João Carlos Negrão Ventura

@jcnventura

Software engineer with a strong background in ground segment and mission control systems for the European space industry. Highly experienced in backend web development, specifically in Drupal. Expert in Portuguese genealogy, even if I keep learning every day. Oh, and also a scuba instructor.


Skills

Programming Languages & Tools
  • C
  • C++
Workflows
  • Waterfall (space)
  • Agile Development & Scrum (web)
Languages
  • Portuguese
  • English
  • German
  • Spanish

Education

Faculdade de Ciências / Universidade de Lisboa

Master's degree, Computer Science

Grade: Very Good

Oct 1998 - Jun 2001

Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia / Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

Licentiate degree, Computer Science

Grade: 17/20

Oct 1992 - Jul 1997

Escola Secundária João de Deus (Faro)

High School
Sep 1989 - Jul 1992

Interests

I am a father of two amazing young men (Leonardo and Rafael - named after the Renaissance artists, not the TMNT cartoons!), and husband to Alexandra.

Away from work, I enjoy exploring places unknown to me, especially if they are places full of culture. In the winter, I enjoy skiing in the Alps. When it is warmer, I spend a lot of time scuba diving.

At home, I enjoy sci-fi either as books or TV shows, and playing video games. I am a collector of retro computers, especially the ones I had in my teenage years: the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the Atari ST. Also, I am an avid genealogist, enjoying my family history research and on enhancing tombo.pt, a site I built to facilitate access to Portuguese parish records.


Press clips

III Algarve [ZX] Spectrum Tournament - 1987

Back in November 1987 I participated and won a video-gaming competition that was held in my hometown of Faro, Portugal. The tournament was held in knockout format, using ZX Spectrum games, some of which were Bomb-Jack, Exolon and Ms. Pac-Man (which was used in the first leg and in the 2 finals). I won a Timex TC 2048 computer which I traded up for a brand-new ZX Spectrum 128K +2.

Jovem de 14 anos venceu o Torneio Spectrum - Diário de Notícias, 1 de Dezembro de 1987 5 mil pessoas visitaram IV Salão de Informática - Correio da Manhã, 1 de Dezembro de 1987

SIC TV news spot on the Spanish general election - 2008

The following news clip was transmitted on SIC on 2008-03-07 at around 20:42 local time (UTC+0). SIC is one of the three national broadcasters in Portugal, and this news piece is about Portuguese working in Spain. This was the last of 5 similar clips transmitted that week in the run-up to the 2008 Spanish General elections.