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Nigel Rodrigues

Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering

I have finished my final year of Masters in Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo and now working at Cruise Automation in San Francisco, California as a Sensor Automation & Calibration Engineer. I have an insatiable curiosity and enjoy learning new skills. My hobbies include photography, travelling, playing sports, and designing.

Experience & Education

Skills & Knowledge

Design & Simulation

  • Solidworks Advanced
  • Siemens NX
  • Ansys

Hardware

  • Arduino
  • Rasbery Pi Learning
  • LabVIEW | LabWindows/CVI
  • ⠀

Microsoft & Adobe Suite

  • Word | Excel | Powerpoint
  • Photoshop | Lightroom
  • Illustrator | InDesign

PLM & Project Tracking

  • Agile
  • JIRA
  • SCRUM

Programming

Front End

  • HTML5
  • CSS3 & SASS
  • JavaScript
  • React/ReduxAdvanced
  • jQuery

Back End

  • RubyAdvanced
  • Rails
  • SQL & MongoDB
  • Node.js
  • Express

Data Analysis

  • MATLAB
  • R
  • PythonAdvanced
  • D3
  • C/C++

Design Process

Projects

  • Project

    NAO Robotics

  • Description

    Robot Dynamics and Control Lab to raise the NAO robots arm when it recognizes specific text

  • Skills

    Robotics, Python

  • Project

    Spectacle

  • Description

    Designed & 3D printed a new frame that can retrofit my lenses as I broke the frame of my glasses playing soccer

  • Skills

    Product Design, Rapid Prototyping

  • Project

    HABOO

  • Description

    Designed an experiment to measure how dispersing calcite aerosol into the stratosphere, can mitigate climate change by reflecting solar radiation and altering the Earth’s albedo

  • Skills

    Aerospace, Climate Science

  • Project

    EcoCar

  • Description

    Designed and built a zero emissions vehicle from scratch to compete in the Shell Eco-Marathon.

    I designed the aeroshell of the vehicle, the outer body which houses all the internals such as the suspension, steering, fuel cell and drivetrain. Multiple design iterations were required and heavy collaboration with the suspension, steering and fuel cell teams to ensure effective integration of all vehicle components to meet competition specifications for safety, performance and structural integrity.

    The design was inspired by NACA air foils for an aerodynamic design and the FEA analysis was performed using ANSYS.

  • Skills

    Automotive, Vehicle Dynamics

  • Project

    Sentey

  • Description

    Sentey is a data visualization tool that is used to analyze tweets for varying sentiment and emotion. Users will provide a key word or hashtag, and Sentey will filter and retrieve the latest tweets that match the specific keyword or hashtag and then parse the information for the context it was used in.

  • Skills

    Software, Data Visualization, Natural Language Processing

  • Github

  • Project

    Orthodontic Torque Simulator

  • Description

    Designed, purchased and assembled a dual camera setup to track speckle patterns on orthodontic braces to measure 3D deformation in braces.

    Coded in National Instruments LabWindows/CVI (coding version of LabVIEW) to communication between hardware components (cameras, inclinometer, stepper motors, and load cells) and streamlined the GUI to make testing more efficient and user friendly

  • Skills

    Product Design, Biomedical, Hardware, Optics

  • Project

    Helpin' Hand

  • Description

    Designed an assistive device for persons with limited accessibility or grip strength where opening door knobs/jars are difficult. Instead this device converts door knobs into lever arms by providing mechanical leverage for the user.

  • Skills

    Product Design, Assistive Device

  • Project

    Watchie

  • Description

    Watchie is a mobile application that will provide users with information about their time management. Every 30 minutes, users will receive push notifications asking for their current or nearby location. At any point, users can view a dashboard displaying information about how they have been spending their time.

  • Skills

    Software, Node, React

  • Github

  • Project

    Reduced Gravity Experiments

  • Description

    Designed an experiment to study how droplets freeze in microgravity to better understand its nanomaterial properties and crystallization.

  • Skills

    Aerospace, Material Science

  • Project

    Annico

  • Description

    Developed a conceptual design of a hand-held grappling hook capable of raising Batman to the roof of buildings.

    Design and analysis of the launching & retraction mechanism as well as the gear box & motor to support the torque load and weight of Batman.

  • Skills

    Product Design

  • Project

    Stocs

  • Description

    Stocs is a Ruby on Rails web application using React on the front end. With Stocs, you can search for live and historical stock data of almost every public trading company, as well as create and account to add stocks to your watchlist previews on a private dashboard.

