Projects

Below is a list of projects that I have had the opportunity to support in a professional capacity, or work on at a personal level.

Professional Projects

Independent Hardware Design Verification, China Nuclear — Invensys Ltd.

As a reviewer in an IHDV role, my responsibilities were to review and verify 1E Triconex, Priority Logic Module, and Isolation cabinet drawings; termination reports; combustibles reports; and cable lists of multiple units of various nuclear power plants for any errors, concerns, anomalies, or discrepancies with sister and parent documents. Additionally, I developed and implemented the review procedure used for all document types, in order to lead a dynamic, international group of engineers in the successful verification of these documents. All issues were tracked through the use of Document Review Comment Sheets, which my team prepared, and I submitted to the engineering team after liaising with the senior engineer. Upon final resolution of all issues, the documents were issued Certified For Construction. Furthermore, after construction of the lead unit for all plants, I led my team in the verification of the redline markups to ensure that the requirements of applicable codes and standards were maintained. While serving as project manager, I attended weekly meetings with our client to discuss deliverables and the shifting priorities of the project. I also prepared and regularly updated a tracking sheet to present to all stakeholders the current status of every document that had entered our review queue, as well as provided supporting information to the scheduling team to update their P6 schedule on a weekly basis. I took the responsibility of issuing bi-weekly invoices, and supported the project owner if issues arose. Lastly, I worked with the senior reviewer to prepare training documentation and train a new team to continue IHDV tasks for follow-on units at the conclusion of Ready's contract.

Software Verification Support, China Nuclear — Invensys Ltd.

As part of the software verification team, I verified Functional Drawings (FDs) of NC and NC+ level safety systems of the software for a nuclear power plant. The FDs were verified against approved FDs from an identical plant, as well as Logic Diagrams, Analog Diagrams, Set Point Manuals, and I/O lists. All issues were tracked through the use of Anomaly Report Comment Sheets, which were submitted to the engineering team via the lead reviewer.

Software Engineering Support, China Nuclear — Invensys Ltd.

As a part of the software engineering team, my responsibilities centred primarily on updating the Software Design Descriptions of the 75 NC systems, which were maintained in IBM Rational DOORS. Updates were made based on the Software Requirement Specifications, System Requirements Specification, and the Common Software Design Description—which served as a master description for all systems. Other responsibilities included working with the verification team to ensure that the descriptions met the required standards, addressing the issues from the verification team as detailed in the Anomaly Report Comment Sheets, and ensuring that all descriptions were accurate and approved on schedule.

E-Mail Infrastructure Upgrade and Migration — Ready Engineering Corporation

In the upgrade of Ready Engineering's e-mail infrastructure, I began by preparing a report for the President documenting the benefits and drawbacks of five possible new e-mail solutions, and how each option succeeded in relation to the existing system. Upon approval to investigate further into a hosted Exchange server solution, I led the system administration team to test the new features of the e-mail solution, find drawbacks of the system, and determined a method of implementation. With final approval to proceed with the solution, I prepared a migration plan and procedure, and successfully migrated all employees of Ready Engineering to the new e-mail system with as minimal impact to their work flow as possible in a one month time frame. I then maintained a role as e-mail administrator, and oversaw all updates to users, maintained the user database, implemented additional features, and provided troubleshooting support as needed.

BHP Billiton Jansen Waste Water Treatment Plant — Stuart Olson Dominion

In the development of a work camp in Jansen, SK, Ready Engineering was subcontracted to lead the electrical design work for the waste water treatment plant. As an EIT on this project, my first task was to design the grounding and bonding layout for the main equipment in the plant—including designing redundant bonding paths for large equipment as desired by the client. I then moved into calculating the voltage drop for lighting fixtures and all electrical receptacles in the building, and ensuring that the total drop was within specifications. Afterwards, I led the development of FVNR and VFD motor schematics for the 45 main motors in the plant, while also preparing the MCC elevation drawings and panel schedules for the electrical distribution in the building. During commissioning, I supported Ready's field engineer with the verification of correct wiring of motor schematics and the fire alarm/gas detection system. Based on the findings of this field engineer, I also directed the preparation of redline markups. Lastly, as acting project manager, I became the client point-of-contact for Ready, and maintained a strong organization of Ready's role in the project. This included tracking all inbound and outbound transmittals between Ready and our client; coordinating the review of shop drawings; responding to all Requests for Information (RFIs) in a timely manner; maintaining a status tracking database of all deliverables Ready was responsible for; driving the internal QA/QC process for deliverables prior to transmission; and prioritizing all internal and external requests, renegotiating as necessary.

Edmonton Area Power Distribution Modelling — EPCOR Utilities Inc.

While seconded to EPCOR, my primary task was to update the existing ETAP model for the City of Edmonton electricity distribution to include updated information. The system model contained all electrical distribution between the 500kV and 15kV levels. This involved reviewing provided branch circuits for errors, and implementing them in the appropriate place in the model. Additionally, I had generated multiple time-current curves (TCCs) for each major substation for a future fuse and relay coordination analysis. Lastly, I created an ETAP library for the client containing all the timers used that were not included in the default ETAP libraries, and prepared a training document describing the creation and use of this library for the client.

District of Sparwood Highway Beautification — McElhanney

For this project, my responsibilities started with updating the existing CAD files to incorporate updates to the designed street, traffic and pedestrian lighting layouts; as well as specify appropriate signage as per the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure standards. Furthermore, I traced all traffic signalling cabling in the two highway junctions being redesigned to ensure that sufficient cables for proper signalling have been specified, and laid out efficiently. Given the proximity of one junction to a living area, I also was responsible for ensuring the upgrades would not impact existing communication systems and shallow utilities. Lastly, I prepared alternate solutions for cable vaults and pedestrian walkways to present to the client.

