Background

Working on safety-critical automotive parts at Tesla and Toyoda Gosei taught me the importance of sustained precision when crafting real-world solutions. Lithium-ion battery cells, for example, have micro-meter tolerances with dozens of failure checks and getting one cell wrong could lead to a thermal event. Laser welded fuel valves, as well, demand continued manufacturing accuracy due to their proximity to gas powered engines and their potential to explode. Getting things wrong certainly leads to company losses, but more consequentially, people's safety can be compromised. Working through and finding solutions to these problems helped shape my perspective on crafting technology solutions today--even if those solutions are purely digital. 

I learned how to code and implement Programable Logic Controllers (PLCs), microcontrollers, and six-axis robotic programming in automotive environments. These skills were developed "on the line" as they say in the manufacturing field. When poke-yokes needed to be added to an automation machine, I would add the logic to the PLC. When we needed a wireless controller to start our Automated Guided Vehicle, I created a radio receiver with the necessary functionality. When a servo motor failed in a Kawasaki robot, I programed the six-axis-robot after the motor was replaced. Working through these problems (and many others) allowed me to dive into the world of programming and start experiencing the ecstasy of success! It also led to me becoming more familiar with how data was collected "off the line". 

A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) takes all the data from individual PLCs and throws it into a data lake server. This data can be queried to answer questions from all the different teams in a manufacturing plant. I soon found myself answering questions, finding failures, and auditing automation machines by looking through available data and presenting it meaningfully. There were always multiple daily questions about yield from the production team. Other questions from the quality assurance team often came in as well. And, especially on Tesla's Battery Cell Pilot line, I audited MES reports and identified plant issues .  Immersing myself in these problems led to a certificate in Data Engineering, a love of data visualization, and desire to create robust endpoints for user data. 

The natural next step for me was to join a team dedicated to providing SaaS. Here I learned web frameworks, version control, scrums, authentication, Frontend, Backend, Deployment, and so much more! I'm always looking, I'm always learning, I'm always delivering solutions! I've prototyped IoT solutions with gas and smoke sensors transmitting data to a collaborative website. I've supported business solutions for employee churn, data auditing, and event driven applications. I've also worked on ecommerce solutions with pristine frontend development. 

Let me know if I can help you find similar technology solutions!

Cheers!