My contact information is in the header of the cover letter and resume. They are images in this version to prevent web crawlers and scrapers from obtaining the information.
Below, you will find some projects I have done over the years. I don't want to share any proprietary information, so these are mostly personal projects and school projects.
For Halloween 2017, I made this Megatron costume for my son. Just a plain costume wasn't interesting enough, so we made it transform.
Recently, I have been getting interested in Software Defined Radio and using it for radar. I am working on making an FMCW radar using two HackRF One SDR's. I set Linux on a flash drive as a bootable external drive (not the same as a live CD). I used Pentoo which is a variant of the Gentoo Linux distribution.
Then I plan to work on a passive 2.4GHz through-the-wall radar that can use existing WIFI radio waves. I would then like to see if I can use the "clutter" (zero Doppler shift reflections) that is usually removed to build through-wall-maps of static objects as well as moving objects. This would allow the radar to build a map and identify moving people.
I also think it would be fascinating to build an iSAR imaging radar system. The advantage of iSAR over SAR is that the antenna doesn't have to move. Although I think SAR could be accomplished using beam forming from a set of static antennas. I imagine that a better image could be obtained by combining both iSAR and SAR using beamforming. A radar based 3D scanner could even be used to scan complex 3D objects. If you expect that you could get a resolution of one wavelength, you could image to within 2 inches for 5.8GHz. Using digital signal processing, better than 1 lambda resolution might be obtained by properly analyzing the phase shift.
I recently built this project with my son. It is based off of a project by Dejan Nedelkovski. We built our own case and I modified the Arduino code and Processing sketch to support further distances and added an SMA low pass filter. This isn't technically a RADAR system because it uses an ultrasonic sensor instead of radio waves, but it was still a fun little project.
I purchased a HackRF One software defined radio (SDR) to learn more about the SDR world. Michael Ossmann recomended Pentoo Linux because it has the drivers and GNU Radio already installed. Pentoo is a version of Gentoo Linux with software primarily used for penetration testing. I wanted to install it to a flash drive as a way to boot any computer into Pentoo, but as a persistent session. Most live USB distributions don't let you save changes and settings. I installed Pentoo Linux to the USB flash drive as a hard drive. I had to us aliases for the partition names and set the bootloader to look for the proper aliases since different computers would enumerate the drive differently. It took much longer than I expected to get everything working properly, but I now have a portable Linux on a stick system. I have started playing with GNU Radio and Python for SDR.
Adam Hartzell and I presented at NI Week 2017. We also won the National Instruments Engineering Impact Award in the category of Transportation and Heavy Equipment.
Here, you can see the two-pump version of Lightning Hybrids' hydraulic manifold at the 2017 IFPE show in Las Vegas, NV. This manifold was conceptually designed by Ian Patterson and myself. Ian developed the CAD design while I provided design review. It was then finalized and produced by Sun Hydraulics.
While at Lightning Hybrids, we were awarded two patents. One is for the hydraulic hybrid system. The second is for our accumulator design that was sold to Steelhead Composites. The third one listed here was an application that was abandoned due to cost and relevance, since the design was changed.
I knew I wanted tot get a master's degree and was trying to decide between engineering or business. I came across Western Governor's University which is an online, accredited, school that offers a two year MBA program. This article by Felix Wong was very helpful. I like the fact that it is online, semesters start the 1st of the month after you apply, and you can go at your own pace. Semesters are 6 months long and reasonably priced. I decided that even if I get a master's degree in engineering later, this would be a great opportunity to further my education and learn more about business and management.
A year ago, I became interested in artificial neural networks, so I studied them in my spare time. One of the areas I want to explore further is using ANNs in place of PID algorithms for systems with non-linear but reliable disturbances. Similarly, systems with high static coefficients of friction and low dynamic coefficients of friction could benefit from an ANN control system. Typical PID control algorithms (even with anti-"integral windup" have trouble stably controlling such systems.
I would also like to explore using multi-functional analysis of time series telematics data for pattern recognition to determine the origin of anomalous operation. This would require a long learning time, but could find connections that even recurrent neural networks would struggle with. The neural network weights could later be analyzed to help determine the system level interactions that cause the anomalies.
This scene was modeled in Google Sketchup and rendered with SU Podium. This is a set of 6 images (with a 90 degree field of view) pieced together to create a skybox 3D effect. The game elements still need a lot of work, but the 3D effect is impressive.
Click and drag to pan the environment.
For Halloween 2015, my son wanted Wolverine claws that could shoot out. This was based on someone else's idea, but we modified the design to make it lower profile so it could hide under the sleeves.
I made this as a carnival attraction for Mountain View Community Church's Fall Family Carnival. It runs on an Arduino Pro Micro and includes an audio processing chip. As the child passes the wand around the path, the robot will flash the RGB LED's and make funny noises if the wires touch. The sounds are pre-recorded audio files stored on an SD card that are played back with the audio processing chip through an old set of computer speakers.
