Nelson John Bridwell

Objectives

Significantly advance the technical capabilities and commercial applications of machine vision, machine learning, and robotic technologies.

 

Expertise

Machine Vision and Image processing.

Probability, Stochastic Processes, Hidden Markov Models, Pattern Recognition.

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.

Digital signal processing and Control Systems.

Numerical Algorithms and Data Structures.

Computer Architecture and Operating Systems.

 

40 years of software development experience:

C++, C, C#, Assembly/Machine Languages, AWK, PHP, JAVA, LISP, …

MS Windows, UNIX, …

Visual Studio and other integrated code/debug environments.

Event-driven GUIs (MS Windows, X-Windows/Motif).

Coding and Documentation Standards.

Source control utilities and scripted build procedures.

Requirement, design, code, test, and documentation technical reviews.

Support, maintenance, and enhancement of very large legacy applications.

 

Personal Skills

Superb troubleshooting skills when supporting complex systems.

Innovative.  Very capable of thinking outside the box.

Very customer-oriented.

Capable team-player.

Can provide leadership and direction where required.

Capable of writing and delivering excellent training and documentation.

 

Accomplishments

 

2007-Present:  Senior Vision Engineer – ATS Automation, Inc.

  • Successfully designed and implemented pharmaceutical inspection system using 12 GigE Vision cameras and high-resolution Camera Link linescan camera for 100% inspection of molded plastic parts.

  • Successfully designed and implemented system using 8 Congex insight smart cameras for automotive part inspection.

  • Successfully designed and implemented high speed inspection system using 20 GigE cameras, coded in Visual C++, that performs measurement and inspection of glass at 320 fps.   Innovative employment of lighting, optics, and filters.

 

2006-2007:  New Years Day Grand Viennese Ball 

Created, produced, and managed successful event with assistance from Portland Opera and Portland all-classical radio 89.9 FM, and modeled after the Vienna Philharmonic Ball:

  • Opening polonaise, quadrille, and waltz performed by 10 young couples in white dresses and tailcoats.

  • Highlights from Die Fledermaus sung by 5 artists from Portland Opera.

  • Three hours of dancing to waltzes and polkas by Johann Strauss Jr,  performed live by 20 piece orchestra.

  • Fledermaus Quadrille, Gallop, and Grand March performed by all attendees.

 

1988-2006:  Senior Software Engineer – Intel - Portland Technology Development

  • Designed, coded (C, C++, SQL, shell scripts), tested, and installed software for statistical quality control (SPC), inter-fab shipping of wafer and experiment information, and online web access to manufacturing specifications.

  • Responsible for automation support of fab-wide machine vision system for reading (OCR) and tracking wafer movements in the fab.

  • Tested and performed (greenfield and version upgrade) installations of large manufacturing application software on UNIX, MS Windows, and VMS systems for factory support.

  • Performed 24x7 oncall support for all centrally supported factory-critical software.  (Automation downtime cost $1,000,000/hour!)

 

Activities

 

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society

  • Initiated startup and running of new chapter in Portland:  MobileRobot.org/RAS/

  • Arranged guest speakers for presentations on UAVs, the DARPA 2005 and 2007 Challenges, the Intel OpenCV computer vision library, the Microsoft Robotics Studio, and industrial machine vision applications.

  • Typical meeting attendance 50-100 professional engineers.

 

Conferences/Events

  • DARPA Urban Challenge 2007 (Victorville, California)

  • RoboDevelopment Conference and Expo 2007 (San Jose)

  • Robots and Vision Show 2007 (Chicago)

Interviews: http://mobilerobot.org/RobotsVisionShow/2007.htm

  • International Conference on Robots and Automation 2006 (Orlando).

Participated in planning meeting for IEEE RAS robot competitions.

  • DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 (Primm, Nevada)

Images: http://mobilerobot.org/DARPA/DARPA.htm

Video: http://mobilerobot.org/DARPA.htm

  • International Conference on Advanced Robotics 2005 (Seattle)

  • AAAI Symposium on Developmental Robotics 2005 (Stanford)

 

Education

1979-81:  Computer Science Graduate Program – Machine Vision

University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois

1979: Masters of Science in Computer Science

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

1976:  Bachelors of Science in Engineering

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

 

 

Interests

Classical music, British history, sailing, live theatre, 19th century Viennese music and dance, skiing…

 

Citizenship

USA

 

Contact

Nelson Bridwell

3574 SE Outrigger Place

Corvallis, OR 97333

 

Bridwell@MirageRobotics.Com

503 740-5102