Thickener Control System Upgrade — Teck Metals Ltd.

In the upgrade of two thickener systems by Ready, I supported the project by preparing drawings detailing the existing configuration of each system, and created multiple drawing sets of upgraded systems detailing solutions based on a wishlist by the client and a list of automation points. After discussion with the client, the final design for both thickeners was selected, and a complete package was created showing the new system, as well as the changes to be made to the existing system to interact with the new PLC.

Teck Coal Truck Warehouse Fire Alarm — SimplexGrinnell

Under the guide of a senior engineer, I led the design of a new fire alarm system for a truck warehouse and the attached office. Based on national and provincial codes—as well as client specifications—I specified the placement of horn/strobe devices, smoke/heat detectors, pull stations, and the fire alarm control panel. After verifying the voltage drops across the cable length, I prepared the riser diagram detailing the NAC and IDC circuits. Lastly, I devised a naming scheme for all devices, and finalized a building layout drawing set detailing the locations of all devices, and the corresponding name for each device.

Other Projects

LED Grow Light Shelf

This is a project that I completed for my mother. My mom is an avid gardener, and loves to plant different vegetables every year — usually creating entire salads and side dishes from her garden's produce by mid- to late-summer. Unfortunately, due to the climate of the Edmonton region, the growing season is quite limited, so to get a head start, she likes to start her plants indoors in January. To aid these growing endeavors, she would purchase different grow lights. For one set of these lights, I installed them on an old, unused bookshelf, and spaced the lights to provide even coverage on each of the four shelves. I then created a switch system to allow for independent control for the lights on each shelf, while supplying the lights from a single power source.

Undercabinet Lighting and Dimmer

This is another project for mom. The lighting in her kitchen was a bit lacking, so I purchased a five meter long strip of warm-white LEDs, matching the colour temperature of the bulbs installed in the kitchen. I also created a small dimmer based off a PWM signal created by a 555-timer, and mounted it in a housing with a potentiometer containing a built-in switch. I installed the LED strips under the cabinetry in the kitchen, cutting them as necessary to route around corners and across the stove; and mounted the dimmer knob in an easy to access location that optimized the wiring.

Announcements Notice Board — ISIA of Edmonton

This is a project I undertook during the renovation of my local religious center. At the time, I was the elected program organizer, and one of the ideas I used extensively during my term was to have a running slideshow detailing announcements, upcoming events, and other information pertinent to the membership. I would typically display these presentations during breaks in the live broadcast, before and after programs, and during any meal services. During the renovations, we replaced the existing notice boards with televisions, and I created the system to display notices on these TVs.

The primary goal was to ensure that the system wouldn't use a protocol that could be easily taken over (e.g. Chromecast), so I elected to use Raspberry Pi Zero W single-board computers programmed with a custom script and on a hidden network. The script would run a Google Sheets slideshow in full screen in a Chromium browser—reloading every six hours to ensure that updates are captured within a reasonable time frame. Additionally, an additional program was written to draw a status bar across the bottom of the screen detailing the current date and time, weather and 3-day forecast, and daily prayer times.

Dragon Boat Monitoring System — MacEwan University

As part on an undergraduate research initiative, I developed the early prototype for a system to track and monitor the performance of a dragon boat team. The final project is to include paddle monitoring systems for each of the paddles of the 20 paddlers on a dragon boat team, a vehicle mounted sensor system to track the boat's movement, and a central data unit to collect the data from the sensor systems. As part of my scope, I was to create a paddle monitoring system to track the paddle position and to attempt to create a stroke profile to identify different stroke types and paddlers. Through the use of an inertial measurement unit and pressure sensor, I was able to develop a system that assesses the motion of the paddle, as well as the force the paddler applies on the water in a typical stroke—which led to the development of several identifiable stroke profiles.

SubmURSA — Autonomous Robotic Vehicle Project

As part of the autonomous robotic vehicle project, I was a team leader in the development of a new autonomous underwater vehicle to be taken to an international competition in San Diego, CA. Through the vehicle's two–year design cycle, I began by leading an electronics team in assessing the lessons learned from the previous vehicle, and applying those lessons with new information and ideas in order to optimize our electronics setup—primarily reducing power consumption, while increasing system efficiency. As a result of a lack of mechanically-inclined team members, I volunteered to move into the mechanical team lead role, where I oversaw the update to a proposed platform design, presented the design to senior engineers in a critical design review, and collaborated with the machine shop to manufacture the platform. Under my leadership, the platform was successfully manufactured and assembled in time for the competition.

Various Guitar Pedals

As a recreational guitar player, I had looked for a way to incorporate my passion for electronics into my hobby of music—which I found through the creation of various sound effect processing modules (pedals). From a background in analog systems, combined with internet research and practical skills in prototyping and electronics assembly, I was able to assemble several different pedals—including multiple sound modulators, a delay effect, and a pitch shifter—to accentuate and differentiate my personal sound.

Wallpaper Sorter

In my personal computer setup, I have a rotating collection of wallpapers to vary my desktop background at regular intervals. However, after a combination of dark winter nights and some late evenings while working, I had found that some of these wallpaper images—while enjoyable—were quite bright, and potentially causing eye strain. In order to combat this, I had developed a personal piece of software to analyze all my wallpaper images (which are stored in one master folder), and label them as "light" or "dark" based on an adjustable threshold average colour. Once labeled, the wallpapers are then automatically moved from the master folder to the active folder (the folder where the desktop background draws its images from) to allow for the light and dark images during the day, and just the dark ones after sunset.