Alex Huggins Email and Phone Number

Context: In order to create a remotely piloted helicopter system, Rotor needed to develop a software stack to improve pilot safety and to enable testing on multiple hardware platforms.Key Actions & Results:Implemented an audio backend in C++ used in a virtual cockpit display to increase remote pilot awarenessby creating a realistic user experience that mirrored traditional flight.Developed C++ prototype for a GPS RTK base station which removed previous dependency on third-partysoftware, allowing for universal usage across all testing platforms.Interfaced with sub-scale test team to validate software changes and manage software setup in the field.

Context: Working with Prof. Pappas in the electrical engineering department, we focused on developing new methods to better communicate non-textual information with visually impaired people.Key Actions & Results:Experimented with methods to display a map as a collection of perceptually distinguishable tactile patterns. Special attention was paid to ease of tracing region borders.Studied perceptual dimensions of tactile patters, such as density, roughness, regularity, and directionality, in order to inform guidelines for future research and develop best practices for texture-based mapping.

Context: Since Brazil is one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world, Vitol needed to develop a detailed system for monitoring and analysis of Brazil’s crude exports.Key Actions & Results:Developed new database system for tracking Brazilian crude fields/platforms, in order to enable downstream analysis. Previous solutions were unable to model unique Brazilian loading procedures.Designed and executed an analysis process for determining buyers/sellers of Brazilian crude through chartering, platform equity, and international port reports. This process enables Vitol to have an increased understanding of major market players in order to improve trading outcomes.Created a detailed process specification in order to enable Vitol analysts to maintain and expand Latin American exports intelligence in the future. Trained senior analyst using this new methodology.

Context: In order to maximize high quality data to support trading objectives, Vitol needed to find and resolve omissions/errors in their internal tracking database.Key Actions & Results:Developed Python prototype to pull data from several satellite tracking service APIs.Aligned data from multiple sources in order to validate accuracy, then compared aligned data to internal database in order to discover omissions and errors in internal database entries.Formatted discovered errors into easy-to-read report, enabling team members responsible for each region to evaluate and execute potential changes.