Engineer | Leader | Innovator

In 1984, my father was on top of the world heli skiing in British Columbia.  On his last run before lunch break, he hit a patch of ice, knocking him unconscious and eventually wrapping his leg around a tree (7 breaks between the knee and ankle).  After many surgeries and multiple weeks in Calgary Alberta, he was transferred to Rochester General Hospital where he met my mother who was his nurse. 

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I never knew my father the heli-skier.  The accident changed his life and always made me wonder if I could help.

 

2003 – 2005

These were some defining years for me.  In 2003 I landed my first AND second job as stockboys for my high school and a local suit shop in the city of Rochester.  It was a busy time because I was also completing my Eagle Scout rank in the Boy Scouts at the age of 15 and my father was laid off from Eastman Kodak Company after 29 years.  I felt a need and want to take care of myself. 

 

After 3 months of stocking suits and increasing my personal wardrobe with new professional attire…I was promoted to Assistant Floor Salesman.  This opportunity came with more responsibility but also the opportunity to talk to new and different people.  Following this inner fire for more, I was accepted into the high school cooperative education program and the job opening was at Eastman Kodak Company.  I can’t imagine how difficult it was for my father to drop me off at his old job only months after being let go.  

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As my mom said…’it is time to play with the big boys’.  At 16, I was on top of the world with a car, job and excelling in education....AND...highly active in my Boy Scout troop...AND...competitively playing three different sports (pole vaulting, golfing and volleyball). 

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2005 – 2007

The world is not made of Legos and the geometric boundary conditions of those bricks was a fun puzzle.   At community college I realized I could make my own Legos.  This inspired me to lead multiple teams, over two years, to state and national autonomous robotics competitions.  All while working full time at Eastman Kodak (R&D) and was responsible for designing and maintaining +10 ozone fade chambers used for artificially testing inkjet media to +100 years of ozone, light and RH exposure.

 

2008 - 2009

Rocket science has been labeled as one of the hardest subjects to master…so it was time to see if I could.  The first summer I spent at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) continuing my studies while working for the Laser Propulsion Lab.  I was responsible for designing and coordinating fabrication of a new flying vehicle for Dr. Liek Myrabo at RPI...

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‘Pulsed plasma propulsion using air as the working fluid is the simplest form of air-breathing laser propulsion. The record-breaking lightcraft, developed by Leik Myrabo of RPI…

 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_propulsion

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAdj6vpYppA

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Continuing my look into rocket propulsion, I teamed up with fellow classmates to create a new capstone project in liquid rocket propulsion.  In 5 months, we created a reusable hybrid rocket engine which produced +100 pounds of thrust, 7 mach diamonds and was heard over half mile away inside a building.  This was achieved by creating a combustion chamber and conical nozzle machined from graphite and fueled by oxygen and ethanol.  Great journey and exploration…but not my path.  This realization sent me to RIT and back to robotics.

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2009 -2010

I knew my passion…to help people live a better life and to be closer to nature.  This led to stimulus active materials and trying to mimic nature/humans with artificial materials.  Biomimetics is a science that man has used for years without giving it a label until recently (Velcro, honeycomb structures, airfoils).  As part of the Imagine RIT open house, I combined my recent education in cybernetics with stimulus active materials to mimic the motion of the human elbow in real time.  Using EMG electrodes placed near my elbow joint and an ionic polymer membrane (IPMC) in a distilled solution, the flexing motion of my elbow was in real time controlling the bending (180 range) of the IPMC.  The IPMC was designed and fabricated in the world class SMFL clean room facility at RIT.  Multiple iterations of plating and polymerization were fabricated to maximize bend and speed of motion.

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​2011

The puzzle pieces came together…robotics, nature and assistive devices…not artificially (AI) generated devices...they are Bill Spath (BS)  generated.