I never really had a chance to play with a Rubik's Cube as a child. I love solving puzzles and figuring things out, so when a coworker mentioned that he had a few extras he had received as gifts, I asked to borrow one. After a little research and solving it a few times I was even more interested. For Valentine's Day my wife got me just what I wanted: a speed cube. It has rounded corners and low friction which makes it very easy to turn. I decided that it would be more challenging to learn how to solve it blindfolded. I learned the algorithms needed to solve it blindfolded, and I can solve it in less than 5 minutes without the blindfold. (Note that this is not even close to the people whom compete.) I then used a memory palace technique to memorize the needed moves for blindfolded solve. I did successfully solve it blindfolded once, but it took me about 40 minutes. I was satisfied with that and didn't work to improve it anymore, but I still enjoy solving the Rubik's cube every once in a while.
My friend, Brian Gray, and I converted this Toyota pickup to full electric. We removed the engine and replaced it with an electric motor. It still needs a little bit of work, but it was a lot of fun to convert. We used lead-acid batteries because they are much cheaper than lithium. By the way, did you know 98% of lead acid batteries are recycled in the US?
When I can find some time, I have plans to finish designing a custom controller, DC-DC converter, and battery charger. These will have better specs and a lower cost than the parts currently installed.
Function Near Infrared Spectrometry (fNIR) is fascinating to me for the purpose of building a brain computer interface (BCI) and for active brain monitoring. Such a BCI could be used to control a wheelchair or robotic arm for people with severe disabilities. It could also be used for controlling a computer or playing video games, but I feel like it would be life-changing as an assistive technology. An fNIR system can only penetrate about 4 cm of the head. Luckily, the motor cortex is within that reach. Unlike CT and MRI scans, fNIR is very safe (using only light) and can be low cost and portable.
There has been a lot of progress in this area, but if I build one, there are a few things I would attempt differently. First, instead of having separate transmitters and receivers, LED's can actually be used to receive light. They would essentially be half-duplex because you could only transmit or receive at any given time, but this could allow for better resolution at the same price as a traditional fNIR setup. Second, with having many LED transceivers, one could alternate which LED transmits while the others receive. This would allow for making a 3D map of the brain instead of a 2D image.
If such a device were created and released as open source, active brain imaging would be very obtainable by researchers and medical professionals. This could potentially revolutionize the research world. Imagine adding a brain scanner to subjects in sociological experiments such as the Stanford Prison Experiment or the Marshmallow Experiment. Brain scanners could be used during IQ testing to learn more about how different people solve different problems. They could be used at home to check for brain tumors. They could even be safely used on babies and toddlers to better understand cognitive development.
This is a robot created for an Urban Search And Rescue competition. The competition simulates an earthquake environment. Our goal was to create a robot used for traversing the environment, finding victims, and mapping the arena. Click here for an avi video of the robot moving around wirelessly or click on the picture for the team description paper submitted for competition. Click here for the team research paper.
*** Third Place at Colorado State University's ME Engineering-Days April 14, 2006.
*** Three trophies from the US Open in Atlanta, GA.
The robot was also shown on CNN Live, and will be on the Cartoon Network and some German TV station that I am not familiar with.
*** 4th Place at the 2006 Robocup Rescue World Championship in Bremen Germany.
One of my tasks for my ME-486 Senior Design class was mapping by the robot of its environment. I used a LADAR to look for obstacles and build the map shown. Click here for a technical paper that I wrote concerning robotic mapping. Basically, it is an overview of mapping algorithms and the code I came up with to generate a static map of the immediate environment.
This is a picture of the printed circuit board designed for the USAR robot. This was designed primarily by myself and our electrical engineer, Robert Dore. This uses four 112-pin LQFP 9S12/HC12 microcontrollers as well as a Pic 16F88 microcontroller. This is a four layer board with green traces representing the back of the board.
This OS brand model airplane engine was modeled by myself, Nate Jones, and Justin Hollingsworth. I was responsible for the fuel/carburetor system, the crankshaft and crankshaft hardware, the piston and rod, all of the extruded text and logos, and the final assembly. I also implemented the background pictures for presentation effect.
This was modeled using PTC's Pro/Engineer Wildfire.
Here is the final report for my ME-307 final project. The robot was intended to be a self-balancing office assistant with a voice synthesizer and a custom projector. I received a score of 98% for this project. I learned a lot from this project, including what not to do. For example, I don't recommend short circuiting a drill battery with a 24AWG wire which causes the wire's insulation to vaporize into a cloud of smoke.
These are some of the pictures submitted as required for ME-304. These were made with Pro/Engineer, Pro/Mechanica, Gambit, and Fluent.
Here is my individual design report for ME-304 Junior Design. This class focused strongly on using computer software to aid in design.
Here is a pdf of my design submitted to BCER for a design based scholarship.
