George Miles - Technical Resume

3943 Riviera Dr. Suite A San Diego, CA 92109	George Miles Technical Resume	Tel: 858-273-8483 gmiles@inventeering.com
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SUMMARY
With over 29 years of hardware and software design experience, I have become an accomplished Electrical Engineer, Software Engineer, Project Manager, and Business Owner. I have created commercial products in both electronics and software. My expertise in analyzing, creating and inventing solutions for challenging technical problems has been applied in many industries. My body of work has been applied to research, product development, automating manufacturing and automated test and measurement. What sets me apart from a typical engineer and programmer is my unique perspective and curiosity that comes from being able to perform my engineering design and problem-solving skill at a high system levels through the low detailed component levels. This has lead me to a problem solving philosophy that uses a combination top down/bottom up design methodology that systematic maintains focus while identifying risky and unproven areas that are tested for feasibility. This bottom up feedback then guides top level focus. This also allows for flexibility that converges in a practical working solution.
SKILL KEYWORDS
Executive / Business: Started and managed engineering consulting business that also developed, manufactured and marketed industrial USB camera, inspection microscope products and custom inspection software. This involved writing business plans, strategic planning, product branding, project management, scheduling, project Gantt charts, proposal writing involving project cost estimates and use cases, technical manual writing, accounting systems, database management, document control administration, bug and issue tracking using JIRA, document control administration, project sub-contracting venders and machine shops. I have also managed and lead small groups of engineering and technicians. I also enjoy training and teaching both formally and or informally through mentoring. Programming: Module reusable object orientated coding, G ( LabVIEW on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Embedded ), C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, .Net, ActiveX, DLL, MATLAB, PHP, Java, HDL, VHDL, ABEL, FTP, TFTP, 4DGL, FORTRAN, multiple Assembly Codes (68xxx, x86, 8051, Z80, DSPs and others) and PLC Ladder Logic. I have also used multiple emulators and programming tools including JIRA bug and issues Tracking, Visual SourceSafe and AGILE document control software. Engineering: Electrical engineering, bio-medical device design and development ( SPECT, PET, ULTRA-SOUND, BIO-CELL, LASER CELL SORTER, DNA mass spectrometer nanodispenser, lithography, blood plasma viscometer, baby sucking monitor ), instrumentation systems, industrial manufacturing, video processing, automation control, robotics, motion control, laser control, fiber optic sensors and communication test, mixed signal analog and digital circuit design, Embedded micro-controller, Wireless devices, ZigBee, 802.15.4, RF cell phone equipment and device testing, DSP, signal analysis. FPGA digital designs, data acquisition systems and hardware, PLCs, GPIB, RS-232, USB, FIREWIRE, CAN, , ETHERNET, PCI, PXI, VME, VXI, National Instruments products, sensors. I have also done security system design, nuclear power plant instrumentation design, process design, large system design and mechanical packaging design. Internet development: Web design architecture, HTML, DHTML, XML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, SQL, TCP/IP, streaming video/audio, Quicktime, FrontPage, Cross browser compatibility, Functional Design, and User interface design. Environments: LabVIEW, NI Vision and IMAQ , MATLAB, Microsoft Visual Studio, KEIL Cross-Compiler/Assembler, VisualDSP++, 4DGL , Windows XP/Vista/CE, Mac OS X, Linux, VxWorks, Phar Lap ETS, OrCAD, PCAD, Protel, AUTOCAD, SOLID WORKS, Altera(Quartus II, MAX+PLUS II), Xilinx(ISE Design Suite 11), ACCEL, VNC, Skype, FrontPage, PhotoImpact, Photoshop, Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari, Thunderbird.
EXPERIENCE
Business/Management: I have been responsible for project management, directing, supervising, coordinating, hiring, performance reviews. I have also served as principled and lead engineer on some of these projects. I have also managed and ran my own engineering consulting and design companies that have also developed, marketed and sold electronic hardware and software products. Also most of these project involved project management, proposals, quotes and preliminary system design. I support all of the products my company sells. This involves trouble shooting and investigating technical issues the appear and need to be solved. Patience and educating customers on installation and operating system is also part of the responsibilities of product support. I also develop software application examples based on feedback and frequently asked questions. Bio-Medical: Designed controls and software for a bench top automated robotic nanodispenser that performs the transfer of DNA samples onto SpectroCHIP. Then these SpectroCHIPs are transferred into MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry with robust molecular biology and advanced data analysis software. This device is now a commercial product called the MassARRAY Nanodispenser RS1000. This design involved developing friendly GUI for a flat panel touch screen on machine that allowed the operator perform the following functions: General Configure (motion attributes, rinse, wash, drain attributes, visions attributes, calibration, barcodes and built in tests) Motion Control (manual motion control of each axis. This can be used to test and optimize the system) Machine Vision (configure ROI and teach registration positions, also set ROI for 2D barcode reading) Deck Plate Position Teacher (automatically registers and teaches the multiple deck plate positions) Maintenance (load chips, fill/drain sonicator, fill/drain supply tank, daily cleaning, rinse-wash-dry cycle, weekly conditioning) Mapping (custom mapping of transfer of DNA from multi-format micro titer plates to the multiple format SpectroCHIP) Methods (create, load and save custom methods used for a transfer sequence, some times referred to as Recipes) Transfer (start and stop an automatic transfer of DNA to an array of SpectroCHIPs) Volume Check (manually view and inspect the volume of DNA deposited on the pads