannable QR credentials and delivered straight to Apple Wallet, with smart contracts providing tamper-evident verification and Stripe handling payment.
Level N maintains OpenTreeMap, used by government and private authorities to map trees in their jurisdictions and to manage and report their environmental impacts - making the future more sustainable.
Implemented parts of the Vodafone content management system serving Vodafone's global web presence.
Architect and developer of the initial version of AIDA, providing distributed high-speed programmatic access to thousands of high-energy physics control devices. See the clients page for the full case study.
Concept, design and implementation of the Executable Internet product: rich interactive browser UIs delivered as cached Java applets - years ahead of its time, pre-2001. Grew the company to more than 50 employees across two sites, including its engineering and product management departments, integrated development environment, runtime client and server architecture, and compilers.
Engineering director for Europe's largest IT product company. Led the team that created the original commercial website, back-office administration, operational reporting, and partner extranets - a fully automated, integration-driven e-commerce operation holding no stock.
Managed e-commerce for accounts including Schneider Group, Worms Bank, Crédit Lyonnais and wStore, and delivered integrated computer-telephony for a 10-million-subscriber support system at Canal+.
Research and development of PC Kerberos (PCLeland), the first Kerberos implementation on Windows - code Microsoft subsequently used as the basis for adding Kerberos security to Windows. Also a reviewer on the s/Ident protocol developed in conjunction with MIT.
Wrote Microsoft's ODBC driver for Oracle and parts of the Sybase and Informix drivers, plus the Unix ports across Solaris, SGI, AT&T and SCO platforms.
Architected, designed and implemented version 1.0 of the Oracle Migration Wizard, presented at the Oracle Worldwide Developers Conference in 1995.
Proposed, architected and implemented the SQL generator for Arbor's multidimensional OLAP engine, Essbase - a key part of the toolset that helped Arbor reach its initial public offering. Essbase is now an Oracle product.
Architect of OpenRoad, the database-independent application development environment within OpenIngres, and a member of the SAG SQL/CLI committee whose work was the forerunner to the ODBC and JDBC standards. OpenRoad is now an Actian product.
Wrote the initial version of the channel process software in the early versions of IBM DirectTalk/6000 voice-processing systems, still in use today.
Part of the software engineering team that created the world's first OLAP system, "EIS track", for the Intelligent Office Company.
Principal programmer on the cult classic game The Ancient Mariner for the Atari ST and Amiga - real-time games programming in C and assembly language.
Wrote the control system and firmware for Alkyl MOCVD equipment used in microchip manufacture - Unix, C, and signal processing on 8080 and 68000 processors.
