Experience


Freelance Electrical and Mechanical Designer|nickandersonco
May 2017 - Preset|Brooklyn NY

Do you need a mechanical model designed in Inventor? A custom PCB in EagleCAD? I have 5+ years experience designing a variety of products for small startups of all kinds. I'm currently traveling around the country and picking up intriguing freelance opportunities as I go. My home bases are beautiful sunny Boulder Colorado and Brooklyn New York.

I have experience in leading complex projects from conception, through design, sourcing parts and labor, to final production. My strengths are in taking loose ideas for a project, breaking it down into easy to understand pieces, and finding the tools and information needed to make it real.

I'm very interdisciplinary, I have extensive experience with complex CAD models, generating files for manufacture, and managing the manufacturing process. I've designed complex multi-processor control boards, selecting components, designing the schematic, laying out the PCB, and managing manufacturing. I've planned and managed in-house production of projects ranging from small runs of robotic manipulators to hundreds of nodes of an interactive art piece. I also started a business developing drones for open-pit mine surveying before drones were cool.

Currently, I'm focusing on CAD and PCB design work. These are my two strongest skills, and I can crank out beautiful, functional designs, in a hurry. But, if the right project feels like a good fit, I'd be interested in long terms engineering projects.

Thanks for your consideration!

Nick
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Skills:

Autodesk Inventor:
-Designing complex assemblies
-Designing for CNC, 3D printing, laser/waterjet cutting, sheet metal parts & weldments
-Designing for cable harnesses and PCBs
- - very good at tight fitting, sexy electronics enclosures
-Generating manufacture & assembly drawings, .pdf
-Generating CAD files, such .stp .stl .iges .dxf, etc.
-Using hotkeys and macros like I'm playing mortal combat (I have a 15 button mouse)

EagleCAD:
-Reading and understanding datasheets, selecting ICs, programmers, etc
-Schematic capture, PCB layout, and library design
-I'm good at making PCBs look cool and thought out
- - consistent foot prints, markings, and fonts
- - sexy silkscreens, branding, and board outlines
-Generating gerbers, stencils, centroids, and BOMs
-Generating drawings and specs for unique assembly PCBs requirements, documentation
-I can hand solder anything with visible pins (and some QFN and BGA with varying levels of success)
-Oscope/logic analyzer wizard
-I know enough embedded programming to communicate and collaborate with embedded gurus
-I'm actively learning Altium CircuitStudio and hope to replace this EagleCAD section very soon.

Other:
-Photoshop/Illustrator
-SketchUP, I'm sure I can apply my Inventor experience to SolidWorks
-Learning CircuitStudio
-Microsoft Office, libreOffice, Google Drive
-Comfortable working in Windows 7/10, OSX, and have enough Linux experience to be dangerous
-I hate using, but can utilize: Asana, Slack, Terminal
-Arduino, and enough C/C++ to be dangerous
-Dropbox/Drive
-The internet, McMaster, DigiKey

Assets:
-Autodesk Product Design Collection subscription.
-CircuitStudio perpetual license
-Adobe CC and Office 365 subscriptions
-Highly optimized 15 button mouse mapped to hotkeys and macros galore
-Great CAD laptop
-The Art of Electronics, Machinery's Handbook
-Great communication skills, well traveled
-A sense of humor
-The continual desire to learn more, and a passion for my work
-Flexibility

What I would like to learn:
-Designing for injection molding
-Autodesk Fusion 360
-CircuitStudio, OctoPart
-More C/C++ for developing ARM Cortex MCUs
-More simulation skills for both mechanical and electrical designs
-More analog design
-How to prevent water from always wrecking everything (electronics)
-Mandarin and Spanish


Hardware Engineer|Jen Lewin Studio
November 2016 - April 2017|Brooklyn NY

Worked on a team underneath artist Jen Lewin developing the electrical and mechanical components of the interactive art pieces and installations. Primary roles were managing sourcing and manufacturing of PCBs and electrical components, designing mechanical pieces, managing inventory, and contributing to final production and installation of pieces. The art pieces have been around the world on a temporary and permanent basis. I was able to travel with the pieces to several locations across the USA, and Asia.

