Assembled a world class creative design and fabrication team with the mission to help realize audacious Google [x] projects and bootstrap new ones through creative problem solving and tangible prototyping. Everything from new material development, mechanical design and digital fabrication to sculpture, robotics and optics. 

The X Rapid Evaluation team is the wide end of the project funnel. We are tasked with developing new moonshot technologies and prioritizing efforts on areas of highest risk. Think big and fail fast. Some of the many investigations I have worked on that have been retired include cargo airships and high density vertical farming. 

Google has developed the worlds most capable self driving car. The Design Kitchen @ X has collaborated with the sensing, mechanical and industrial design teams to develop tangible, road worthy prototypes. Everything from weatherproof radar enclosures, full scale panel molds to industrial design model making.

The Compiler family of cups are the love child of art and math. Slipcast in California out of porcelain, with a matte textured exterior and a smooth glazed interior they have a wonderful hand feel and are easy to clean. The wide mouth of the compiler cup highlights the aroma of your drink and makes for great latte art. Nesting sizes are perfect for espresso, cappuccino and latte. 

The design was developed algorithmically, the master mold was CNC machined and the production ceramics were hand made.

Available for purchase at The CRO Cafe in Oakland, CA.

Wing is a self flying vehicle delivery platform that X is developing to reduce the friction of moving objects around the world. The Design Kitchen @ X has been involved in the hardware research and development program as well as fabricating much of the early hardware in-house.

Design and mechanical architecture lead for early versions of the prototype balloon payload, the enclosure that hangs under the balloon and houses all the smarts and radios. Design lead for the Loon ground antenna for the initial public launch in New Zealand. 

Developed a comfortable wearable companion device for the Google smart contact lens to reliably establish a wireless link and query blood glucose data from the contact lens during testing. 

Makani is working to make clean energy accessible for everyone by developing energy kites, a new type of wind turbine that can access stronger and steadier winds at higher altitudes to generate more energy with less materials.

In the very early days when Makani was part of Squid Labs I worked on components for a winch-based soft kite energy system. Later as the project matured and shifted to high aspect ratio rigid kites I did avionics packaging and turbine blade development as well as owning the full CAD assembly of a revision of the wing. Most recently, after Makani was acquired by Google [x], I have supported them across numerous domains through the Design Kitchen.

Early stage mechanical architecture. Lead the consumer packaging development for the explorer release. Developed human factors numerical and physical models to fit Glass on as many people as possible. Co-developed the bone conduction audio system including component design, testing and implementation. Broad range of low and high fidelity prototype development.

ReadySet is a smart battery system engineered to thrive in the harshest conditions in Africa. ReadySet’s smart, rugged and user friendly design makes it easy for anyone to use and maintain. Its microcontroller works in concert with patented firmware to protect itself from high temperatures, overloads, and short circuits. Intelligent electronics prevent deep discharge and preserve battery life to power lights, mobile phones, and even LCD TVs. ReadySet includes a solar panel and is expandable up to 75 watts as your needs grow.

As design lead, drove the industrial and mechanical design of the ReadySet. Developed eco-friendly packaging and did user testing in sub-saharan Africa. 

The YoYo was created jointly between Squid Labs and Fuse Project. The result of our combined effort is an iconic product that pairs with the OLPC ($100 laptop) to keep it charged anywhere. I was responsible for early stage design specification, as well as improving the product through iterative functional prototypes. The OLPC YoYo has been exhibited at the MOMA and Cooper-Hewitt museums as well as wining a 2008 Spark award, a 2008 IDEA Bronze award.

An evolution of the OLPC YoYo, the PCG-1 is a pull-cord generator with built in energy storage that can power any USB device. The Potenco PCG1 was awarded a 2008 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award. Lead industrial designer and collaborator on mechanical design.