of the SpectroCHIP) The software also included a robotic control sever and all the device interfaces drivers for the following devices: (3 axis XYZ Stepper Motors with Linear Encoders that provided 1um resolution, multiple pump motors, USB Vision Camera with LED Lighting, USB 1D Barcode Scanner, Sonicator, Interlock Safety and Limit Switches, Flat Panel Touch Display, and USB Humidly and Temperature Sensor). All software was done in mostly LabVIEW, and some C++ DLLs. Designed and Developed controls and software for a beach top Biophotonic Chip Spectrum Analyzer. This involved design of a USB controlled stepper motors for 2 axis (XY) positioning mechanism integrated with SBIG ST-402ME USB CCD temperature controlled camera and a DSS-7 spectrograph. The software involved a GUI that worked in two modes: (normal operation, and research mode). and allowed the operator to perform the following functions: Configure (motion attributes, exposures, calibration, setup analysis window and display normalized and line results images ) Motion Control (manual motion control of each axis. This can be used to test and optimize the system) Data Acquisition (acquire image data, save, load, and display spectrum Image and scanned image) Data Processing (build, display, and masking ROI and perform proprietary algorisms) Special mathematical algorisms, curve fits were developed. Also device interfaces drivers for the following devices: (2 axis XY Stepper Motors, CCD temperature controlled camera). All software was done in mostly LabVIEW, and some C++ DLLs. Designed bench top Microfluid Mixer that is able to produced high precision digitally controlled biochemical nanoscale droplets of a mixture of multiple chemical fluids. This allows for the engineering of nanoparticales. Droplet chemistry exploits the properties of immiscible fluids to achieve high-precision, digital control of biochemical processes. The proliferation of protein and antibody drugs in the biopharmaceutical pipeline is driving the need for new drug formulations and delivery protocols. This unique droplet chemistry enables the optimization of these drugs throughout the product life cycle, significantly reducing costs and enhancing revenue for its customers. The software involved a Control Engine and GUI that allowed the operator to perform the following functions: Configure (motion attributes, teach home positions for 2 micro titer plates, syringe attributes) Program Mixtures (create, load, edit, save as Excel spreadsheet that defines the mixtures for each micro titer plate position) Execute Mixtures (run, pause and stop the automatic mixing / positioning sequence) Graphical Display (shows graphically both progress and state of micro titer plates and sequence step on spread sheet) The hardware consisted of a (XY) 2 axis Servo Motor positioning gantry with a single (Z) axis actuator which worked very simular to a pen plotter. A Microfluid Droplet Generator with 5 input delivery tubes connected to 5 independent USB digitally controlled Syringe Pumps driven by individual Stepper Motors. The software also included a robotic control sever and all the device interfaces drivers. All software was done in LabVIEW. Designed GUI and Control and Interface Software for a Bio-Medical Cell Sorting and Counting Device. This system interfaced to Lasers, Photo-Multiplies, Micro-Pump, and a Line-Scan CCD Camera. LabVIEW and VC++ used in this project. Was able to optimize the Cell Sorting and Counting by implementing this function in a FPGA. Designed Control and Data Acquisition System Software in LabVIEW for an R&D Bio-Medical Cell Micro-Scatter Instrument. The system interfaced to Lasers, Photo-multiplies, and designed Low Level Driver Software in LabVIEW for a Micro-Pump. Trouble shot a problematic high speed Digital Vector Processor board used in the front end of an ultrasound OEM system. Analyzed board timing and guided redesign. I also designed and implemented digital band-pass FIR filter and digital high-pass IRR filter on boards existing XILINX XC4010E FPGA to solve algorithm problems. Designed a Research and Development platform used to develop software algorithms for diagnosing cancer with a commercial Ultrasound Machine. The ultrasound and PC systems were asynchronous to each other. This system consisted of a Pentium Computer with a off the shelf DSP TMS320C40 PCI board and a custom designed digital acquisition board that grabbed data off the proprietary front end of the Ultrasound machine and bridged the data to the TMS320C40 4MByte dual port memory buffer that was then access by algorithms developed on TMS320C40 DSP board. This was done with Altera FPGA, Memory and Differential Bus Drivers. This project lead to use of the Ultrasound Scatter in the diagnoses of Cancer in patients. Also served in a sales and application engineering capacity at trade shows. Designed a battery-powered portable Ultrasound A-Scanner Control based on an 8051-type uC, LCD Display, Altera-Flex PGA and high-speed ADC. I Designed hardware and software, layer out and routed PCB. The software was done in C. This became a product used in the market live stock industry to measure fat thickness in Cows and Pigs. Managed a group of engineers and technicians. Also designed a complete acquisition system for a Positron Emission Tomography Camera (PET). This system integrated a Sun Workstation, a Full 19” Electronic Rack, and an Imaging Gantry and Patient Bed. The system starts with 6 solid large area NaI (TI) detectors populated with 240 2”x2” Photo-Multipliers, and Pre-Amplifiers. There a fast timing trigger leg and a time delayed digitizing leg. All 240 synchronous channels are digitized by 30MHz flash ADCs and Stored in FIFO memory. After a coincidence detector pair is detected 2 x 40 channel detectors processed by a discrete DSP board consisting of PLDs, Memory and Multiplying Accumulators. I designed this board call the Position Processing Union (PPU). The PPU module calculates the (X, Y) positions in which the coincident gamma rays interact with the large area NaI (TI) detectors. A Centroid Algorithm that was implemented using memory tables and digital signal processing IC devices like Multiplying Accumulator and a variety of Altera PLDs. To give some perspective on the capability of the PPU, consider that I performed a simulation calculation using a 32 bit CICS processor and found that it would have to perform over 1 billion instruction per second to keep pace with the PPU. This made it possible to perform a Centroid algorithm in real time