Detailed Experience
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Raytheon (Fall 2003 - Present)
Title: Various: Multi-disciplined engineer, system engineer, section manager
At Raytheon I have had the pleasure of working on many interesting
problems, with interesting people, on a variety of programs.
Throughout my time at Raytheon, I have been a part of a loosely defined
group known as the line-of-sight (LOS) group. The core skill of this
group is stabilization and control of the line-of-sight of optical
systems. Due to their skillset, this group is also called on
to perform as general estimation experts (geometric and radiometric
estimation in addition to strictly LOS activities),
and general data analysis and reduction experts.
I have worked in four main roles during my time at Raytheon, in
addition to a smattering work hear and there along the way.
APL5:
This was a proprietary space project with a number of complex
technical development features. I was given a broad area of
responsibility and asked to make sure that my technical area was
always in order.
Accomplishments on APL5:
- Development and maintenance of a relatively simple model to describe
a very complex set of interactions
- Technical oversight and assessment of vendor analysis which
described inputs to that model
- Concept development and prototype implementation of a complex
geometrical estimator
Skills learned on APL5
- Practical statistics for rough estimation
- Practical estimator design
- Requirements trace, maintenance and sell-off for space programs
- How to make a complex technical story simple
STSS:
I was brought into STSS during thermal vacuum testing to
perform the analysis required to test a data collection activity
of the operation system. This data collection activity collects
data from a small region centered on a ground target
where a laser source is known to reside for use in a
subsequent ground-based distortion calibration.
The flight software
produces telemetry describing where the target was observed,
where it was expected, current ephemeris, attitude, time,
and associated data. I created test geometries sufficient to
determine if the operational software was performing correctly and
implemented the test procedure on the flight system.
The test showed that the software was not operating correctly,
and I was able to trace this to a specific error in the flight
software. This was followed by tests of 2-3 additional
complex features, also leading
to corrections in the underlying test software.
My next substantial activity on STSS was to examine the cause
of very poor controller performance found in after the payload
had been integrated with the spacecraft. This was traced to an
incorrect implementation of anti-windup which led to large angle
gimbal wander in certain geometries. After the problem has been
sufficiently resolved to allow further testing to proceed,
I led a small contract to reexamine the controller settings
and see if we could add additional margin to the overall system.
Finally, I designed, built tested and released a Matlab based
ground tool to perform the actual calibration using the data
collection described above. If things go according to plan
this tool will be used in late 2009, after STSS is launched.
Accomplishments on STSS:
- Performed tests on space hardware, found errors and determine correction to these errors
- Controller troubleshooting, reimplementation and retuning, including work on the critical path
- Designed and implemented an operational ground estimation tool
Skills learned on STSS
- How to plan, execute, and post-process tests of space hardware
- Issues with gimbal controllers, and how to identify and correct them (e.g. plant uncertainty, saturation, angler rollover, trajectory generation, numerical representation, software implementation)
Section manager:
Late in my assignment on STSS, I started in the role of a section
manager. In Raytheon's organization, the section manager is
the lowest level manager in the line organization. This is
an independent organization from the programs, and is used to
provide flexibility as programs come and go. My section has
varied in size from 11 to 14 people.
My main responsibilities of a section manager are:
- Technical support to my section members
- Finding work for my section members
- Finding staff for programs I support
- Performance reviews, disciplinary actions, raises, and promotions for members of my section as needed
- Supporting proposals, "estimate at compete" (EACs), and generating "basis of estimates" (BOEs)
Section manager is by its nature a very ambiguous job, and most of the job is
learning to just know where help is needed and the best way to provide that
help, either by personal technical effort, or by finding additional
support.
VIIRS:
My main role on VIIRS has been as a section manager. Therefore most of
my effort has been simply looking for area which needed help and
stepping in to provide that help. Some of the major technical efforts
I have supported are described below.
I have supported controls analysis on the VIIRS scan controllers
and thermal controllers. This included basic model maintenance
and performance predictions, as well as assessing the effects of
a controller which appeared only marginally stable.
My next major effort on VIIRS was test data analysis during the VIIRS
flight unit one EMI test. This was a 9 day (planned) test which
revealed problems in the test setup, test software, data analysis methodology,
and the actual VIIS sensor. I led the a team of 5 as we processed
100's of gigabytes of data from more than 200 sweeps in
various configurations of the sensor, STE, and test procedure.
However, most of my time on VIIRS is spent handling small pop-up tasks,
providing on the job training and surge support to members of my section,
and troubleshooting problems in the data analysis process.
Accomplishments on VIIRS:
- Updated the VIIRS servo control model and provided performance assessments
- Led team of 5 in analyzing, explaining, and documenting results during 5 months of EMI testing
- Found staff for jobs and jobs for excess staff as VIIRS lurched between performance-focused to cost-focused management
- Debugged and made usable the mySql database used for telemetry trending.
Skills learned on VIIRS
- Methods to organize and analyze large quantities of data.
