Ronald K. Braun is an independent consultant based in Seattle, Washington. He is an expert in object-oriented design and programming using Ada and C++. Mr. Braun has provided programming support on defense contracts for ViaSat from 1994 to 1998.

Mr. Braun received his Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of California at Davis, submitting original research in applying case-based reasoning to natural language processing. NASA used methods developed in Mr. Braun's Masters thesis to analyze their fault diagnostics manuals. This allowed them to automatically parse a large number of documents and to use natural query language to extract information.

Several projects highlight Mr. Braun's expertise:

• He produced a C++ package for statistical analysis of DNA sequences for Kings Mountain Research. He made improvements in the dynamic programming algorithm used that speeded execution by an order of magnitude, and is co-author on a paper describing the results.
• He developed an embedded cryptography application in Ada following the MIL 2167A waterfall life cycle methodology for the 80386 DOS platform.
• He helped ViaSat complete a $3M contract to modernize the United States' defense capability by designing and adding new modem communication protocols and network management functions to an existing military communications controller. The application was developed in Ada using a GUI environment.