Lachlan Hurst Email & Phone Number

Reservoir, Vic, Au

Docklands, Victoria, Australia

Melbourne, Australia

ObservedEarth (http://observedearth.com) was an independent development project I commenced early 2016, motivated by the desire to bring Earth Observation data (satellite imagery) to a new generation of users.ObservedEarth allows users to download and process over 1 petabyte of Landsat data on their iPhone/iPad. Data is sourced directly from the Amazon's Landsat on AWS public data repository and downloaded/cached on the user's device. Due to the size of this data several optimisations were made to ensure only data of interest was downloaded, this included the use of HTTP range requests to access internal GeoTiff tiles as per the Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) convention. Once downloaded, raw TIFF data is loaded to the devices GPU, here it is processed to correct for sun elevation using a GPU compute shader. Visualisation filters can be selected by the user that map bands together (eg; Red, Green, Blue bands for a natural colour image), or to perform further analysis such as calculating the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Filters are implemented as fragment shaders also executed on the device GPU. All processing is performed locally allowing users to dynamically adjust contrast levels, and switch visualisations without the need to download new 'dumb' images. The app was developed using XCode, written in Swift with some Objective-C (and c) for integration with the libTiff library. GPU code was written using the Metal programming language. The novel user interface intended to disguise the fact that ObservedEarth is a Geographic Information System (GIS) was developed using SceneKit and SpriteKit; two of Apple's gaming frameworks.The app is freely available in the App Store; articles on it's release are listed below.- https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/observedearth-a-talk-with-its-creator- https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/618045/satellite-imagery-all-developer-bid-democratise-space-view-data- https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/landsaturated/

Melbourne, Australia

Hurts Development is a working title for the activities I undertake outside of my day job. Often this is just tinkering; it could be with an Arduino, 3D modelling package, an open-source Finite Element Method (FEM) package, or a quick web mash-up. Setting time aside for this allows me to keep up to date on current technologies without the need for a business case. For the most part this is simply an indulgence in something I like doing.Every so often this tinkering turns into something a little more. . .BikeBingle is a web-based application for the tracking of user submitted bicycle accidents. It was developed using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) allowing me to carry over background Java expertise into the web-domain, and also served as a test-case for it's suitability in some upcoming work projects. Hosting was provided by Google's App Engine, which at the time was still in an initial beta release state. App Engine was chosen as it offered a free level of hosting and the promise of massive scalability, it also had that new Platform as a Service (PaaS) smell and I was eager to experiment.Hurts Ergo was released via the Apple App Store mid 2014, it's an indoor cycling based training application for the iPhone/iPad targeting the Wahoo Fitness KICKR. iOS development was an expertise I was keen to develop but was unable to do so through my day job. XCode and Objective-C proved frustrating initially as my productivity suffered in the new development environment, but I've since grown a fondness to both. Far from complete, Hurts Ergo will receive a significant update early 2015 with an aim to steadily build on its small but growing user base.

Melbourne, Australia

Victoria, Australia

Melbourne, Australia

During this period VPAC experienced significant growth in the development of engineering support applications in the Automotive and Aerospace industries. My role was revised to focus on the full software development lifecycle from requirements analysis, to architecture and implementation.I was fortunate to be involved in a diverse range of projects across the Geospatial, Automotive and Aerospace domains for industry and research organisations. Developing expertise in new fields is something I enjoy, and readily apply through implementation. Many of these projects were scoped/managed/implemented as an individual, notably the smaller budget-constrained projects. I was able to participate in larger developer teams and found much benefit in the knowledge exchange that occurs in such environments.Technology wise, most development was carried out using Java and the Eclipse IDE. A number of frameworks were used such as Hibernate, Swing, and Servlets for web and desktop applications. Several .Net based applications (web & desktop) were developed within Visual Studio. For the most part technology stacks were selected based on client requirements; for example, the need for cross platform compatibility, availability of existing infrastructure, or integration with existing application / code base.

Melbourne, Australia

Application of advanced software to engineering design problems. A number of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools including; NASTRAN, LS-DYNA, Abaqus and Fluent were used to solve issues on noise & vibration, fatigue, crash performance, and fluid flow. CAE tools delivered a high degree of accuracy but were heavyweight processes. 'Heavyweight' meaning High Performance Compute (HPC) resources were required for timely results, and in terms of expertise needed to translate the engineering problem into a state suitable for analysis. For one-off design exercises this was often a suitable solution, but often the client need was for a repeatable process that could be adopted internally.Autofold, a tool for the analysis of airflow within engine intake manifolds, was an implementation of a standard work process developed by VPAC. The process called for the application of time varying boundary conditions based on engine speed and mesh geometry to a Fluent based Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. This process applied manually would consume several days per design; automation within *Auto*fold reduced this to minutes while simultaneously reducing user errors.A supplier of automotive airbags engaged VPAC to investigate an apparatus used to reproduce the acceleration pulse of a crash. Referred to as sled tests, these allow safety systems to be tested without crashing a full vehicle. Acceleration was reproduced by crashing the moving sled through strategically positioned tubes. Location, size and length of these tubes determined the resulting pulse. CAE analysis (Abaqus, LS-DYNA) correlated well with physical results, answering what pulse would be generated from a given tube configuration. From the clients perspective they needed to know what configuration would reproduce a given pulse; preferably without needing a HPC. For this an Excel spreadsheet was developed utilising fundamental equations of motion to deliver a lower, yet still suitable, level of accuracy.

Melbourne, Australia

Seconded to GKN Aerospace for the development of Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) tools to support engineering and design teams. Development was carried out in Visual Studio (VB.Net and C#), focussing on the plugin API provided by Dassault Systèmes CATIA Computer Aided Design (CAD) tool.A highlight of this placement was being able to apply core engineering principles (Mohr's circle, Finite Element Methods); knowledge I'd not used since first year university to the software being developed.

Melbourne, Australia

A one year leave of absence was taken to participate in Holden's student placement program. Placement was within the Vehicle Synthesis Analysis & Design (VSAS) group; specifically the crash analysis team. LS-DYNA, a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) application, was used to model the performance of vehicle components in virtual crash simulations. Results from these simulations were benchmarked against physical test results for validation purposes. The Altair HyperWorks suite was used in the pre/post-processing of these simulations.The placement also served as an excellent introduction to the workings of a large automotive manufacturer. Other tasks included procurement, IT support, and responding to marketing queries.

Certificate Iv, Project Management

Bachelor Of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.), Computer Science

Bachelor Of Engineering (B.Eng.), Mechanical Engineering, Honours 1St Class

Recipient of 'The Institute of Mechanical Engineers' final year 'Project Prize' - Best Final Year Project. Golden Key Society (Invitee)