to achieve better than 5 mm position resolution. Then the (X, Y) position is processing by a distortion-offset board that corrects for detector distortions and defects. The data is then stored into a Sinogram in shared dual port memory. Then the Sun Workstation and its Array Processor back project data to create metabolic images. The Sun Workstation’s VME bus was interfaced to the VME Bus of the Acquisition Sub-System through repeater bus cards that makes the Acquisition Sub-System operate as a slave memory to the Sun Workstation. I also designed the complete acquisition and control software for system written in a mostly C, with some 386 assembly used to optimize the packing and unpacking of the Sinogram. We were fully processing over 200,000 radioactive positron Annihilations per/sec. This was all state of the art back in the early 1980's. This was a start up company and I was the first technical member to join this venture. We took a multi-million dollar medical device, from concept to a successful product in less then 3 years. I also served in a sales and application engineering capacity at trade shows. UGM Medical Systems as bought by ADAC Labs who was acquired by Philips in 2000. Designed prototype medical device called a Blood Plasma Viscosity Meter. This device consists of a differential pressure-sensing unit, which used a 68HC11 micro-controller interfaced to a PC through the RS-232 port. All Software was done in C and Visual Basic. Industrial Automation: Designed and Developed controls software for a Nanoscale Imprinting Lithography machine. This involved interfacing to a UV light control and controlling 5 precision USB programmable PID Actuators/Monitors Valves. These valves controlled the pneumatics of the system. The software involved a control sequencer engine and a GUI allowed the operator to perform the following functions: Configure (valve (PID attributes, pressure set points, time intervals) , UV exposure time) Program Sequence (create, load, edit, save sequence/sub-sequence attributes) Execute Mixtures (run, pause and stop the automatic imprinting sequence) Graphical Display (shows graphically sequence position and state of valves and time remaining to completion) This project has lead to the licensing of this technology by HP to enable the fabrication of semiconductor chips significantly more powerful than those available today. All software was done in LabVIEW, Designed entire control system for a Flip Chip Bonding Machine. This machine was design to epoxy bond dies to substrates. In this case, Chip On Glass (COG). The substrate was a glass cell phone display, but could also be any glass display. The system consisted of the integration, control and monitoring of a group of subsystems. These subsystems where: Vacuum and Pneumatics for pick and place, 6 Linear Servo Motor Slides, 3 Stepper Motors, Position Encoding down to a resolution of 1 micrometer, UV-Light, Heaters, and Pressure Cell for setting epoxy. Also a Vision System and Lighting for indexing and positioning substrate and die. The whole thing was built on a steel frame with a 6” slab of granite and a granite archway for overhead motions. Control and Monitoring was accomplished with an Industrial Pentium Computer, Video Frame Grabber, and National Instruments PCI Multi-Function Data Acquisition I/O Boards. The user Interface was mostly done through a touch screen monitor. Also designed entire control system software. This Software consists Graphical User Interfaces, Process Control Sequencer Engine, Vision System Registration and Alignment Engine, Teach and Learn Process Engine, individual Device Control and Measurement Drivers, and Report Generation Engine. This development was done mostly using LabVIEW with some DLLs created using VC++ that were then interfaced to LabVIEW. The Vision software was created from a commercial library that was designed into DLLs. Control and measurement drivers developed for this project consisted of the following devices: Stepper and Linear Servo Motors, Position, UV-Light, Heaters, Vision, Vacuum, Pneumatics, Lighting, Pressure Cell, and Temperature. Also served in a sales and application engineering capacity at international trade shows. Designed, Trouble Shoot and Modified Sub-Systems of a troubled project that involved the manufacturing of a Proto-Type Vertical Semiconductor Wafer Chemical Processing Equipment. This was originally being developed for IBM by a company that went out of business. I and a small group of contract engineers stepped in and completed the design and manufacture of the equipment which was delivered to IBM and used in the fabrication of their Dynamic Memory Wafers. This machine involved robotics, loading and transport of 8" wafers, control and monitoring of temperature and chemical environment. Project managed product development, budget and funding, and designed the mechanical and electrical controls of an industrial paper conversion machine. Coordinated all 3rd party venders and contract manufactures while also interfacing with customers. This machine dispensing 3-ply recycled packing paper for use in shipping departments. I invented a very low cost electronic eye switch circuit and PCB. This was done to reduce the cost of an industrial paper conversion machine. Standard off the shelf electronic eye switch cost between $70 to $100 dollars, and my electronic eye switch could be manufactured for less then $5 dollars. I invented power-line data communication hardware Device. This hardware consisted of a power-line coupling coil and proprietary frequency modulated and demodulated transmission and reception protocols that were implemented in programmable logic. This device achieved data rates of 9600bits/sec without compression and was able to transmit through a power transformer at rates up to 1200bits/sec. Patent was applied for on this device. This was done back in 1988. Designed post accident sampling systems for a Nuclear Power Plant. also designed multiple reactor instrument loops and portions of the security parameter that used E-Fields and Microwave intruder detection for Nuclear Power Plant. I also developed a isolated acquisition system for control room instrumentations. I also wrote a chapter in a post accident response plan document submitted to the NRC. Created a variety of software programs applied at a Nuclear Power Plant. One program was a preventative maintenance database - outage planning - job tracking software that became the corner stone for an industrial standard. I also created a database and