Solar Work

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Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley Solar Controls and Diagnostics Testbed.

We won a DoE grant to model and predict failures in solar arrays. After spending about six months helping build MATLAB simulations, I was tasked with designing a solar array for the roof of the CMU-SV lab. A task that started out overwhelming, but is probably my proudest work: our 24-panel, pole-mounted 1.2kW array, instrumented with 900+ temperature sensors and a weather station, wired in four parallel strings of six panels each.

I learned not only about photovoltaic modeling and simulation, but also how to use Google SketchUp, how to work with high voltage wiring, electrical code, contactors, wirenuts, disconnect switch boxes, programmable electronic loads, I-V curve tracers, DS18b20 digital temperature sensors, and that your feet will get sunburned if you spend all your time in flip-flops on the roof.

Array, and data from the array, was also used as part of a bi-coastal Photovoltaics course in Spring 2013 at Carnegie Mellon.

Video by Kevin Young, describing the finished system: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaB9cii-e0c

• For: Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley
• Date: 2009-2011

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UAVs and Rovers

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The Exploration Aerial Vehicle (EAV) Lab at NASA Ames Research Center.

We tested adaptive controls on three main platforms:

• the 8-foot wingspan model Cessna, dubbed the Exploration Aerial Vehicle (EAV)
• our "laptop on wheels" ground rover MAX5A, a highly modified radio control car with DGPS and wifi
• our 20-foot wingspan half-scale Piper Cub, dubbed the eXperimental Sensor-Controlled Aerial Vehicle (XSCAV)

We also flew a 1/8th scale Piper Cub nicknamed "Bumblebee", and for one summer, sailed a radio controlled sailboat.

Even now, looking back - this was such an amazing job. So much of my confidence with hardware and integration, I learned from Corey, Vince, Ritchie, and Mark. I was hired on to do electrical design, but because we were such a small team, I also got to work on everything else - software, simulation, drilling, gluing, soldering, checklists, calling vendors, data analysis, you name it. The custom avionics box was my project, and unfortunately I never got to see it fly.

We test flew out at the Moffett Field runways for the EAV.

We were also part of the inter-governmental-agency team that deployed robotic sensing and analysis robot and software to assist Santa Clara County District Attorney's office in cold-case murder investigation in 2010.

More stories here:

• CSI Carnegie Mellon 2010
• XSCAV First Flight 2009

• For: NASA Ames Research Center
• Date: April 2007 to Fall 2009

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Maker Faire 2013

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Stanford OSA Laser Harp and the Piezoflower Garden

Laser Harp (not shown): Designed, built, and presented Arduino-powered Laser Harp for booth at San Mateo Maker Faire, May 2013; displayed again May 2014.

Piezoflower Garden: Interactive Sound art installation: a bouquet of metal flowers built around piezoelectric disks that sits quietly until a passerby taps or plucks the petals, which produce unexpectedly powerful sounds. Produced for Music 250B: Interactive Sound Art, Winter 2013.

• For: Maker Faire 2013
• Date: May 2013

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Stanford DroneGames 2013

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Placed first out of 40+ teams in a 12-hour hackathon, designing and programming an autonomous camera-guided quadcopter drone that would track and pop color-coded balloons.

Read the article about our 1st place Team NiftEE balloon-popping drone in the IEEE Spectrum IEEE here

• Organized by: Stanford Robotics Club
• Date: March 2013

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Tibetan Prayer Wheel/Singing Bowl instrument

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Designed and tested a novel wireless electronic instrument for J. Cecilia Wu to use in multimedia concert; first performance at CCRMA Nov 21, 2014.

Video of concert here.

• Performed at: Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA)
• Dates: November 2014

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Hobbies/Miscellaneous

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Designed, built, and deployed a novel interactive microcontroller-based physical product to be used as puzzle clues in large-scale city-wide scavenger hunts. Tested on several client games.

Video of final box here. (Note: video is loud at end)

• For: The Go Game
• Date: August-September 2013

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