Profile

I grew up in Oregon, USA and was home schooled until high school. In high school, I was very shy at first but ended my senior year as student president and was dating my future wife. After high school, I took general engineering classes at a local college for two years then transferred to Oregon State University to study civil engineering. Five years later, I had finished my bachelor’s and master’s degrees and two engineering internships. Now I’m living with my wife in the UK, travelling the globe, and working toward a PhD degree.

Fun fact: I enjoy activities like rock climbing, mountain biking, football, and much more!

My work (general):

In the past, I worked as a civil engineering intern for a water company and a power company. Currently, I research new ideas to improve the positions which we get from satellites. For example, older satellites are being replaced by new satellites that can be used to find more accurate positions. The accuracy and reliability from the new satellites helps farmers use self-driving tractors and allows airplanes to land in heavy fog.

How to use satellites for positioning:

All the satellites used for positioning contain stable atomic clocks that are accurate to 1 nanosecond, that’s one billionth of a second! If you traveled at the speed of light for 1 nanosecond you would only travel 30 centimeters, that is equal to the long edge of your standard A4 paper! Now you can show your friends the accuracy of the atomic clocks which are installed on every positioning satellite.

Imagine that you are on earth and have a clock which perfectly matches a satellite’s clock. The satellite will send a signal and you will time how long the signal takes to reach you on earth. The distance that signal traveled is simply the time you measured multiplied by the speed of light: distance = speed * time. Now you know the exact distance between you and the satellite. If you find the distances to two more satellites (three total) then the intersection of these distances will be your location on earth.

My work (detailed):

The signals we receive from the satellites are interrupted during their journey from space, through the atmosphere, to earth. These errors in the signals must be removed for the best possible positioning results. Thankfully, mathematics and an understanding of how the errors work allows us to correct the signals we receive. My work as an engineer and researcher is to develop new equations and use new corrections to improve positioning.

My normal work day is in an office and begins at 9 am and ends at 5 pm. I spend most of my time on the computer making changes to a positioning program. My supervisors and I meet regularly to discuss the results and plan other research activities. I talk with the other PhD students in the office to solve problems. We also eat lunch together and do sports after work.

I am funded by the TREASURE project which has sent me all over the world to study and learn from experts working at companies and universities. Last year I spent two months in Brazil and two months in Australia studying with the experts!

You can find more information about the TREASURE project on our website: http://www.treasure-gnss.eu/.

The Engineers Without Borders UK organization (https://www.ewb-uk.org/) operates internationally and locally. International projects solve real world engineering problems for people living in poverty such as: providing clean drinking water, sanitizing wastewater, or generating electricity. Locally, the EWB-UK focuses on youth outreach where volunteer Ambassadors teach STEM workshops to students in the UK.

Here are some of the impacts EWB-UK has made globally: https://www.ewb-uk.org/our-initiatives/our-impact/.