Philips Oral Healthcare

2017-present

Philips healthcare is defined by the Sonicare brand, the benchmark of quality in the market. Philips is a global company with extensive resources and expertise in design, marketing, procurement and manufacturing. Working at Philips has exposed me to the rigor of design for mass manufacturing of medical devices and provided a platform to move into a leadership role in product development.

New power toothbrush platform, the next generation of sonicare

  • Product development lead for new power toothbrush portfolio

  • Product requirements definition

  • Design and support of market analysis and user studies

  • Early phase concepting and prototyping

Alternative brush project

  • Project technical lead of a novel power toothbrush development project

  • Team includes 7 hardware engineers in collaboration with a partner company and other functional groups

  • Product development process ownership from requirements and project scoping to detailed design used in clinical studies

  • Responsible for team management and technical design quality

  • mentoring of early career engineers

Water flosser product

  • Mechanical lead of a water flosser (think waterpik) product from initial project scoping to successful production release

  • Fluidic system design including piston pump, drivetrain, gearing

  • High volume product design and manufacturing in a rigorous design and production release process framework

  • Class I medical device

  • Involvement with all stages of development from project definition through production support

  • Worked closely with high volume manufacturing partners globally

Freefly

2013-2017

Freefly is the industry leader in active camera stabilization [gimbals] and aerial filming tools [drones] for the professional cinematography industry.  The small size and startup culture of Freefly allowed me to take on greater responsibility in design and ownership of the product development process.

Movi smartphone gimbal, Freefly’s first consumer product

  • Lead designer and owner of product development from requirements definition to production launch

  • Product architecture including several novel features: SLR inspired handle design, modified gimbal axis for compact size

  • Design of all detailed components of the product including plastic structure, motors, flex circuits

Movi pro handheld gimbal, the workhorse of Freefly’s portfolio

  • Key design team member contributing to overall architecture and development decisions

  • Detailed design of major electro mechanical subsystems including: gimbal control module, camera mount quick release system, ring handle design

  • Setup and support of in-house production line

Alta cinematography drone platform

  • Design and analysis of mechanisms, composite components

  • Support and mentorship of junior engineers

  • Vibration damping design

  • Flight testing and product verification

AeroVironment

2008-2013

AV is a pioneer of the small, unmanned aircraft industry.  AV’s unique culture combines the rigor and methods of the aerospace industry with a creative and hands on approach to adapting aircraft design for modern applications.  This environment of diversely skilled professionals allowed me to accelerate my learning of efficient mechanical design and hands on skills.

Drone systems design

  • Development of 4 unique drone systems in rapid design cycles. (Raven, Puma AE, Switchblade, Darpa drone project)

  • Design of custom camera payload including the camera, autofocus, gimbal, structural elements, drive elements, composite housing

  • Heatsink and thermal management design

  • Design, prototyping, and production fabrication of composite parts and assemblies including manufacturing tool design and support

  • Wind tunnel design and fabrication

  • Extensive micro machined part design

  • In-house production support

C6 Biochar

2020-2022

With the mission to reduce the risk of extreme wildfire by improving forest health, the non-profit C6 set out to establish a commercial scale Biochar facility in the Methow Valley, Wa. I joined C6 in 2020 as a board member and technical contributor, pushing to make this project a reality.

About Biochar and this project

  • Biochar is a porous carbon solid that results from superheating forest material in the absence of oxygen.

  • This process of superheating material without oxygen is called Pyrolysis.

  • Our forests in the NW are heavily overgrown, and pyrolysis is a method that can be used to process forest materials that need to be removed, while preventing this excess carbon from contributing to climate change.

  • The result of this effort is low density, healthy forests. Additionally, the biochar produced in this process can be applied to agricultural soils to greatly improve soil health.

Research Biochar Reactor

  • Siting and setup of Research pyrolysis reactor in the methow valley

  • Pyrolysis trials to evaluate processing and output from local feedstock materials

Biochar facility feasibility study

  • LCA analysis of possible components of a Biochar facility including site location impact, freight methods, harvesting, applying product in the field.

  • Organization financial accounting including management of 250k state funding grant

  • Biochar technology research

  • Feedstock source and customer exploration

  • C6 feasibility study