  • Skills

    Software, FinTech

  • Github

  • Project

    Valens Engineering

  • Description

    Redesigned a ski hinge for CADS (Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing) as their skis were failing in extreme cold, leaving disabled skiers stranded on ski hills.

    Analyzed failure mode of existing skis, and used that to design a functionally equivalent part with stronger materials that can be mounted on existing skis.

  • Skills

    Product Design, Failure Analysis

  • Project

    Drone

  • Description

    Designed, prototyped and tested a deployment mechanism for a drone (octocopter) to release autonomous robots from the underside of the drone.

    The final design was optimized for weight and power consumption and was able to release multiple robots at different times using a single servo motor.

    This project was in collaboration with the City of Leed's effort to deploying sensing robots towards a smart city.

  • Skills

    Aerospace, Drone

  • Project

    Robot

  • Description

    Designed a robot that can move through an obstacle course as well as independently move a camera using only 2 motors. The camera motion was coupled with the steering mechanism a Geneva wheel mechanism for intermittent motion.

  • Skills

    Automotive, Hardware

  • Project

    ReplaceImg

  • Description

    This is a chrome extension that replaces all images on a webpage with dogs (can be replaced with any picture). It is served to be an introduction to creating web extensions.

  • Skills

    Software, Chrome Extensions

  • Github

Competitions & Hackathons

  • Project

    UAEC Senior Design Competition

  • Description

    Used a VEX robotics kit to design and construct a robot that maneuvers through an obstacle course (in varying terrain) and pick up objects with the arm and transfer them to a new location.

    The design had to optimize tasks competed, completion time and materials used. By receiving 1st place in this competition, we were able to compete in the Western Engineering Competition.

  • Skills

    Hardware, Arduino, Sensor

  • Project

    Western Engineering Competition

  • Description

    Designed a bridge over a large body of water to efficiently manage traffic over four land zones. Constructed prototype using cardboard and Arduino, which was used to automate specific talked through the incorporation of ultrasonic position sensors.

  • Skills

    Hardware, Arduino, Sensor

  • Project

    NASA's Space Apps Hackathon

  • Description

    Part of NASA and CSA's space apps challenge, with efforts to communicate the changing climate with Canadian space data to the general public. This Hackathon took place in Kitchener, Ontario.

  • Skills

    Software, Climate Change

  • Github

  • Project

    Global AI Hackathon

  • Description

    Using Microsoft’s Cognitive Services API to analyze the emotion of posts on Instagram.

  • Skills

    Software, AI

  • Visit Website

  • Project

    Nimbus

  • Description

    Concept design page for a business that will aid small businesses forecast and gain market insight in their industry.

  • Skills

    Software

  • Github

  • Project

    Avigilon Hackathon.

  • Description

    Designed and prototyped a pan & tilt adapter for a camera assembly which can be controlled wirelessly via Bluetooth.

  • Skills

    Hardware, Camera

  • Project

    Dragonfly

  • Description

    Web app that provides details to stock information, allowing beginner investors make more informed decisions.

  • Skills

    Software, FinTech

  • Github

  • Project

    Western Engineering Competition

  • Description

    Designed and constructed a structurally sound "smart" bridge that can allow tall boats to pass underneath, as well as a rotating pedestrian walkway controlled via an Arduino.

  • Skills

    Hardware, Robotics

  • Project

    UAEC Senior Design Competition

  • Description

    Using VEX robotics to design and construct a robot that maneuvers through an obstacle course (in varying terrain) and pick up objects with the arm and transfer them to a new location.

    The design had to optimize tasks competed, completion time and materials used. By receiving 1st place in this competition, we were able to compete in the Western Engineering Competition.

  • Skills

    Hardware, Robotics

  • Project

    Microsoft University Coding Competition

  • Description

    Coded algorithms and functions in varying languages to solve a series of coding challenges.

  • Skills

    Software, Algorithms

Photography



Instagram

Additional Information

Sports

Soccer Competitive

Basketball

Badminton

Volleyball

Golf

Swimming

Tennis Learning

Hiking



Training

Youth Toastmaster's Certificate

Mill & Lathe Training

Certified Solidworks CSWA

ACSA Safety Certfcaton

Map

Travel

Lived in ...


North America

14 years

Asia

7 years

Middle East

5 years

Europe

4 months



Travelled to ...


Cities

50+

Countries

20+

Continents

5 / 7



Map