Paul Samuel, Phd Email & Phone Number

Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland

Reston, Va

Principal Member Of Technical Staff (December 2019 - Present)Senior Member Of Technical Staff (November 2015 - December 2019)Serve as Technical Director, Task Leader and Senior Engineer for projects related to UAS and supporting technologies.• Business Leadership: Guide Draper’s UAS technology efforts and provide leadership in building a burgeoning UAS business area for Draper. Direct and/or support UAS-related proposal development efforts, serving as UAS subject matter expert. Proposal development efforts have lead to multiple project awards. Participate in business development efforts serving as Draper’s UAS expert for customer interactions. • Engineering: Design, analysis, prototyping and testing of flying robotic systems including CAD/CAM, rapid prototyping, electronics development oversight and testing. System design and integration for ease of manufacture and short turn-around. Developed an indoor and outdoor test capability for Draper which has subsequently supported numerous projects throughout the company.• Technical Direction and Task Leadership: Serve as Technical Director (TD) and Task Lead (TL) on internally and externally funded UAS-related research and development efforts. Manage multi-disciplinary teams of engineers, ensuring highest quality project execution. Overseeing end-to-end system integration and lead the execution of specific engineering tasks.

Rockville, Md

Founded Daedalus Flight Systems, LLC as a company dedicated to providing the highest quality aerospace engineering research, development and technical consulting services to the United States government, local governments and industry. Responsibilities include the following:• Leadership: Select projects that support the company vision, perform business administration and employee management.• Engineering: Design, analysis, prototyping and testing of flying robotic systems including CAD/CAM using Solidworks software, rapid prototyping using Objet and Roland equipment, electronics development, PCB design using Altium ECAD software and analysis using Matlab. System design and integration for ease of manufacture and short turn-around. Signal processing algorithm development and application.• Project management: Proposal writing and pursuit of funding opportunities, task definition and scheduling, milestone management, reporting, budgeting, contracting and accountability.Select Projects:• Phase I DARPA Nano Air Vehicle Program, subcontract to Draper Laboratory, Inc. Responsible for the development of a novel highly maneuverable 10 gram, 75 millimeter UAV rotary wing vehicle configuration for indoor/outdoor operations. • DARPA Seedling “Guidance Navigation and Control Algorithms for Small Unmanned Air Vehicles (G-SUAVe)”, subcontract to Draper Laboratory, Inc.• Phase II SBIR and Enhancement “UAV Survivability Enhancement via Agile Maneuvering in Dynamic Environments”, subcontract to Centeye, Inc.• Army Research Laboratory Micro Autonomous Systems Technology Collaborative Technology Alliance, Subawardee of the University of Maryland.• Bell Helicopter/U.S. Army AATD Condition Based Maintenance Technology Development Program for U.S. Army OSST, Subcontract to Aither Engineering, Inc.

Lanham, Md

Project Manager and top tier R&D Engineer for Weatherford in the Production Optimization Division, focused on Optical Sensing Systems and related hardware for downhole condition monitoring. Responsibilities include the following:• Project Leadership: Manage advanced R&D projects focused on the development of innovative optical hardware solutions for Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and other distributed sensing modalities.• Project Management: Organize and document project performance and milestones to ensure success and requirement compliance for project completion and closeout. Report writing, presentation generation, documentation.• Engineering: Designed hardware for manufacturing process improvements, developed and executed test plans for various optical sensor and supporting hardware improvements, conceptualized algorithms for data processing, proposed new sensor technologies.

College Park, Md

Unmanned Air Vehicle and Micro Air Vehicle Research • Investigated the use of active materials and flexible structures in rotary-wing MAV systems.• Oversaw and directed research into the development and analysis of advanced rotary-wing MAV configurations.• Oversaw research into biologically inspired visual guidance for MAVs including algorithm and electronics development.• Oversaw research and wind tunnel testing of morphing UAV technologies including variable geometry and inflatable structures. Structural Health Monitoring Research• Studied the application of fiber-optic strain sensors for planetary transmission diagnostics.• Directed the development of a new transmission test rig for prognostics research.• Studied adaptive wavelet-based diagnostic algorithms for the detection of damage in aircraft structural components.• Studied empirical mode decomposition (EMD) for helicopter transmission diagnostics. Project Leadership• Principal Investigator: NAVAIR contract for the development of a fiber optic sensor array system to detect rotorcraft mechanical faults in rotating systems.• UMD Principal Investigator: Subcontract from Northrop Grumman (in conjunction with Sikorsky Aircraft) to support the Phase I and Phase II DARPA Structural Integrity Prognosis System program.• Co-Principal Investigator/Task Leader: Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) on Hovering Micro-Aerial Vehicle development.• Principal Investigator (Independent Contractor): Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) on Adaptive Wavelet Transforms for Aircraft Structural Component Health Monitoring. Prime contractor SPA, Inc.

College Park, Md

Primary Doctoral Research: Signal Processing for Structural Health Monitoring• Doctoral research focused on the development and validation of a wavelet-based helicopter planetary gearbox diagnostic algorithm. Implemented and validated planetary transmission-specific synchronous averaging algorithms.• Developed a transmission test rig for validation of gearbox diagnostic algorithms. Numerous graduate students used the rig to support their graduate research.Secondary Research: Rotary Wing Micro Air Vehicle Development• Initiated, along with a fellow graduate student, Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) research in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, under the supervision of Dr. Darryll Pines. Developed MICOR, a 120 gram micro coaxial rotorcraft.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Aerospace, Aeronautical And Astronautical Engineering

“Helicopter Transmission Diagnostics Using Constrained Adaptive Lifting" – Advisor: Darryll J. Pines • AHS International 59th Annual Forum.

Master Of Science (Ms), Aerospace, Aeronautical And Astronautical Engineering

• Minta Martin Fellowship, September 1997 - September 1998 • AIAA Foundation Scholarship, January 1998 • Vertical Flight Foundation.

Bachelor Of Science (Bs), Aerospace, Aeronautical And Astronautical Engineering

• University of Maryland Francis Scott Key Scholarship, Undergraduate Full Scholarship, September 1992 - May 1996 • University of Maryland.