analyses software that modeled the radiation equipment would be exposed to in the event of an accident taking place. Designed remote 8051 based embedded control board that controlled Stepper Motors, DC Motors and monitored position encoding and interfaced a remote control panel and display. Was also linked to the main acquisition system through a RS232 port. R&D and Product Development I am in the process of developing a Inventeering property which is a Wireless 32bit RISC Microcontroller System On Chip (SOC) Platform that is programmed with LabVIEW Embedded. This platform will have the following hardware functions: (2.4GHz IEEE802.15.4 and Zigbee radio, up to 4km range, 128kB ROM, 128kB RAM, 4MB Flash, 2.6uA sleep mode, 4 input ADC, 2 output DAC, 2 Comparators, 5 select SPI port, 4-wire digital audio interface, application 3 timer/counters, 3 system timers, 1 I2C port, 2 RS232(TTL) ports, Watchdog timer, up to 21 DIO, This technology will have multiple OEM application: Medical device that may require a (closed-looped control functions and or wireless linkage to networks or Internet) Wireless or USB Smart Sensor platform for (building, homes and industry) Wireless Networked Control and Monitoring Systems like (wind and solar farms) Wireless Metering and Control Systems like proposed (smart electric grid) Wireless Data Acquisition Systems for (labs, test and measure, and automobile industry) Wireless PID Controls like (environmental chamber temperature control) Wireless Remote Control of Robotic Devices Wireless Video Surveillance System This development will also integrate with my OLED Toolkit for LabVIEW. Still considering how to license this technology. Designed a Test, Calibrate, Tune, Diagnostics and Analysis, Data Acquisition System for use in the development of a new Medical Device for a Cannula based Sleep Apnea called a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device. This System used a Laptop PC, a National Instruments PCMCIA DAQ card and interfaced to proto-type CPAP device through its RS323 port. Nationals System ID Toolkit was also used when I developed LabVIEW Data Acquisition Server and GUI interface that allowed the operator to perform the following functions: Configure (CPAP attributes for streaming system data through RS323, and DAQ Attributes for channel and timing). CPAP Command Terminal to manual send and receive low level device commands and results. Data Acquisition where both CPAP stream system channels data and DAQ channels data can be sampled and display in real-time. Examples CPAP channels are: (Mode, Temperatures for (Ambient, Air, and Water), Air Heat Voltage, System Flow, System Pressure, Nose Pressure, ADC Channels, Target Reference Pressure, Blower Speed, Linearized Position). Example DAQ channels are (Stimulus, Pressures at (pre-humidifier, post-humidifier, cannula, nose, spare and trigger). All data is also logged into a data file and can be reloaded to run in simulation mode or used for independent analysis. Calibration where CPAP system data can be streamed and displayed in Cross Reference Plot with Best Fit algorithms. Tune PID Control Loop by real-time acquisition being displayed in a CPAP Tune PID Plot that consist of Gains and selectable Error channels and a DAQ Channels Plot also. Each PID Gain type can be automatically sequenced through stepped intervals to determine the best Proportional Gain, Integral Gain, and Derivative Gain settings. System ID models were also applied to solve some control algorithm problems. Three models were tried, Hammerstein, Hammerstein-Wiener, and Wiener). This GUI tab was designed as a plug in that other modeling VI's could be added. This functionality of integrated so that any input channel and output channel of the system could be selected. Built-In Diagnostic Tests for the CPAP could also be executed. Designed a Distributed Fiber Sensor System build on a DELPHI 2 Gsps 10-Bit ADC ADC3200 Module. This system is done by using coherent radio-frequency detection of spontaneous Brillouin scattering. An actively stabilized single-frequency Brillouin fiber laser with extremely low phase noise and intensity noise is used as a well-defined, frequency-shifted local oscillator for the heterodyne detection, yielding measurements of spontaneous Brillouin scattering with high frequency stability. Based on this approach, a highly stable real-time fiber sensor for distributed measurements of both temperature and strain over long fiber up to over 10 kilometers long has been developed utilizing advanced digital signal processing techniques. The ADC3200 Module has a Xilinx Virtex II Pro FPGA XC2VP20/50 device that will be used for inline algorithm processing. It also interfaces to a PC's PCI bus. This project went through a multi-stage development evolution. The 1st stage used the ADC3200 module in a PC to just for collect and acquire data while all the algorithms were developed in a collaborative effort using MATLAB on the PC. The 2nd stage involved importing the MATLAB algorithms into LabVIEW based Data Acquisition, Processing, Display and Control program with GUI. The 3rd stage involved converting all the MATLAB functionality and algorithms over to LabVIEW. The 4th and final stage involved identifying the parts of the processing algorithms that can be push down into the Xilinx FPGA on the ADC3200 Module and then implementing this by interfacing LabVIEW to a adc3200 ActiveX control that downloads the FPGA firmware and interfaces the LabVIEW engine and GUI. The final LabVIEW GUI was optimized and simplified to allowed the operator to perform the following functions: Configure (capture control attributes, and the acousto-optic modulator attributes Acquire Real-Time and Display Root Graphs of Uncorrected/Corrected Linear Intensity and Frequency over Distance. Acquire Real-Time and Display Strain Graphs of Fiber Strain over Distance. Acquire Real-Time and Display Temperature Graphs of Fiber Temperature over Distance. Execution Control (Control is much like a DVD player/recorder with a button for to play, pause, stop and record. All of these acquisitions can be save and load into graphs.) It should be noted that stage 1 through 3 had GUI's dozens of attributes and parameters used for experimentation and system characterization. I developed Dewarper Software for Images taken with a a Fisheye Lens. This software consisted of a GUI interface where Image files can be loaded or dragged into a graphic display area. I created ROI tools to crop the circle image, which then get dewarped by