Steven Ricca Email & Phone Number

Columbus, Oh, Us

Personalized attention for your product development project, troubleshooting, cost reductions and sustaining product work. I can work solo or with your team to tackle new or difficult problems and provide a process for success if needed.

Metairie, La, Us

Developed electrical controls and power distribution systems for the largest grain loading port in North America, and designed controls for large dry cement materials processing plants. Also developed solutions for off-shore drilling platforms, and performed hazard analysis for land based natural gas/oil production fracking controls.

Eaton, Oh, Us

Developed fully functional automated frying equipment prototypes for large fast food chains.Highly successful program to engage the fast food giants along the path of automation in the restaurant kitchen of the future.One fried chicken company awarded Henny Penny 'Supplier of the Year' primarily for work done by our team which involved close interface with their engineering staff and quick response to develop this automated equipment and tweak it as we all learned from it.

Projects and contract roles during this time:Chief Technical Officer for a mid-stage start-up company manufacturing high volume high-power LED lighting for highways, parking lots, stadiums, indoor farming, and airport apron lighting applications. Developed system architecture for an automated beverage dispensing product for a start-up company. Designed and programmed PLC controls for several motorized interactive museum exhibits. Generated a report and provided expert testimony for an automotive patent infringement case.Developed automated PLC controls with HMI for a manufacturing test cell.

Managed engineering department developing aerospace illumination products and obstruction lighting.Named inventor of US patent # 20160304215, “Obstruction Lighting System Configured to Emit Visible and Infrared Light” and US patent # 9,572,223, “Precision color-controlled light source” .Led team to develop new controllers including Linux based SNMP capable family of tower controller.Managed engineers developing new innovative features and SMPS for AC and DC powered LED lighting products.Team developed GPS sync'd timing method instrumental in gaining marketshare for wind turbine and catenary applications without common wiring between units.Coordination of certification efforts with FAA, UL, CSA and TUV agencies.Troubleshooting, production and field support, implemented stage-gate development process along with numerous process improvements.Worked closely with sales to secure new business and develop custom solutions for key customers.Consulted to company for 6-months after leaving full-time position.

Engineering management of electrical group developing aerospace products. Designed and converted most of product line to LED lighting and obtained certifications.Worked within an FAA comittee on future infrastructure recomendations/concepts.

Projects and contract roles during this time:Lead electrical engineer for a start-up company developing a solar concentrating photovoltaic and thermal energy system. Produced a functioning system of proprietary sun tracking hardware/software controls including custom PCBs, and software. Selection and qualification of solar inverters as well as power distribution and heat exchanger components. Technical oversight of field installations in Ohio including at several utility testing sites. Company sold to Chinese firm.Development of a portable measurement and data collection system for a US Air Force program to optically measure water content in hydraulic fluids using IR Pyroelectric detectors. Developed custom microprocessor electronics, PCB layouts, and software.Development of a high-volume consumer motion detector LED light with solar power recharging.Reverse engineered a competitor’s product and provided a detailed report for a client which allowed them to justify a larger redesign project to stay competitive. Designed, wired, and programmed PLC controls for several motorized interactive museum exhibits. Performed expert analysis for several legal firms and cases involving medical, automotive and consumer product liabilities and patent infringement cases.

Columbus, Ohio, Us

Research, design and development of medical electronics. Design of medical fluid analysis equipment and medical treatment equipment. Emphasis on electromagentic controls, BLDC motors, solenoids, pumps, fans, fluid heaters, and sensors for data acquisition and control feedback.Design FMEAs for risk analysis, power point presentations to client.

Design and Engineering of HVAC controls. Controls for use in gas ignition systems for residental furnaces, water heaters, cooking appliance's and industrial process applications. Developed cooling and refrigeration controls including auto defrost timers, and heat pump reversing valves.Developed electronics and PCB for use on building automation systems and energy management systems.Lead Electrical Engineer for the Invensys Automotive GroupMany design reviews, FMEAs and design for manufacturing analysis for high volume production of circuit boards and electro-mechanical assemblies.

Projects and contract roles during this time:Served as Director of Engineering for a start-up medical electronics diagnostics company. Assisted in staffing engineering team, developed roadmap and project plans. Named inventor on a patent - “Zero Corrected Optical Blood Glucose Analyte Detector” (US #7039448). Researched issues and redesigned the PCB layout for several large LED price displays for a high volume gas station sign chain OEM to solve heat distribution issues that were warping boards.Designed an optical sensing system prototype for use in a golf putting simulator. Consultant to a start-up company developing a urine collection bag with very accurate level sensing printed on the side with conductive ink. Led to patent application.Performed expert technical testing and report generation for two legal firms on cases involving analysis of troubleshooting procedures and patent infringement cases.

Reynoldsburg, Oh, Us

Design of test and measurement instrumentation used to test high volume wire harness assemblies. Developed microprocessor and FPGA architecture, circuits and PCBs to expand input count past 4000 points , Improved ESD robustness and cost reduced products.PC interfacing and design of electronic accessories for power and interfacing applications.

Development of medical rehabilitation equipment. Developed continuous passive motion machinery used after knee surgery and solid state thermal therepy equipment. Company aquired by competitor (Orthologic) and relocated.See http://www.danningermedical.com/index.html

Development and project management of custom interfacing, control electronics, instrumentation cabinets and power supplies for large scale industrial projects including power generation, conveyors, compressors, fans, pumps and pulp-paper process.

Greifensee, Ch

Development of many industrial process control solutions in the food, rail transportation and package sorting that were new applications at the time.Lead firmware engineer for a new class of networked grocery scales containing three microprocessors, an integrated thermal printer and was the first SMT product the company produced. Volume exceeded 100K per year and at an ASP of $3K this greatly lifted the company profit.

Msee, Electricial And Computer Engineering

Bsee, Electrical Engineering

Electrical And Electronics Engineering