WORK

In this section, I provide a summary of my work history, with some sections broken out into dedicated pages for more detail.

While in school, I worked three semesters as a co-op at Southern States, a high-voltage switchgear manufacturer. While there, I designed, built, and tested high-voltage switchgear, including capacitor- and reactor-switching devices and load/line switching SF6 gas interrupters.

I spent a lot of time working on and learning about racing and cars before college, experimenting on my own cars mostly. Then as part of the Wreck Racing club in college, I led a team of students designing a low-budget race car with custom front and rear suspension, powertrain, and electrical system. I was personally responsible for the designing and building the front and rear suspension, vehicle wire harness, and EFI system (including calibration). I held the position of vice president one year and lead engineer the next.

After school, I went into professional racing, working for a NASCAR Cup team in Spartanburg, SC called HScott Motorsports. As part of the road crew, I traveled to all 36 races each year and to every track test.

Throughout the race weekend, I analyzed data and driver feedback to make vehicle setup changes that improved performance. I ran vehicle-dynamics simulations, instrumented the vehicle for tests, maintained our at-track IT infrastructure, and assisted with pit strategy during the race – first as Second Race Engineer for the 51 car then as Lead Race Engineer for the 46 car.

It was a small team, but our engineering alliance with Hendrick Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing gave us access to the best technology in the business. It was a terrific opportunity and an other-worldy experience at times.

I left HSM to get a normal job with benefits and a normal schedule. I got a job with Textron Specialized Vehicles (TSV), working on golf cars and utility vehicles. My team and I developed a new closed-loop EFI system to replace the carbureted fuel system in the majority of our offerings. This improved fuel economy and startup performance (no more choke), and the system automatically adjusts for altitude. As part of the EFI program, I updated the powertrain governor system to improve low-speed pedal modulation. I also helped design and implement a sound-reduction package for gas-powered vehicles after performing extensive sound testing at multiple facilities.

I got more into electronics and computers over the years, taking computer science classes on the side and building various related personal projects. I enjoy working on control systems, automation, and data analysis.

For about seven years, I led an electrical engineering group at TSV. I enjoyed learning from the team and finding chances to apply what I’d learned in my online CS coursework. One of the first projects in this role was leading the development of our vehicle software validation, documentation, and release/revision standards.

I took advantage of several opportunities to develop tools (mostly in Python) to integrate, process, organize, and visualize data:

(Projects I’ve hosted on GitHub have proprietary info scrubbed, often by abstracting file paths into a separate “.gitignore’d” file. The remaining logic of tools like export processors and data graphing is of no competitive interest. In contrast, the logic of the Smart Gauge simulation is the core functionality of our product so can’t be made public.)

Working with this creative and hard-working bunch of electrical engineers was a real highlight in my career. Together we developed novel solutions and even filed several patents, some of which have now been granted.

Many relate to unique solutions we developed for the IntelliGauge, e.g., how to modify performance parameters in the motor controller while handling potential conflicts with other devices that can also change those same values (fleet-management GPS tracker, diagnostic handset). Another example allows for temporary speed overrides or vehicle lockout using a secondary data structure and never requiring an “external” device like the gauge or GPS tracker to “remember” what the controller’s speed setting was before it made a temporary change. This provides more robust fault tolerance in the event an external device fails; the motor controller falls back to the “persistent” setting when the override assertion disappears.

We filed several patents for novel vehicle-control logic based on using an IMU (inertial measurement unit) in the motor controller for better contextual awareness, such as proactive hazard-detection and predictive maintenance.

Current listing of all patent filings I’m on – applications and granted

Recently, I have taken a new position as a full-time data scientist, allowing me to build data applications while continuing to build my skills and experience in an area I love.