selectable attributes dependent on Lens and Camera type along with multiple dewarper algorithms which can reconstruct image up to 180 degrees in both X and Y axis to make panorama views. Also taking two or three of these dewarped images that were taken at 180 or 120 degree rotations can be stitched together can create these 360 degree viewing bubble we see on the internet for viewing internals of Autos, Rooms and Street Views. I also developed the a TIFF read and write formats along with BMP, JPG, and PNG formats. I created 2 version of this software. One version programmed in LabVIEW on a PC running Windows XP/VISA and the second version was ported to LabVIEW on a Mac running OS X. Finally because of today's extremely large digital image resolutions and file sizes, I developed a image partitioning algorithm that allows the images to divided in to partitioned sections and process as small sub-regions so processing larger images is not limited to computer memory size. Designed a LabVIEW based USB Digital Logic Analyzer Data Acquisition System. This project involved unique approach by using a low cost off the shelf 34 channel 500MHz USB Logic Analyzer that had its own GUI software that was literally kidnapped into a LabVIEW program designed to automate and integrated the Logic Analyzer GUI software. This was done by tapping into low level Windows API functions. This allowed the automation of configuration and data acquisition which would then have Low Pass Chebyshev and FIR filters along with other propriety algorithms was applied to the data. This project was used to valid development and funding for a new photonic product development. Designed Data Acquisition and Logging Software Systems that included advanced algorithm development and 2D and 3D calibration, and interpolation methods for 2 different types of Fiber-Optic Sensor Systems. One was a deep oil well Pressure and Temperature Measurement System and the other was a Distributed Temperature and Pressure Measurement System. The Optical Pressure and Temperature was based on analysis of of non-linear curve fitting of fiber reflected light pulse. This system used a AGILENT 8164A Lightwave Measurement System. The Distributed technology was based on use of the Raman backscattering components are caused by thermally influenced molecular vibrations from the propagating light pulse. Thus, their intensity depends on temperature. The Raman backscattered light has two components that lie symmetric to the Rayleigh peak: the Stokes peak and Anti-Stokes peak. Most of the system was developed in LabVIEW, but some of the low lever drivers were developed in VB and VC++. These projects first involved the development of R&D software version that was then converted into Commercial Product Version. This project also involved C code design for an 8051-based board with a USB interface and a design of a Windows 2000 USB Driver in Microsoft Visual C++, for a Cypress USB 8051based Micro-Controller. The LabVIEW code also included a top level GUI to allow operator to configure and log results. A extensive offline LabVIEW based 2D and 3D Calibration tools that involved advanced DSP (linear and non-linear curve fittings, filtering, windowing, step functions, etc.) and graphing were also developed. Designed a Chromagraph Data Extractor. This involved using a ORTEC 9353 100-ps Time Digitizer / MCS PCI card that functions as a time digitizer or a multichannel scalar. It measures the arrival times of Start pulses and multiple Stop pulses with a precision of 100 ps. I developed a LabVIEW Interface Library for this card and used it to create a GUI that allowed the operator to (start, stop, save and load data from the ORTEC 9353 card and also display, mark and extract ROI of the Chromagraph and display in a Histogram. Designed a digital Un-Resequencer Scan Converter (URSC) Printed Circuit Board used in Digital DirecTV R&D Project. Designed using Altera MAX devices. This was done at the David Sarnoff Research Center in New Jersey for Hughes. I was part of a group of 60 Independent Contracting Engineers put together to research and develop what became what we now call DirecTV. One accomplishment I had was the design, simulation and debug of 3 different Large PGAs in 3 months. Designing an R&D Board that interfaced to VME bus and was based on the MC68020 and TI VHSIC 1750A CPU. Also had I/O support for the 1553B and circuitry for an Advanced Condition Engine Monitor. Designed digital circuits that replaced analog circuits for Jet Engine controls. This was done to increase reliability, accuracy, and reduced board real estate. Designed circuit functions like speed, angular position resolvers, linear position LVPTs, fuel flow and torque measurements. This was accomplished using programmable logic devices. I received a patent on my technique and design of hardware torque averaging and calibration decoding circuits and the software algorithms. Test and Measure: Designed a Automated Manufacturing Production Test System for a Indoor/Outdoor Digital Microwave RF Link. This Test Station was designed to test multiple devices in a environment test chamber that is controlled and integrated into the Test Station. The main component that this station tested is the Up/Down RF Frequency Converter. Cabling and Components for tested both 6GHz, 11GHz and 18GHz RF Microwave units. The software involved control of GPIB based (880MHz Signal Generator, up to 20GHz Microwave Analog Signal Generator, Spectrum Analyzer, Programmable DC Power Supplies, RF Power Meter, DMM, Programmable RF Attenuators, Switches, Armature Multiplexers and Digital I/O). Also a USB Barcode Reader and a RS232 control interface for a temperature environmental chamber. Software also had a built in semi-automatic black box calibration functions to tune system for dynamic frequency cable/connector/component losses. The software involved a control sequencer engine and a GUI allowed the operator to perform the following functions: Configure (Model, Band, # of Channels, 3 Temperature Set Points, and Soak Time Intervals, file path for test result reports) DUT Tuning (semi-automatic tuning of Rx and Tx center channels) Execute Mixtures (run, pause and stop the automatic testing) Graphical Display (shows graphically spread sheet of progress of Rx and Tx channels tested, which also get written to an Excel test report file) The DUT is also digitally programmed thru a SPI bus based on Model, Band and Channel. Testing algorithms mostly involve programming and configuration of the Spectrum Analyzer, but