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Our Team

As you would expect RSISE boasts a strong IT Group, with over 60 years combined experience in the industry and diverse backgrounds in IT . Two of our staff have obtained IT-related degree's from the Australian National University and though each of us have very different interests as far as the field of IT is concerned, we all have common interests - to keep those servers up and running!

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James Ashton - IT Manager, RSISE

Where James came from:
James started at RSISE in the Department of Systems Engineering (now Information Engineering) in December 1991. Previously he was a postgraduate student at the University of Sydney and before that an undergraduate at the University of Wollongong. He was born in Melbourne (don't you dare ask when) but mostly brought up in Albury.
What James does here:
James is the IT Manager here at RSISE. He is the person that designs policy relating to the use of network services at RSISE, and has extensive experience in designing and upgrading networks. Since Pete and Silas arrived, James has been disappointed by the fact that they seem to get all the cool and exciting tasks to do, and he's stuck with the boring managerial jobs.
What James likes IT-wise:
Word processing! But seriously, James feels that the most actual IT work he's done since he's been here has been in hacking LaTeX macros to make people's books and papers look beautiful. But James is another one of those 'Walking IT Libraries" that seem to float through the corridors at RSISE. He also has a superb grasp of scripting and can often be seen writing sed commands of a length that seems almost impossible.
An interesting fact about James: "I'm a naturally boring person though I do have a wife (Joan) and two children (James and Elanor)" says James. But the rest of us find the fact that he brings in a lunch box with his name on it pretty darn interesting...How many James Ashton's are there that bring in lunch boxes to RSISE?

Peter Shevchenko, Senior IT Administrator, RSISE

Where Pete came from:
Pete spent the previous 8 years as IT Manager at HPA's Canberra branch (big printing company that NOBODY has ever heard of). Prior to that he worked for an R&D company developing secure remote backup software. Pete had heard 'a change is as good as a holiday', so he joined the RSISE IT Group in July, 2004. Then he went on holiday to China.
What Pete does here:
Pete's main task here is to look after the desktop solution that the IT Group supplies. This includes being responsible for the diskless GNU/Linux setup and also the standard Windows XP images. He works with James on setting up and configuring new and existing servers (like the new "fully sick" backup system). Pete also, where possible, assists in keeping Silas in line. In terms of IT crisis management, the few major events we do have here at RSISE are normally sorted out by Pete. In otherwords, when he does disappear to China for 4 weeks, the rest of us tend to tread very lightly around the server room, and hold our breath until Pete returns. Pete's knowledge of systems is extensive, so feel free to test it out by thinking up really hard questions and asking him on either Friday at 4:55pm or Monday at 9:00am.
What Pete likes IT-wise:
Peter is rumoured to know something about Linux and Windows Administration...but whether he likes it or not is another question...
An interesting fact about Pete:
Peter, like Matt, likes to talk about himself in the third person.

Matt Gray - Web Guru, RSISE

Where Matt came from:
Matt completed his BSc and LLB at the ANU during the mid to late 90s, and then after a few years working in the IT industry in the UK, came back to the safety of the ANU and started working at RSISE in July 2002.
What Matt does here:
Officially, Matt was hired as a research programmer, with a small amount of IT support duties. As it became obvious that he is just damn good at everything, he was roped into doing more tasks, such as desktop support and server admin on Macintosh, web server maintenance, web page content management, automated network analysis, everything to do with databases, student admin, phone lists, room bookings, seminar announcements, eating any leftover Turkish pizza, and occasional video and graphic design work. Matt's current project is building a program to play Texas Hold'em Poker.
What Matt likes IT-wise:
Matt enjoys programming, usually in C, Perl or Java, and prefers Objective-C on the Macintosh. OpenGL programming is fun, as is music analysis, speech recognition, and game programming in general.
An interesting fact about Matt:
Matt likes talking about himself in the third person. He is also a CECS worker.