Robotics
Robotics has been my passion since elementary school, when I built my first remote-controlled robot in 2006 with titanium gifted from friendly mentors online. What began as a childhood fascination evolved into competitive excellence, where I led teams to victory in SkillsCanada competitions, then blossomed professionally in my first job with industrial automation.
This early and professional foundation culminated in a semifinalist placement in the prestigious ANA Avatar XPRIZE global robot competition in 2020-2021, as a side project competing against fully-funded research teams worldwide. Building on this achievement, I secured government funding from Next-Gen Manufacturing Canada to develop a functional teleoperation prototype with local manufacturer Candor Industries (2022-2023).
This successful pilot project was executed at just 1% of our typical competitor's budget and generated pre-order revenue, validating my forecast that manufacturing would be the ideal first market for next-generation robots. I also correctly predicted experiential data as a stepping stone to advanced autonomy well before LLMs became mainstream.
"A Different Kind of Education" - The Toronto Star, October 2022
AI
My fascination with AI began with a deeper inquiry into complex systems in general, catalyzed by observing the 2008 recession - a crisis that revealed disconnects between financial abstractions and real-world productive capacity. This systems-level analytic thinking led me to the 2012 Peter Thiel Fellowship alongside future AI pioneers like Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, who would later become known for his contributions to AI explainability (interpretability). As an open-source hardware pioneer, I have deeply explored the intersection of manual instructions and automation for industrial system buildouts and processes, gaining unique insights into the interface between conceptual-digital intelligence and physical actions - critical for embodied robotic AI.
In 2024, my general autonomy design was approved by Next-Gen Manufacturing Canada and the Canadian Space Agency; also, my AI strategy was validated by Tenstorrent ($1B AI chip leader).
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Software Engineering
I designed and developed a high-rel software system, as first employee, CTO, and lead programmer for a start-up that went public at a $300M IPO.
I am familiar with many software subdomains: web, mobile, embedded, native (program/daemon), server (sysadmin), and more.
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Electrical Engineering
My tutorials for KiCad (the leading open-source Electronic Design Automation Suite sponsored by CERN) were featured on their homepage.
Infrastructure Electrical: I have performed 10kVA work that was inspected and approved by the Ontario Electrical Safety Authority.
Component Supply Chain: I am deeply familiar with hundreds of top component suppliers and have read thousands of parts datasheets. I have a high-reliability bias for industrial-grade and automotive-grade components, in accordance with the auto sector's "zero defect" mantra.
Corporate Landscape: I am aware of the e-component corporate landscape, such as Analog Devices' acquisition of Maxim Integrated (2021) and Infineon's acquisition of Cypress (2019). I am rooting for Fujitsu Semiconductor to be a successful FeRAM manufacturer with good-quality and lower-cost. Likewise for EPC for GanFET technology.
I am up-to-date with the latest interconnect technologies (CAN-FD SiC, Single Pair Ethernet, IO Link).
Notable Component Example: 100V-10A Power Diode with 2uA reverse leakage and 220A-8.3ms surge withstand (AEC-Q, -55C to +175C): Diodes, SBR10M100P5Q-13
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Mechanical Engineering
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I published several bugfixes and a 3+2 macro for the Autodesk POST for the Brother M200X3 here on PracticalMachinist.
Design for manufacturing (DFM) is important for cost control and yield control (consistent quality). I have 1000+ hours of first-hand manufacturing experience:
- Hundreds of hand tools and simple devices (ex. arbor press)
- Bandsaw, Cold Saw, Oxyacetylene Cutting
- MIG Welding
- Soldering (Pace ADS200 65W), Hot Air Reflow
- PCB Assembly (Manual Jetting, Pick and Place, Reflow)
- 5-axis CNC machining, Schunk Vero-S Zero-Point Adapters
Mechanical Reliability: Small upgrades can make a big difference. Nylon locknuts or threadlocker eliminate huge swaths of shock and vibration failures without the excess cost of safety wire. In other cases, special phenomena must be known in advance to prevent catastrophic in-field failures (galling, galvanic corrosion, fatigue cracking) and destress longevity/maintenance (disproportionate wear, ablation).
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Systems Engineering
Optimization Sense: I am good at figuring out how to improve the quality of a solution or system.
User Experience Sense: I'm good at envisioning precisely how users will interact with a solution or system—both when everything works as intended and when they encounter unexpected scenarios or edge cases.
High-Quality System Standard: A solution or system should be: safe, reliable, and easy-to-use, with no exceptions.
I have participated in planning workshops for the Canadian Space Agency.
Other Skills
Tools:
Typing Speed
110 WPM (certificate)
Reading Speed
1000+ WPM