superposition model analysis is also used. Parameters tested are stepped through channels relevant to specific band of DUT. Parameters program and tested are: (RxFREQ, RxPin, RxPout, RxGain, RxGainFlatness, RxSpurs under different conditions and TxFREQ, TxPin, TxPout, TxGainFlatness, TxHarmonics, TxSpurs under different conditions, 5VIc, 8VIc, TxDet, sweeped TxPout, TxDet). The DUTs are tested at 3 different Temperature conditions (Cold, Room, Hot). All software was done in LabVIEW, Designed a Production Manufacturing Test System for a Wireless Gateway used to create a FrameMesh Video Network of very low power Wireless Cameras. This system involved a pogo pin test fixture interfaced to a National Instruments PXI Chase and a Laptop PC that served as the Control and Data Acquisition System with software I developed in LabVIEW. A Macraigor JTAG USBWiggler programming / debugging interface device is also used. Other USB, RS323 ports, SPI bus and a Ethernet port are used for test and downloading. This Gateway is tested with and without a Wireless 2.4GHz Radio Module that links up to the Wireless Video Cameras that are networked to this Gateway. A open source TFTP 32bit Server is Integrated into the LabVIEW code to allow for file transfers between the PC and the Gateway Unit. I developed the LabVIEW software to contain a Vector Test Engine Server, and Shelldriver interfaces to all the hardware and communication protocols like (Macraigor USBWiggler, Gateway BOOT Com, Gateway Com, and Gateway Telnet, PXI DMM, PXI Programmable Power). The Gateway uses a ARM XSCALE processor with 32MB Flash, 16MB RAM running on an Embedded Linux Platform. My software served 2 functions, first to download bootstrap, kernel and configure a blank Gateway Unit and then Test it. I developed a LabVIEW GUI that allows the operator to perform the following functions: Configure (Model, Serial Number, Vender Number (VNN) and Media Access Control (MAC) Addresses, and Memory Map) DUT Programming (automatically erase and load Boot Loader, Flash Rom, Kernel, and Root File System through a combination of ports and protocols) Automatic Test (executes a sequences of Test Vectors that perform Electrical Test, Firmware Test, and all the interfaces) Report Generation (automatically generates Excel Spread Sheet Test Report) This product is coming to market in the second half of 2009 and is being marketed as consumer product called "Vue™ Personal Video Network" Designed and Developed controls software for a Nanoscale Imprinting Lithography machine. This involved interfacing to a UV light control and controlling 5 precision USB programmable PID Actuators/Monitors Valves. These valves controlled the pneumatics of the system. The software involved a control sequencer engine and a GUI allowed the operator to perform the following functions: Configure (valve (PID attributes, pressure set points, time intervals) , UV exposure time) Program Sequence (create, load, edit, save sequence/sub-sequence attributes) Execute Mixtures (run, pause and stop the automatic imprinting sequence) Graphical Display (shows graphically sequence position and state of valves and time remaining to completion) This project has lead to the licensing of this technology by HP to enable the fabrication of semiconductor chips significantly more powerful than those available today. All software was done in LabVIEW, Designed Precision Humidity Sensors Automated Production Test and Calibration System. This involved designing a digital interface to eight stacked Humidity Sensor test boards with each board having 64 test channels that allowed for 60 sensors to be populated in test sockets. 4 channels are used for gain and offset calibration. Each test board has a SPI interface and digital I/O for analog multiplexer control and programming and reading each sensors I2C EEPROM memory with TED information. I was able to perform this by using a off the shelf USB FPGA board called Morph-IC. This board contained a FTDI USB to Parallel converter device and an Altera FPGA. I designed the FPGA to in interface to the SPI bus that connected a A/D and Differential Amp circuit and and turn it into a local digital storage scope on each sensor test board. I then designed a connection interface PCB that this Morph-IC board plugged into, and this sat outside and by the cabling port of a programmable environment chamber and the Test PC sat in a different room connected through the Morph-IC USB port. This was a very elegant solution which allowed for tight configuration of timing and digital filtering to minimize the noise levels to micro-volts. The software design involved a control sequencer engine and a GUI allowed the operator to perform the following functions: Configure (A/D digitization attributes, timing and averaging) Manual Test (quick scan boards to detect populated sensor channels, and acquire individual sensor data or all sensors ) Data Generation (load, save data acquisition results in a Excel spread sheet file.) Manual Graphical Display (shows graphically data sampling graph of Humidity and Temperature and curve fit means, Also shows two spread sheet tables of 64 channel sensor measurements. One table for humidity and one for temperature. Table cells a color ledger to determine state of measurement. Automatic Execution (operator user login, automatically runs complete test and calibration cycles and generates test report and logs data results into a SQL Database, also controls calibration environmental chamber temperature and humidity, generates calibration tables and loads them into each sensors EEPROM in a TED format) The FPGA firmware was developed using Altera Quartus II tools and stored as a HEX file that gets stored in the System Registry, where it is loaded from to the FPGA on software initialization, All software was done in LabVIEW and a FPGA Toolkit for LabVIEW was developed as a result of this project. Designed entire control system for a Non-Contact Printed Circuit Board Testing Machine. The system is based on use of a vacuum, electric fields, UV-Laser and phenomena called the Photoelectric Effect. This allows for Non-Contact testing of a PCB’s for open and shorts. The system started with a PC and PCI interface boards and matured into a National Instruments PXI instrument chassis that contained an embedded PXI Pentium Computer, High-Speed PXI Digital IO with embedded real-time Computer, and High-Speed PXI Analog Acquisition Board. These boards and other interfaces like GPIB, RS232, are used to control and monitor other