User:Shane Oberloier: Difference between revisions

Shane Oberloier
Full Name: Shane William Oberloier
Position: MOST Research Position Applicant
Background: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Current School: Saginaw Valley State University
Interests: Machine Prototyping and Startup, Circuit Board Design and Manufacturing, 3D Printing, Energy Efficient Designs and Methods, Web Design, Teaching, VLSI, Artificial Neural Networks, Open Source Technology
Relevant Work Experience: Research Assistant, Controls Engineering Co-op, Lab Technician's Assistant, FSAE System Leader
Relevant Skills: Machining (CNC, Lathe, Mill), Mechanical design (Sketchup), 3D Printing and Design, Startup and calibration, Circuit design and PCB Routing (NI Circuit Design Suite), VLSI (Electric VLSI), SPICE Modeling, Power Electronics Design, Project and Budget Management, Typesetting (LaTeX) Creative Thinking and Problem Solving, Soldering (TH, SMD), Programming (Visual Basic, LabVIEW, C++, Assembly, Matlab, Octave GNU), Web Design and Maintenance, Advanced Digital Circuit Design
Email: swoberlo@svsu.edu
Website: voltfolio.com (under construction)

Introduction

Hello! I am Shane Oberloier, currently an undergraduate electrical engineering student at Saginaw Valley State University. I am working through my last semester, am now applying at graduate schools across the nation. MTU is on the top of my list because I love it here at my home state of Michigan, and the work done at MOST seems very suited to my interests and skills. My goals at MTU would include increasing my research experience while working to acquire a PhD.

Brief Biography

I am from the small town of Beaverton, MI. I now reside in Saginaw, MI where I work part time as well as study electrical engineering. I have maintained a full schedule as an undergraduate. During my undergraduate career I designed and built the SVSU's FSAE race car electrical system under the advisory of Dr. Brooks Byam. This system is composed of electronic controls and a data acquisition system. The team has performed well in worldwide competitions, receiving 1st place in the acceleration event in 2014. I have also acquired a position as a research assistant under Dr. Yu Zou. The first flagship project we undertook is research and design in power inverter technology. The second project involved conception and construction of a novel machine for making printed circuit boards in an energy and material efficient manner. These projects have involved printed circuit board design, programming, controls, electromechanical design, and construction. Due to my encouragement these projects have recently opened up to more students where I now serve as a mentor figure and lead researcher. I have been recognized for this research effort, along with Dr. Zou, and am now featured on a billboard in the Saginaw area. The last project of note is my recently initialized senior capstone project. Under the advisory of Dr. Rajani Muraleedharan, I am working on a CMOS VLSI implementation of a digital artificial neural network. The goal of this project is to design the system to have a high neural density compared to other chips on the market, as well as be geared for an unforeseeable amount of applications. It should be noted that much of the content of these projects are not covered in regular course work, and have therefore required a commitment to self education and experimentation.

I am currently working as an engineering co-op at Wineman Technology Inc. Wineman serves as an expert in data acquisition technology, with a focus on automotive and aerospace. I have seen all sides of this business, working with electrical system design, basic hydraulic design, programming, and systems troubleshooting. A notable project I played a key part in is the design and configuration of a machine made to test the durability of either oil and vacuum pumps for automotive applications.

Current Employment

Wineman Technology Inc.

• Since October 2013
• AutoCAD design of electrical controls for data acquisition systems. Printed circuit board design in NI Circuit Design Suite. Machine start-up and debugging.

Saginaw Valley State University Electrical Engineering Department

• SinceApril 2014
• Designing and testing circuit boards for power electronics. Design of CNC machine for PCB prototyping. Machining, soldering, 3D modeling, purchasing.

Saginaw Valley State University Chemistry Department

• Since November 2012
• Setting up laboratory experiments. Basic chemistry for mixtures and dilutions. Instrument repair and maintenance.

Undergraduate Projects

• Cardinal Formula Racing Electrical System

Project encompassed many different smaller projects. The main project was designing the wiring harness for the car. Other parts included designing a data acquisition system (using an Arduino and recycled sensors), engine calibration, and vehicle testing.

• Single Phase Power Inverter

The Inverter project entailed understanding a schematic designed by Dr. Yu Zou, and designing a PCB from it. The board was designed and it is currently being tested and refined.

• Automated Copper Applicator for PCB Prototyping (ACAPP)

ACAPP is a project done in collaboration with Dr. Yu Zou all made possible by SVSU's Undergraduate Research Project Grant. The idea is an additive method for constructing circuit boards that is energy efficient, and cost effective. The machine will be designed to automatically lay out a copper tape based on a circuit designed in our custom designed circuit-design suite.

• Programmable Artificial Neural Chip Acquires Knowledge by Experience (PANCAKE)

PANCAKE is my senior capstone project. The equations behind a multi-layer perceptron with back propagation were brought into the discrete domain. From these discrete domain points, digital logic circuits are derived, and will be implemented in CMOS VLSI. The goal is to achieve a count of 1024 neurons, capable of multiple different machine learning tasks. These tasks include but are not limited to, weather prediction, industrial quality control, multi-variable automatic control.

• Voltfolio.com

Voltfolio is my new leading hobby project. It is a blog site containing information about some of my smaller personal projects. The site is custom configured and laid out, and uses Drupal as a content management system.

Irrelevant Interests

Some of my "for fun" interests include:

• Hiking
• Biking
• Sailing
• Dungeons and Dragons
• Guitar
• Carpentry
• Web Design
• Classic Video games