This website is all about what I've done from 5 to 9, but here is some info about what I've done from 9 to 5.
Product Design @ iPort
Trade. Barter. Deposit. Transfer. Swipe. Tap. Zap, Pip, Bop. (Who knows what we’ll call it next!) Transactions – these are the rituals we perform every single day to move money in exchange for goods and services. These transactions are fundamental to our everyday lives: just think of how many times a day you use a credit card or phone to make a payment. And yet, the overall user interface and experience for such a fundamental activity can be quite messy. There exist a myriad of payment systems, with different user-interactions, form factors and orders of operation. Every store or restaurant has its own box or screen (or series of boxes and screens) for swiping and inserting credit cards, confirming transaction amounts, digital signing, enrolling in rewards...etc. (For reasons I don’t understand at all, most transactions are still accompanied by this glossy printed paper receipt full of jargon and modern-day hieroglyphics. And more, these printed papers are comically long, like miniature medieval scrolls. WHY!? ) As transaction technologies evolve, from swiping cards to taping phones, there is a need for intuitive, adaptable payment interfaces designed around those new technologies.
At iPort, I was part of a small design team focused on Point-Of-Sale (POS) hardware solutions for large-scale enterprise applications, mostly retail and hospitality use-cases. (To name a few, I worked on hardware solutions for Nike worldwide retail, lululemon nationwide retail and T-Mobile nationwide retail.) These solutions were specifically designed to work with Apple iPhone and iPad products; I designed cases, docks and stands for iPhone/iPad in order to create streamlined payment experiences. My expertise was in designing POS products centered around user experience, while retaining hallmark iPort functionality such as magnet-assisted conductive charging and system-wide modularity.
At a high level, I was thinking about the transaction process between merchant and customer; I was studying user interactions and developing product concepts to seamlessly support those interactions. Field trips, interviews and market studies shaped general ideas, design thinking and rapid prototyping refined those ideas, and engineering testing & development gave form to those ideas. At the refinement stages, I was building scale models and app mockups, making rapid prototypes with 3D printers and laser cutters, and developing hardware systems with interlocking parts and adjustable features. At a detail level, I would dial in the optimal motion for a given feature and then define its technical parameters. I’d play with mates that could twist, snap and pop; joints that could flip, swivel and click. Then I’d build test jigs to determine just the right amount of click (force) or just the right amount of twist (torque).
I also built neat testing & measuring contraptions.
Engineering @ Impact Automation
Conveyors! The automated ones. They’re damn impressive to watch. At Impact Automation, I worked on the mechanical design of large automated conveyor sortation systems for parcels (i.e. mail). Big boxes, little boxes, heavy boxes, tiny envelopes – you name it. I worked on the integration of mechanical and controls systems for high-volume automated parcel sortation for nation-wide facilities of USPS, UPS and Amazon. The name of the game: throughput. In order to increase the bulk flow of product, I helped design and develop novel parcel accumulation systems. At a basic level, I played around with piling, dumping, merging and tumbling mail in order to efficiently and safely increase throughput. I also created a wide variety of technical & support documentation with an emphasis on making friendly literature (unlike most technical documentation). Drawing inspiration from IKEA installation guides and Eames short-films, I’d rethink entire document layouts, create clear and beautiful graphics, and often ask my friends or my wife to read certain sections, to get muggle feedback of wizard documentation.
Engineering @ Murzan
Murzan designs top-notch sanitary transfer pumps for the food & pharmaceutical industries. In simpler terms, Murzan builds machines (pumps) that move lots of product (mostly liquids) from one spot to another spot in an industrial plant. Murzan’s air-operated diaphragm pumps transfer products no other type or brand of pump can handle. We’re talking industrial quantities of ketchup, toothpaste, lotion, pancake batter, and even the creamiest, tastiest peanut butter. Oh yes, huge barrels full of peanut butter. Know how food plants used to get peanut butter out of barrels back in the day? Shovels. No kidding. They’d shovel the peanut butter out of 55-gallon drums and into a wheelbarrow to haul around. Wouldn’t wanna be that guy... Well, back in the 80s, Murzan developed a fancy automated unloading system, equipped with a Murzan diaphragm pump, that would empty those barrels at the flip of a switch. Just hook up a 100psi air line and the unloading system took care of the rest. A plunger fitted with a Murzan pump would empty the barrel in minutes and transfer the product via a network of stainless steel tubing. During my time at Murzan, I worked on the mechanical design of precision stainless steel parts for those unloading systems. I also travelled to food plants across the U.S. to install and troubleshoot those systems. Another neat project I worked on was an automated processing and dilution system for ketchup. I managed the assembly, testing and on-site installation of the entire system for a food plant in Guatemala. It was pretty damn cool by the time it was complete! I also took on a few side projects which grew to become major company assets. I developed custom in-house software which automated all sorts of inventory and sales processes, saving thousands of hours of manual data entry and analysis. I also created a variety of marketing material, a spare parts kit, and even designed a new company website from scratch. It was pretty darn fun to be working on so many different projects all at once.
Making silly things @ Invention Studio
The Georgia Tech Invention Studio is a 100% student-run makerspace, equipped with just about every machine imaginable for the most daring design & engineering projects. During my time as an engineering student, this space was my sanctuary. If I wasn’t in class, I was probably building something wacky in the Invention Studio. Shortly after stumbling across this real-life Dexter’s Lab, I became super involved with the studio and co-managed the makerspace, specifically overseeing the woodworking shop. (Eventually, I would have my own woodshop.)