subsystem components like a Solid State UV-Laser, Galvanometers, Vision System, Vacuum Pumps and Monitors, Pneumatics, Pizzo-motors, Chiller, Lighting, Grid, and Temperature Thermocouples. I came up with innovations and techniques that are now Patents Pending. Also designed entire control system software. This Software consists Graphical User Interfaces, Process Control Sequencer Engine, Vision System Registration and Alignment Engine, Preprocess IPC net list compiler, Continuity Algorithms, individual Device Control and Measurement Drivers, and Report Generation Engine. This development was done mostly using LabVIEW with some DLLs created using VC++ that were then interfaced to LabVIEW. Control and measurement drivers developed for this project consisted of the following devices: UV-Laser, Galvanometers, Vision System, Vacuum, Pneumatics, Pizzo-motors, Chiller, Lighting, Grid, and Temperature. Designed Semi-Automatic Test & Measure Software in LabVIEW for testing and characterization of Fiber-Optic TAP Devices. Resulting data was stored as Microsoft Excel Spread Sheet files and in a Microsoft Access Database. This system interfaced to USB, RS232, and GPIB test equipment like Wavelength Spectrum Scanning Devices and Optical Interrogators and Fiber-Optic Wavelength Filters and Coupler Switches. Designed and implement a general high-speed automatic test station platform that interfaces to different functional test fixers. The system is based on National Instruments PXI instrument chassis that contained an embedded PXI Pentium Computer, PXI Digital Storage Oscilloscope, Digital Multi-Meter, PXI Switch Matrix Relay Board, and a PXI Multi-Function Analog and Digital Acquisition Board. Involved in new product development of commercial SPECT Camera, solved technical problems as product went from proto-type to manufactured product. I also designed and implement a high speed automatic test station that emulated the analog and digital bus interface for a solid-state front end of a commercial SPECT Camera that is similar to a CCD type interface. Design consisted of the integration of a USB 8051 micro-controller, costume programmed Altera Flex device, memory, high-speed differential DAC and ADC. Designed a Graphical User Interface and low-level library to interface to a FPGA board through a USB interface. One application for this software was a Random Pulse Generator that had a programmable base frequency with random pulse widths and frequency jitter. This software would load the FPGA with its programming and then set the control parameters for the Random Pulse Generator. I also designed the Altera FPGA Random Pulse Generator in VHDL code. Designed an integrated generic ATE system called the Digital Functional Tester (DFT). This system consists of a rack of electronics that contains Programmable Power Supplies, Video Generation and Measure equipment, a VXI chassis with multiple boards: (Digital Multi-Meter, Frequency Measure, Relay Multiplex, Interface Technology’s High Speed Digital Bus Generation and Capture/Compare analyzer, and JTAG Interface board). A PC through PCI/MXI to MXI/VXI/VME Interfaces controls the system. All the Racks equipment is interface to a Virginia type receiver panel that is mated to different personality test fixtures. Designed Automatic Test Vector Control Software. This Software consists Graphical User Interfaces, Vector Sequencer Control Process Engine, Individual Test Vectors, and Report Generation Engine into a Word Template Document and to Excel Data Results Tables. This development was done using LabVIEW. Miscellaneous: Developed Layout, Artwork, Text and Function of my Companies Corporate Website. This was done using Microsoft's FrontPage along with some HTML, Java and PHP Scripts. Also linkage to ecommerce shopping chart that allows for customers to purchase our products online and pay with Credit Cards, PayPal, and Digital Check direct from Bank. Licensing Toolkit for LabVIEW allows software developers to seamlessly integrate a License Control into shared LabVIEW projects or products they develop and wish to distribute. The capability to create trial version of software with time limits that can then be activated to a fully executable, or LabVIEW environment only license through a simple customer specific encrypted file or password protected activation VI. This software also contains License Generation VI that can be run as a Top Level GUI or integrated into a custom automation system that the customer creates. This is now a commercial product that is distributed and sold through the Internet. CamViewIT Toolkit for LabVIEW can acquire, display, process and save streaming video and audio from any device that is compatible with the DirectShow interface standard. This includes many USB and FireWire (IEEE 1394) Video/Audio Cameras and Frame Grabbers and a few PCI Bus Frame Grabbers. I developed this product and it contains 2 custom ActiveX Controls (ocx) files developed in C++ and Visual Basic allow with a LabVIEW library (llb) file, I have also written a Programmers Reference Manual (pdf) file, and an and Installation Instructions Manual (pdf). Also I have created a growing archive of use examples. This is now a commercial product that is distributed and sold through the Internet. INVtray Toolkit for LabVIEW allows the creation of LabVIEW programs that can access the Window's System Tray. Now you can make your LabVIEW program show up with your custom icon, pop up tool tip, and pop up menu in the system tray. I developed this product and it contains 2 custom ActiveX Controls (ocx) files developed in Visual Basic allow with a LabVIEW library (llb) file, Also I have created a growing archive of use examples. This is now a commercial product that is distributed and sold through the Internet. RFID Toolkit for LabVIEW allows LabVIEW programmers to interface to and use off the shelf Phidgets RFID Read Boards with RFID tags. When RFID tags are brought in close proximity to the reader and returns the tag identification number. RFID (radio frequency identification) systems use data strings stored inside RFID tags or transponders) to uniquely identify people or objects when they are scanned by an RFID reader. These types of systems are found in many applications such as passport protection, animal identification, inventory control systems, and secure access control systems. I developed a software library in LabVIEW that interfaces to a Phidgets ActiveX Control that interfaced to the hardware. Use examples were developed demonstrating an event