-Mechanical design in major CAD suites
-Drawings for manufacture by:
-- CNC
-- Waterjet
-- SLS 3D printing
-- Production and assembly
-- PCB and assembly
-Production development
-Travel & offsite installations




Principal Robotics Engineer|RoadNarrows Robotics LLC
June 2014 - October 2016|Boulder CO

Leading development of the second generation robotic arm. Responsibilities include evaluating and selecting off-the-shelf components, designing 3D printable structural components, improving gear-trains specifications and design, improving aesthetics and marketability of the arm, as well as managing all wiring and circuits design.

In charge of readying a prototype robotic arm for production/maintainability. Responsibilities include revising electrical and mechanical designs for producibility, developing build procedures/documentation, designing test procedures and circuitry, parts sourcing/ordering, maintaining inventory, and managing/organizing data assets for production. Also assist in other electro-mechanical/robotic projects as required. 

-Mechanical design in Autodesk Inventor
-3D printing using Stratasys Dimension Elite and CatalystEX
-PCB design in EagleCAD
-Part sourcing/inventory/kitting
-Production development
-Test procedure development
-Cable harness building/soldering
-Data management 


Co-Founder, Principal Engineer|Kitables.co
July 2014 - July 2015|Boulder CO

Co-founded a start up that helps aspiring makers make the jump into the DIY community. By offering kits based off of trending open-source projects online, we help enable those who don't have access to 3D printers, CNC machines, laser-cutters, and have not quite figured out how to navigate the beasts which are Digikey and McMaster-Carr to get their hands dirty in making projects, faster and easier.

Kitables was debuted on Kickstarter with our Rubisolver Kit. The Rubisolver is a laser-cut, standard-servo, and Arduino based robot which solves a Rubik's Cube. We exceeded our Kickstarter goal and raised almost $10K. Responsibilities included conceiving and developing the business model, market research, research and development of the product, part-sourcing, coordinating manufacturing, kitting, maintaining inventory, and data management.


Prototyping Engineer|Geekify Inc
November 2012 - November 2014|Boulder CO

Develop embedded electronics in geeky products such as roll-play-game electronic accessories, solid state musical tesla coil, and an electromagnetic ferrofluid controller. Responsibilities include research and development of new product ideas, circuit design and breadboarding, PCB design and assembly, parts sourcing and manufacturing.

-PCB design in EagleCAD & KiCAD
-Embedded programming in Arduino, Atmel Studio, & WinAVR
-SMD soldering
-Part sourcing and manufacturing
-Electronic enclosure design in SketchUp & Blender
-3D printing MakerBot Replicator 2 & MakerWare
-Laser-cutting design in SketchUp & Inkscape
-CNC routing on Shapeoko2 using SketchUp, Inkscape, EagleCAD, & G-Code


Owner|Acata LLC
August 2011 - August 2014|Westminster CO

Acata LLC has utilized small unmanned aerial vehicles for use in open-pit mine surveying. Utilized open-source Arduino based autopilots to guide the UAVs on GPS waypoint plans. Later, used multi-rotor helicopters to film from the air. Utilized an Arduino-based autopilot with our own custom code to control the camera mount independently from the helicopter. Wrote the code using the Arduino IDE, utilizing Ardupilot libraries for gathering IMU data, reading PWM signals from a RC receiver, and writing PWMs to control servos. Also wrote a few custom libraries in C++ including custom PID libraries. The work my company has done has taken us around the world from Africa to Australia.


UAV Pilot|Aibotix GmbH
July 2012 - August 2012|Kassel Germany, Swakopmund Namibia

Contracted as sUAV pilot for a feature film in Namibia, Africa. Piloted and maintained two Aibot X6s and camera equipement.

-sUAV Piloting
-Aerial Cinematography
-Mikropilot Configuration


Engineering Intern|Barrick Gold Corporation
June 2011 - June 2012|USA, Canada, Australia

Developed small UAVs for open-pit mine surveying using alternative open-source technology. Responsible for adapted Arduino based autopilots to autonomously control hobby grade fixed wing aircraft, multi-rotors, and blimps. Wrote custom application-based ground control software to communicate with the aircrafts from the ground.

-Aerial photogrammetry for open-pit surveying
-sUAS piloting and autopilot adaptation of fixed-wings, blimps, and multirotors
-Ardupilot configuration and code customization in Arduino
-Experience configuring MicroPilot, MikroKopter, and Kestral autopilots
-Attended trade shows, business ventures, and clients