Areas of Expertise

Multi-disciplinary ideation, Creation, Evaluation, and production

“I have a particular set of skills…”

My experience extends over a broad range of subjects, based on a joy of learning and continuous improvement, and enabling me to take on and complete a wide variety of projects.
Additive manufacturing & rapid prototyping
  • 3D printing
  • Basic machining with manual, semi-automated, and automated equipment
  • Computer aided-design and manufacturing (CAD / CAM)
  • Laser ablation, cutting, and etching
Data and Image Analysis
  • ImageJ and Fiji for contact angle, particle analysis, solder voiding, and more
  • Origin, RStudio, and other data analysis packages and programs
  • Spectroscopy and spectral analysis software
Chemistry and materials science & engineering
  • Adhesives, coatings, paints, and primers
  • Analytical, biochemistry, computational, inorganic, organic, organometallic, physical, and polymer chemistry
  • Atomic layer deposition (ALD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and physical vapor deposition (PVD) of thin film coatings and materials
  • Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and other nanometer-sized materials
  • Chemical structure drawing, molecular modeling, and computational chemistry
  • Functional coatings and materials
  • Plasma activation and surface preparation
  • Polymer preparation and processing
  • Protective group chemistry
  • Purifications and separations science
  • Schlenk line, glove box, and inert atmosphere handling and manipulations
  • Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs)
  • Solder joint analysis
  • Surface activation and passivation
Computers
  • Build, maintain, and upgrade desktops, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, networking hardware, servers, and Internet of things (IoT) devices
  • Advanced user of many operating systems, applications, and services
  • Adobe Creative Cloud Suite
  • Content management system (CMS) software: Movable Type, WordPress, etc.
  • Ebook, media, and website production
  • Google Docs / Workspace Suite
  • Home automation: Home Assistant, HomeBridge, HomeKit, etc.
  • Image capturing, editing, manipulating, and processing
  • Microsoft 365 / Office Suite
  • Office and productivity software suites
  • Operating systems: Android, Chrome OS, iOS, macOS, Linux, Windows, etc.
Instrumental analysis, materials characterization, metrology, and test & measurement
  • Cleanliness testing and residue analysis
  • Coating and film thickness
  • Digital photography
  • Environmental Stress Screening
  • Mechanical testing
  • Microscopy
  • Optical and photo-physical analysis
  • Root cause failure analysis
  • Spectroscopy
  • Structure and purity analysis
  • Surface analysis
  • Thermal analysis
Research, reviews, Internet, and investigations with processing, summarizing, presenting, and reporting of findings
  • Academic literature
  • Business development
  • Competitive intelligence
  • Market research
  • Materials selection
  • Medical research
  • Patent research
  • Science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEM / STEAM)
Hardware and Mechanical Projects for building, Maintaining, and repairing items in the Home, Laboratory, Mobility, and Production
  • Automobile air filters, batteries, belts, brakes, dash cameras, grills, lights, mirrors, OBD2 devices, etc.
  • Appliances, bathroom and kitchen faucets and plumbing, electrical outlets and switches, drywall, flooring, furniture and storage, mounts for TVs and mobile devices, organization systems, etc.
  • Chillers, chromatography systems, cross-sectioning saws and grinding / polishing stations, environmental chambers, mechanical test systems, mechanical workshop tools, laser equipment, optical and scanning electron microscopes, plasma cleaners and surface preparation equipment, rotary evaporators, spectroscopy, soldering stations, vacuum pumps and systems, etc.

A few things I’m great at:

3D modeling in CAD programs, such as Autodesk Fusion 360, to create custom 3D printed products for both work and play.

Custom-designed Ring Video Doorbell Pro mount that required angles over different planes and a stepped contour to ensure that the camera would face the desired direction on the exterior of our home.

Synthetic organic chemistry for biomedical research in anti-gene (DNA-binding) and anti-sense (RNA-binding) applications in close collaborations with molecular biology groups.

Computational chemistry to visualize the optimized structure and electronic properties of conjugated organic materials.

Geometry-optimized structures with the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of a three repeat units of a conjugated polymer

Electrochemical synthesis and evaluation of polymers for charge storage applications.

Synthetic organic chemistry, along with analytical, organometallic, physical, and polymer chemistry for evaluating and optimizing the optical properties of polymer-lanthanide-ligand complexes that emitted visible and near-infrared light.

Studying the photo-physics of energy absorption, emission as heat or vibrations, fluorescence, and phosphorescence.

Marketing documents that I significantly contributed to and/or created for promoting laboratory services in academic and commercial laboratories that I managed.

Types of materials characterization and root cause failure analysis related to electronics manufacturing through advanced analytical instrumentation and methods:

  • Ion chromatography for ionic residue contamination analysis
  • Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy for visualization and elemental analysis of ionic corrosion residue
  • Decapsulation of integrated circuit components to evaluate damage from wire bond process and evidence of electrical overstress (EOS) / electrostatic discharge (ESD)
  • Transmission X-ray imaging for counterfeit component analysis, as well as examination of voiding or head-on-pillow defects in ball grid array (BGA) solder joints

Raspberry Pi projects such as OctoPrint for 3D printer control, Pi-Hole network ad-blocking, and more

Software and services on my home network that include running a network attached storage (NAS) / low-end server for:

  • Docker containerized services
  • Home automation and IoT integration using Home Assistant
  • Local web server for development
  • Network share drives
  • Plex Media Server
  • Lightweight virtual machines

Running Pop!_OS Linux on various laptops

Installed and use both Pop!_OS and Windows on both my Dell Chromebook 13 and Lenovo Legion Y720 laptops
Link to how I’m running Windows & Linux on my Dell Chromebook 13.

Running Ubuntu MATE and other virtual machines

Installed and use Ubuntu MATE on a virtual machine, desktops, and Raspberry Pi systems.