In my youth, I was always in the garage taking apart my toys and put them back together. Then finding ways to build my dreams.
I started building electric go carts in middle school. In high school I joined a robotics team and as a co-captain I lead the team to a national ranking of 4th place of 600. One summer I rebuilt my high shop and rewrote the industrial technoloy curriculum. I was restless in my teens. I didn't care to study in a college at the time. I became an apprentice of product design. I was lucky enough to find a job at Ideo. I worked in numerous departments with many great people. I learned everything I could about products design. I was especially focused in the engineering areas. Sitting at the feet of the great minds in product design I learned volumes and would steal their engineering textbooks off their desks at night and study into the wee hours of the morning.
After almost 4 years at Ideo it was time to go out and see the world. For six months I traveled through Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden. I settled in New York. For the better part of 2004. I freelanced with various architects, lighting designers, several product designers and a few manufacturing firms. I learned a lot about different employers, fields, industries, and cultures.
Through this experience, having worked for many firms, and having to learn how to sell myself, I'd learned the real dollar value of a bachelors degree. I enrolled at a community college in the bay area to complete my general educational requirements and a year later transferred to SF State University. I've continued working as a contractor/freelancer for several firms in the bay area.
In
2004 I developed a line of furniture designed to be fabricated out of
sheets of plywood with no waist material. The design for the coffee table was the feature of an article in Make Magazine's 9th issue which can be viewed here. I exhibited the furniture at the 2006 makers faire where it was picked up by Simplified Building Concepts. The designs could be purchased online. We have since closed the line of production due to a variety of factors.
In the summers of
2005 and 2006 I was contracted to work as an engineer and researcher at Xerox PARC and worked in the hardware systems lab. My research covered
developing technology for: solar power, industrial processes for producing micron scale wires, bio-defense, and highspeed industrial printing press's.
In 2007 I devised a way to make origami out of plastic.
This was exhibited at the 2007 makers faire. The beauty of folded plastic acrylic is in the vastness of it's functionality. If can be used a lamp covers, furnitue and a varriety of architectural application. I am still developing and imporving the
technology. I've been a member of the burning man community for several years and am one of the main organizers for the Slumber Marshals Theme Camp.
I'm currently studying electronics product development in the Design and Industry department at SFSU with plans to graduate in spring 2009.
For my senior research project I researched, designed and prototyped a 3d printer which was radically lower in cost than current models on the market. I'm currently refining the design of this machine and and pursuing a possible production prototype. I will be presenting my work at the makers faire May 30th and 31st 2009 in San Jose .