handling interface and a polled interface. It is now a commercial product that is distributed and sold through the Internet. OLED Toolkit for LabVIEW with Touch Screen allows programmers to interface to a 4D Systems 2.83" Active Matrix OLED device. I have developed software tools to create HMI GUIs in LabVIEW that can be exported to a OLED Touch Screen through either USB or RS232, then automatic updating of controls and touch events will be generated by the OLED Touch Screen and interfaced in to any LabVIEW program, included LabVIEW Embedded code. This is now being productized and will become a commercial product that is distributed and sold through the Internet. This software has developed using 4DGL (Graphical Language) and LabVIEW. Relay/IO Toolkit for LabVIEW with a Programmable State Machine Sequencer allows programmers to interface and control Phidgets USB Relay and or Digital Input/Output Boards. I developed a software library in LabVIEW that interfaces to a Phidgets ActiveX Control that interfaced to the hardware. A State Machine use example allows programmers to create a state and timed sequences that can be saved and loaded as an (XML) file. This is being productized and will soon be a commercial product that is distributed and sold through the Internet. RC Toolkit for LabVIEW allows programmers to interface and control RC Motors through a USB Phidgets RC Motor Control Boards. I developed a software library in LabVIEW that interfaces to a Phidgets ActiveX Control that interfaced to the hardware. A use example allows a program the RC Motors position. This is being productized and will soon be a commercial product that is distributed and sold through the Internet. The SkypeIT Toolkit for LabVIEW allows programmers to interface to the Skype Internet VOIP platform. The Skype platform handles Video/Audio, SMS Text messages, Instant Messaging (IM), File Transfer, and Peer-to-Peer Data Bidirectional Transfer. I developed an ActiveX DLL Skype API Server and interfaced it and created a LabVIEW library that allows programmers access to all the functionality of the Skype Platform. I have also developed encryption and compression algorithms and some fundamental MySQL tools that will allow for LabVIEW developments to create Peer-to-Peer Remote Control and Data Acquisition Systems linked to a Remote MySQL Databases, Also IMs and SMS Text Messaging Alerts and Status Updating is possible. Considering productizing this either as a service or a software tool. Configured Fan and non-Fan Mini-ITX and Nano-ITX Small Form Factor PC Systems with Non-Volatile Flash Disk with minimized Windows XP or Linux and ported LabVIEW to run on these platforms. This offers a small PC based acquisition and control solution for a multitude of applications and systems. The Nano-ITX is a full PC with the footprint size of a 2.5" Hard Drive. Also the Linux I used is Open Source and is free cutting out about $100 USD per unit in OEM applications. ORTEC 9353 100-ps Time Digitizer / MCS Interface Library for LabVIEW is software I developed for a R&D project. Designed embedded real-time control software in a multitude of projects based on 8bit and 16bit Micro-Controllers such as the 68HC11, 68HC16 and derivatives of the 8051 including a USB 8051. Design Graphical User Interface and Stepper Motor Control Software in LabVIEW for XYZ positioning stage. Designed Multiple ActiveX Controls and DLLs in Microsoft Visual C++ and Visual Basic. That was used to interface to USB devices and PLX PCI bus Chipsets. Designed a Dual Channel ARINC 429 Bus Monitor Printed Circuit Board (ABMB) used in a proprietary MicroDAS-1000 system. Designed using ACTEL A1280 FPGA, ARINC Bus IC, SRAM and 68HC11E9 Micro-controller Invented circuitry and methodology for converting a USB differential bus into two single direction fiber optic busses and then back to a USB differential bus. (Evaluating for Patent application) Designed miscellaneous utility programs like the generation of DSP lookup tables, data translations, net list generation, Internet functions, FIR and IRR filter modeling, radiation dosage modeling, seismic analysis of equipment in the event of an earthquake, and multiple Windows API wrappers. Designed a Bill of Material Generator Program that bridged the interface gap between PCAD schematic software and AGILE document control software and Excel spreadsheet software. This program was linked to a master parts list and would allow you to create an Excel or Agile parts list from a PCAD schematic and back-annotate it into the schematic. This Software consists Graphical User Interfaces, schematic net list parsing engine and output formatting engine. This development was done using LabVIEW Designed VME Bus Master and Slave Interface Circuitry using AMD MACH family PLD parts
EMPLOYMENT
INVENTEERING, Inc. - [Engineering Design Consultant], San Diego, California (2001 - PRESENT). DIGIRAD – [Senior Engineer], San Diego, California (2000, 2001) - Stock Options & Achievement Bonus NOAH SYSTEMS – [Engineering Design Consultant], San Diego, California (1998 - 2000). – Patent & Achievement Bonus VEKTREX – [Senior Engineer], San Diego, California (1997, 1998) – Achievement Bonus MTC – [Engineering Design Consultant], Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1991 - 1997). UGM MEDICAL SYSTEMS – [Chief Engineer], Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1988 - 1991) Stock Options & Bonus COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA – [Night Instructor of Bio-technology], Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1991) GENERAL ELECTRIC ACSD – [Staff Engineer], Binghamton, New York (1986 – 1988) – Achievement Bonus ALLIED BENDIX – [Design Engineer], South Bend, Indiana (1984 – 1986) – Patent REFRIGERATION SERVICE ENGINEERS SOCIETY – [Night Instructor of Refrigeration Engineering], South Bend, Indiana (1985) DAIRYLAND POWER COOPERATIVE – [Engineer Co-op], La Crosse, Wisconsin (1980 – 1983) Nuclear Power Plant
EDUCATION
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (BS Electrical Engineering 1984) Involvements Council of Engineering Student Organizations-President Student Association-Senator Sandburg Hall Council-Representative Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Tutored Math and Science Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin (Pre-Engineering 1979-1981) Involvements Student Government-Chairman Alpha Lambda Delta (Honor Fraternity) Varsity Football-Letterman Junior Varsity Basketball Taught Calculus Lab
REFERENCES
Available upon request.