David Ferguson Email & Phone Number

Pittsburgh, Pa, Us

Developing Autonomous Vehicles.

Mountain View, California, Us

Worked as part of the motion planning team developing the Aurora Driver for piloting fully autonomous trucks and cars. Implemented new cost functions to improve lane change and merge behavior. Ported machine learning models from tensorflow to pytorch. Responsible for a significant portion of the end to end vehicle’s behavior around emergency vehicles and during collisions. As part of this work developed technical documentation, oversaw the creation and evaluation of tests and metrics, and assisted with the development, verification and validation of requirements for these features.

San Francisco, California, Us

Took part in developing an autonomous self driving vehicle with an organization that grew from 50 people over a 1000. I worked on a wide variety of teams and projects. Major projects included, developing a database and system for loading calibrations, improving and rewriting systems for searching and managing data, building from the ground up an entirely new framework for autonomous vehicle development, and building a system for making map data available to autonomy systems. These projects involved developing in C++, Python, Go, Javascript, managing databases, working with petabytes of data, field testing, tech leading, and quarterly planning.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Us

Worked with a team automating caterpillar haul trucks for mining operations. Project involved developing software for trucks weighing over 500 tons to sense, plan, and execute in a mining environment under real world conditions. The software and vehicles are deployed at real mines doing real work. My work was focused on the development and operation of data analysis tools and intelligent safety systems. The software was done in C++ and Python in a Linux environment. Work involved creating algorithms to improve safety while maintaining productivity, developing parallelizable data analysis algorithms, interfacing with databases, organizing and leading human analysis of data, and creating data visualization tools.

Chicago, Il, Us

Part of a team responsible for developing software running on world class Automated Guided Vehicle’s. My work focused on upgrading and developing new navigation and control software. I developed and improved a variety of navigation methods ranging from single beam rotating lasers to combinations of gyroscopes and magnetic landmarks. In addition to navigation software I developed new hydrauliccontrol software with an emphasis on safety and precision. During my work I was often asked to test and develop software in the field while interacting with customer representative’s ranging from engineers to high level managers. Other tasks included improving user vehicle interaction, tracking down bugs, analyzing data, documenting code, and improving team workflow and procedures.

Philadelphia, Pa, Us

Worked as a contractor for the Navy on Aircraft Carrier Network Systems.

Ran a freelance business with brother offering web design and computer repair services. Created dynamic websites using the django framework from top to bottom including artwork and code. Responded to many calls to set up and repair networks, install virus protection, recover lost data, install hardware, and resolve other computer related issues. Dealt with customers in person, through e-mail, and over the phone.

Pittsburgh, Pa, Us

Worked with a group on a portion of a large USDA project. The groups goal was the creation of an autonomous vehicle to navigate fruit orchards gathering data and accomplishing repetitive common farm tasks such as mowing and weed spraying. My work focused on the development of the autonomous navigation systems. I developed a method for generating smooth optimal paths with the primary goal being to make the vehicle turn around and enter orchard rows with a particular focus on three point turns. Work involved using optimization, vehicle modeling, and controls techniques. Work culminated in a two week field test at which the vehicle successfully drove autonomously over 20 km in apple orchards.

Laurel, Maryland, Us

A two semester senior project sponsored the by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab involving four college seniors including myself. Project focused on the design and construction of a small powerful actuator for a throwable jumping robot. Made extensive use of CAD software, rapid prototyping, and wire EDM to construct a complex miniature spring loaded linear actuator. Project involved biweekly meetings with sponsors, extensive reports, and presentations to engineering professionals.

First Summer I helped program and upgrade data acquisition and control system. Included programming in Visual Basic.Net, modifying, upgrading, and repairing electrical systems and interfacing them to a computer via a Data Acquisition Card. Second Summer I did reliability analysis of a deicing control unit and helped modify the circuits to solve existing problems. I worked on a second project that involved designing a system to test the lifetime reliability of a helicopter blade heater. Requirements involved developing a system to put a heater under 5000 micro strain at a rate of 60 Hz. Design involved dynamic analysis of a forced mechanical system and building a test system. An iteration of the design is currently being used for testing.

Baltimore, Md, Us

Through a Research Experience for Undergraduates Grant (REU), I worked on a project under the guidance of Dr. Kuchenbecker with the goal of determining the importance of the sensation of contact in haptic (touch) feedback. Tasks included designing a novel end effector for a haptic device to display forces and contact in 3 Dimensions, creating a 3-D virtual environment with openGL in linux, designing an experiment, and writing a paper. The project culminated in a paper submitted to the Haptics Symposium Conference that was accepted for both a presentation and a demo.

Moffett Field, California, Us

Worked on a team of 4 students in a robotic Lab focusing on robotics manipulation. I specifically worked with one other student to repackage and modify the avionics for a robotic arm to be small, lightweight, portable (powered by batteries instead of wall sockets), and integrate a computer. Tasks included, CAD, designing and replacing electrical systems, constructing a custom aluminum box, ordering parts, and working with a budget.

M.S., Robotics

Bachelors Of Science, Mechanical Engineering, Physics