- mySql setup, maintenance and performance improvements.
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University of Michigan (Fall 1997 - Summer 2003)
Title: Graduate Student Research Assistant
Ph.D. thesis topic: Methods of comparing logic control design methodologies
used in industrial programmable logic controller (PLC) programming. Includes
a study of current industrial development methods and an analysis of current
and proposed alternatives.
My work here has focused on the study of logic control for industrial
machining systems.
The goal of this research is to understand the process of creating
logic for industrial PLCs, and determine methods to effectively evaluate
alternative methodologies. This focuses on the human factors involved
in creating industrial control logic. In addition we have been
considering the unique factors in this domain such was shop floor
environments, thousand's of I/O points, multiple processors, and
high reliability requirements.
This work is being done in conjunction with the
Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Machining Systems. This center is
focused on developing and distributing the necessary technology for machining systems
which can be constructed of reusable components. In this era of very short product
life cycles, it is desirable to be able to reuse expensive manufacturing equipment.
Reconfigurable systems are a promising method of accomplishing this.
Accomplishments:
- A coworker and I have developed a new methodology based on modular finite
state machines to design and execute logic control design.
- I have performed an observational study on the current methods of
creating logic controllers for machining systems (generally using
ladder diagrams).
- I have developed a framework for evaluating the complexity of logic
represented in various methodologies, with the goal of determining
the effects in dollars of an industrial change.
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Cadence Design Systems (now Tality) (Summer 2000)
Title: Engineer
During this summer I worked with another graduate student from my project
to implement a programming environment uniquely suited
for embedded systems. We started with a program written by our boss in his
spare time. Then we removed numerous bugs, ensured deterministic behavior of the
developed systems, and added new functions as needed. By the
end of the summer the program was stable and could consistently produce
compliable code in a variety of languages from the same file.
Accomplishments:
- Refined program specifications based on a rough outline
- Implemented program in Java in a usable manner
- Worked largely without supervision.
- Used version control software to properly maintain a single
program through many changes and with multiple programmers.
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Emmeskay Inc. (Summer 1999)
Title: Controls Engineer
This summer I worked on designing and building a simulation for the control
of a hybrid vehicle transmission.
Emmeskay Inc. is a consulting company specializing in control design and dynamic simulation,
primarily in the auto industry. This work was being done in conjunction with Southwest Research Institute
as well as USAauto and Argonne National Labs.
Accomplishments:
- I derived the needed system equations (including a planetary gearset, an
internal combustion engine and two electric motor/generators). I used strong assumptions
to arrive at simple equations. This allowed me to obtain an intuitive feel for the
transmission.
- I created a simple implementation of the system in Simulink. A more detailed system was being
developed by Southwest Research Institute, however a simple model was needed for controller
testing.
- I developed a series of working controllers, each better than the previous. During this time we
discovered additional constraints on the system. By the end of the summer I had
determined a fairly complete set of constraints, encompassing both physical limitations and
desired drivability conditions. I had also determined a method of working with these constraints
to design a workable controller. Optimization of the system was begun by Emmeskay near the end
of the summer
- After the end of the summer, I gave a presentation to all of the involved organizations explaining
our results, and why we believed them to be correct. These results were viewed favorably.
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MTS Systems Corporation (Summer 1996)
Title: Summer intern
During the summer of 1996 I worked with a small division of MTS
which designed and manufactured extensometers. I primarily worked
alone, doing various engineering odd jobs throughout the summer.
Accomplishments:
- Designed and built an X-Y hot wire foam cutting table. I performed
the design work, and submitted the drawings of the table to a
vendor to be built. Then I modified the table to add the electrical
components needed for the foam cutting operation.
- Created a spreadsheet to analyze bending motions for a novel extensometer
design. One version indicated the linear approximations as well
as points where these approximations were invalid. The next performed
a full non-linear system estimation, indicating the forces at large deflections
as well as the non-linearities at the strain measurement location.
- Researched vendors of constant temperature water supplies for price, quality
and product availability.
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Caltech (Summer 1996)
Title: Summer Undergraduate Research Assistant
I worked for the summer in the lab of Dr. Yu-Chong Tai examining
the mechanical properties of silicon on the micro electrical-mechanical
systems (MEMS) scale. We attempted
to take the standard methods of performing strength tests on materials
and adapt them to the unique problems in MEMS, including
the small size of the parts to be tested and the flexibility of
silicon. Clamped-clamped testing, which is usually considered an extremely
poor test of materials, provided the most consistent results.
Accomplishments:
- Designed and performed three-point, cantilever and clamped-clamped strength tests for small silicon beams
- Presented the test results to researchers at HP.
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MTS Systems Corporation (Summer 1995)
Title: Summer Intern
Accomplishments:
- Performed tests of the affects of various chemicals on nylon/steel and
nylon/aluminum bonding strength.
- Assembled components of the Disney Land Indiana Jones vehicle.
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