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Work experienceWhiteWater WestMechanical Designer, Jun 2014—Present
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Leads control system design and establishes operational theory for amusement rides.
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Programs the human machine interface of amusement ride control systems.
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Acquires, processes, and analyzes measurement data to confirm compliance with safety standards.
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Performs mechanical design of amusement rides: performs loading calculations, selects mechanical components, creates computer-aided design models, and creates & checks engineering drawings.
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Creates ride acceptance test plans in accordance to safety standards.
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Documents ride installation instructions, operating procedures, and maintenance procedures.
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Generated and developed concepts for the system-level design of an interactive waterslide.
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Designed, created, tested, and iterated an interactive ride vehicle prototype by programming microcontrollers to read and analyze sensor signals and user inputs in a moving vehicle.
Océ Display Graphics SystemsMechanical Engineering Co-op, Jan 2013—Aug 2013- Supported the design of the cartridge mounting system for $100k+ industrial large-format printers.
- Developed printer alignment procedures to increase alignment accuracy and reduce integration time.
- Wrote the assembly and integration manual for various cartridge mounting system designs.
- Designed using SolidWorks jigs used for assembly of printer parts. Created manufacturer drawings with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T).
- Trained production workers the assembly and integration procedures for cartridge alignment assemblies.
Laser Zentrum HannoverResearch Assistant, May 2012—Aug 2012-
Programmed the ablation process for the repair of glass-fibre-reinforced polymer wind turbines.
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Studied the effects of laser cutting operational parameters on the structural integrity of material.
- Quantified the machining capabilities of a newly-developed laser system by preparing, machining, and analysing samples.
Mustang SurvivalResearch and Development Engineer, Sept 2011—Dec 2011- Ran human subject-testing of pilot suits designed for the United States Air Force (USAF), performed data analysis, and wrote a detailed test report for the USAF providing recommendations.
- Performed a thermal evaluation of survival-wear by developing a test protocol, providing test support, performing data analysis, and writing an internal test report with recommendations.
- Completed fabric abrasion, stress-stain, and tear tests with reports.
- Calibrated various gauges and wrote the respective calibration reports.
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Past projectsHere's a sample of projects I've previously worked on:
Autonomous soccer-playing robotsMechanical Lead for 2 years, directing all technical and administrative aspects of the mechanical design and manufacture of a team of 6v6 autonomous soccer-playing robots which compete annually in the international RoboCup Small Size League.Personally designed, prototyped, tested, and oversaw the manufacture of the robot’s ball dribbler, ball kicker, ball chipper, and chassis. Obtained an NSERC Research Award for my work.In 2013 our robots placed 9th worldwide; 1st of all undergraduate teams.
Vision-blockingsurveillance cameraDesigned and built an anti-staring device that detects on-looking targets, actively tracks said targets as they move, and effectively blinds the target from maintaining a visual of the device.Device features a C# program written with OpenCV libraries to analyze webcam frames for facial detection, firmware for a MSP430 microprocessor for stepper and servo motor control, and a 3D-printed panning and tilting platform.
4-DOF laparoscopic
surgical deviceProject Coordinator of team designing a low-cost yet intuitive surgical device for minimally-invasive surgery. The wearable device adds 3 extra degrees of freedom compared to a standard laparoscopic tool by emulating the pinching and wrist motion of a surgeon's hand. Typically a surgeon must obtain a >$3 million machine to achieve this; our device would be affordable to small- to medium- sized hospitals.In addition to managing project resources, running meetings, and managing scheduling, I am implementing electronics and controls to sense the user's hand motions and translate it into tool-tip motion.
Braille embosser
for business cardsProject Lead for a six-person team designing a Braille press which embossed business cards. The machine was designed to be safely operated by a visually-impaired user to quietly emboss business cards at a high speed (5000 cards per hour).As project lead I managed project resources, led team meetings, and managed scheduling. On the design side, I used principles of MinCD and design-for-assembly to design the customizable embossing pin-and-cartridge system such that it could be easily manually operated by a visually-impaired operator
Hand gesture readerProgrammed a MSP430 microprocessor to utilize the I/O ports, interrupts, UART, timers, and ADC of a custom TI MSP430 microprocessor development kit to read and communicate data from a 3-axis accelerometer.Created a program with C# to parse incoming serial data from the microprocessor, recognize gestures using a state machine, and graphically display the data in the program's GUI.
Trajectory generation& lead-lag controller designGenerated trajectories with trapezoidal velocity profiles of various tool paths for a linear motor-driven two-axis positioning system (XY table) using the method of varying displacement under constant interpolation periods.
Designed integrator-added lead lag controllers for a XY table given different drive dynamics (e.g. mass). Verified through Simulink and physical testing that the controller directed the machine according to the reference tool path. -
GalleryA small collection of photos of me at work:
