Projects
A selection of favorite art, tech, and community projects
Biotech Hands-On Course
I've always been passionate about lifespan, healthspan, and human potential. When advances in AI, precision medicine, and longevity started moving forward quickly,
I left my program management job at Adobe to get a Master's in Biotech, with the intention of remaining in strategy and ops, but refocusing on healthtech.
I had a lot of great profs and classes in my grad program, but since it was largely online, a major downside was the complete lack of hands-on training.
Prior to the Master's, I had also taken a long series of online courses through MITx,
all of which were also fantastic, but again, lacked the hands-on. My friend Nate and I are now working on aligning existing online content with hands-on labs that could be executed at community lab spaces.
Black Rock Rangers
Black Rock Rangers are volunteers who support the Burning Man community by providing information, helping lost participants, mediating conflicts, responding to emergencies, and connecting people with needed resources.
Rangering is a fantastic way to build conflict resolution skills, work alongside some truly remarkable people, and get comfortable engaging with strangers in all manner of bizarre situations.
I have served as a Ranger since 2008 in a wide range of roles, including Dirt Ranger, Green Dot, Mentor, Trainer, Sandman, Shift Lead, Training Academy member, and Communications Manager as part of the Ranger Council.
Piano Art Car
A few years ago, I decided that it was a shame that so few Burning Man mutant vehicles were interactive, and that what the world needed was a giant roving interactive piano art car.
I convinced a group of people that this needed to happen, and over the course of a few months, we built the Wandering Hands Piano Bar.
The final project was a 15' by 25' functional (via electric keyboards) grand piano built around the bed of a Ford F250. The front of the piano (back of the truck) had a platform with a piano bench that musicians could jump onto and start playing,
with a microphone for those who wanted to sing. The bed of the truck had a cushioned lounge area for the audience. We built speakers into the piano lid, lit up the contour with EL wire, and made a chandelier. It was a big hit!
Search and Rescue Land Navigation Hybrid Course
I strongly believe that new information sticks best when students arrive at an in-person class having already spent some time thinking or problem solving around the subject matter, and that an in-person class should build on and
reinforce existing neural pathways and frameworks, instead of having to forge them afresh.
I had been involved in SAR for a few years when our Carl, Land Navigation instructor, and I decided to create a set of online courses that covered the recurring classroom lectures.
I created a three-part (Map, Compass, and GPS) Captivate course that combined lecture and hands-on navigation problems. The on-screen cartoon instructor was my friend Possu's rendition of Carl, and the course was voiced over by a few different SAR members.
The students would take the online course, complete a homework assignment, and only then come to the live class for additional training.
Everything needed to complete the assignment was in the online lecture, and the students could email the instructor list for additional help, but no one was allowed to enter the live class without the completed homework in hand.
The online course ended up getting used across SAR, and I became the course director and main instructor for the navigation class for several years afterward.
Trashbot
One April Fools, some of my friends and I decided to equip a trash can with wheels, motors, a mike and speaker, a webcam, and a squirt gun, and drive it around campus, begging passers-by for trash (and squirting non-compliers). The project went off brilliantly!
Here's an article about it in UW's Electrical Engineering news that calls it "one of the best April Fools stunts ever pulled off on campus."
FIRST Robotics
In early college, I was the president of the UW/Roosevelt High School FIRST robotics team, a project that became my life for two years.
Once each year's challenge was revealed, teams had six weeks to design and build a large (~6 x 4 ft) robot to solve that year's task, usually involving some sort of rapid obstacle navigation and object manipulation.
Robots were subject to weight, size, parts, and budget constraints. At the end of the six weeks, all robots had to be crated and shipped to the competition.
The project was run like a start-up. While the build cycle itself was only six weeks, the effort was year-round. Outside of the build process, I led our year-round operations, including recruiting team members, coordinating fundraising, getting everyone into the machine shop
for manufacturing training, and coordinating training in video editing and 3D animation. The build and travel cost was around 55k per year, so I worked with a business school student who helped us write grant proposals and raise funds.
The six week build was intense: we had to develop a strategy, build prototypes, decide on a final direction, manufacture all of the parts in the machine shop, program and wire the electronics (including an autonomous mode), and constantly test and debug.
There were constant competing priorities; each subteam needed access to the robot to test or deploy their components, including the drivers, who needed to practice maneuvering it for the competion.
On top of the main robot build, we had to create a website and produce 3D animations and videos of the robot for sub-competitions.
My job was to lead the vision and strategic discussions, ensure that all of the subteams stayed aligned and that everyone had everything that they needed, make sure that each subteam was getting access to the robot at least for some time, manage budget,
fight any fires that came up, and pitch in where needed. I was constantly brainstorming, problem solving, working in the machine shop, running around getting parts, solving conflicts, talking frustrated team members off a cliff, and finding alternate pathways.
This was my first exposure to the world of startups, and I loved every moment of the intensity, rapid creativity and problem solving, nonstop action, and having to be everything everywhere all at once.
After my second year, I co-authored and presented a paper on FIRST Robotics in the University Environment
at the 2004 Hawaii International Conference on Education.
Biotech Hands-On Course
I've always been passionate about lifespan, healthspan, and human potential. When advances in AI, precision medicine, and longevity started moving forward quickly, I left my program management job at Adobe to get a Master's in Biotech, with the intention of remaining in strategy and ops, but refocusing on healthtech. I had a lot of great profs and classes in my grad program, but since it was largely online, a major downside was the complete lack of hands-on training. Prior to the Master's, I had also taken a long series of online courses through MITx, all of which were also fantastic, but again, lacked the hands-on. My friend Nate and I are now working on aligning existing online content with hands-on labs that could be executed at community lab spaces.
Black Rock Rangers
Black Rock Rangers are volunteers who support the Burning Man community by providing information, helping lost participants, mediating conflicts, responding to emergencies, and connecting people with needed resources. Rangering is a fantastic way to build conflict resolution skills, work alongside some truly remarkable people, and get comfortable engaging with strangers in all manner of bizarre situations. I have served as a Ranger since 2008 in a wide range of roles, including Dirt Ranger, Green Dot, Mentor, Trainer, Sandman, Shift Lead, Training Academy member, and Communications Manager as part of the Ranger Council.
Piano Art Car
A few years ago, I decided that it was a shame that so few Burning Man mutant vehicles were interactive, and that what the world needed was a giant roving interactive piano art car.
I convinced a group of people that this needed to happen, and over the course of a few months, we built the Wandering Hands Piano Bar.
The final project was a 15' by 25' functional (via electric keyboards) grand piano built around the bed of a Ford F250. The front of the piano (back of the truck) had a platform with a piano bench that musicians could jump onto and start playing,
with a microphone for those who wanted to sing. The bed of the truck had a cushioned lounge area for the audience. We built speakers into the piano lid, lit up the contour with EL wire, and made a chandelier. It was a big hit!
Search and Rescue Land Navigation Hybrid Course
I strongly believe that new information sticks best when students arrive at an in-person class having already spent some time thinking or problem solving around the subject matter, and that an in-person class should build on and
reinforce existing neural pathways and frameworks, instead of having to forge them afresh.
I had been involved in SAR for a few years when our Carl, Land Navigation instructor, and I decided to create a set of online courses that covered the recurring classroom lectures.
I created a three-part (Map, Compass, and GPS) Captivate course that combined lecture and hands-on navigation problems. The on-screen cartoon instructor was my friend Possu's rendition of Carl, and the course was voiced over by a few different SAR members.
The students would take the online course, complete a homework assignment, and only then come to the live class for additional training.
Everything needed to complete the assignment was in the online lecture, and the students could email the instructor list for additional help, but no one was allowed to enter the live class without the completed homework in hand.
The online course ended up getting used across SAR, and I became the course director and main instructor for the navigation class for several years afterward.
Trashbot
One April Fools, some of my friends and I decided to equip a trash can with wheels, motors, a mike and speaker, a webcam, and a squirt gun, and drive it around campus, begging passers-by for trash (and squirting non-compliers). The project went off brilliantly! Here's an article about it in UW's Electrical Engineering news that calls it "one of the best April Fools stunts ever pulled off on campus."
FIRST Robotics
In early college, I was the president of the UW/Roosevelt High School FIRST robotics team, a project that became my life for two years.
Once each year's challenge was revealed, teams had six weeks to design and build a large (~6 x 4 ft) robot to solve that year's task, usually involving some sort of rapid obstacle navigation and object manipulation.
Robots were subject to weight, size, parts, and budget constraints. At the end of the six weeks, all robots had to be crated and shipped to the competition.
The project was run like a start-up. While the build cycle itself was only six weeks, the effort was year-round. Outside of the build process, I led our year-round operations, including recruiting team members, coordinating fundraising, getting everyone into the machine shop
for manufacturing training, and coordinating training in video editing and 3D animation. The build and travel cost was around 55k per year, so I worked with a business school student who helped us write grant proposals and raise funds.
The six week build was intense: we had to develop a strategy, build prototypes, decide on a final direction, manufacture all of the parts in the machine shop, program and wire the electronics (including an autonomous mode), and constantly test and debug.
There were constant competing priorities; each subteam needed access to the robot to test or deploy their components, including the drivers, who needed to practice maneuvering it for the competion.
On top of the main robot build, we had to create a website and produce 3D animations and videos of the robot for sub-competitions.
My job was to lead the vision and strategic discussions, ensure that all of the subteams stayed aligned and that everyone had everything that they needed, make sure that each subteam was getting access to the robot at least for some time, manage budget,
fight any fires that came up, and pitch in where needed. I was constantly brainstorming, problem solving, working in the machine shop, running around getting parts, solving conflicts, talking frustrated team members off a cliff, and finding alternate pathways.
This was my first exposure to the world of startups, and I loved every moment of the intensity, rapid creativity and problem solving, nonstop action, and having to be everything everywhere all at once.
After my second year, I co-authored and presented a paper on FIRST Robotics in the University Environment
at the 2004 Hawaii International Conference on Education.