Houston Fortney

Scientific Instrumentation

I built instrumentation for measurement and control of temperature, magnetic field, and electrical properties. These instruments are used by scientists for research at extreme temperatures. This work has involved a broad range of experience including:

• Development of 25+ printed circuit boards
• Performing in-depth analysis and optimization of circuit performance
• Producing novel designs to meet demanding application requirements (3 patents pending)
• Travelling to customer sites to understand their unmet needs
• New product concept generation
• Authoring specialized DSP libraries
• Developing embedded C/C++ for 6 products
• Leading large scale projects

HIL Testing Platform

I implemented a Hardware In the Loop (HIL) testing program which improved code quality and enabled more frequent, confident delivery.

• Developed a printed circuit board with sources, measurements, test loads and a 4x16 crossbar switch to enable automated testing of multiple devices in a platform
• Designed test cable harnessing and apparatus
• Implemented a python package for control of the test fixtures
• Created a light wrapper around the built in python unittest framework
• Developed an HTML test reporting tool with plots for easy visualization and debugging of performance
• Implemented test suites
• Tests are run for pull request validation and nightly builds
• Authored various tools to conduct automation of build, test and deployment tasks

DSL Compiler

A custom RPC/RSO protocol was in use to communicate between embedded devices and higher level software. Implementing handlers on both ends and keeping them in sync was a repetitive, error-prone task. I wrote a CLI tool to generate code for both ends from a single shared file that declares the protocol using a Domain Specific Language (DSL).

• Designed a grammar to both define and document the protocol in a single file
• Implemented lexing and parsing with ply
• Implemented code generation making extensive use of recursive algorithms that process the AST
• Made a CLI using click
• Authored a full test suite that runs against the generated code

TodoApp

I am meticulous about making the most of my time. For many years I did this with a system I had implemented using a paper schedule. While there are many existing tools out there for managing tasks, I wanted to make one that fit my exact method, and take the opportunity to gain experience with the React framework. TodoApp has some cool features:

• Sortable, nestable task views
• Week-based prioritization (like sprints)
• Flexible drag and drop interface
• Recurring task generation
• Integrated forecast for optimizing schedule around weather conditions
• Markdown notes
• Trend analysis
• Deployed on Amazon Web Services using: Elastic Beanstalk, Code Build, Code Pipeline, S3, CloudFront Route 53
• Database: MongoDB Atlas

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Lake Shore Python Driver

I architected a python package which eases the integration of instruments into python applications by users.

• Published on PyPI
• Negotiates version of connected device and handles version-specific features
• Dual support of Python 2 and 3
• Thread safety
• Documentation generation: Sphinx
• Test environment manager: tox

Optimization Software

• I performed an analysis of sensor design performance from fundamental equations
• I implemented a program which could execute the analysis and produce an optimal design using numpy
• The tool produces novel designs that yield results which are superior to decades-old solutions

This Site

• Developed using Hugo and a the Hugo Profile theme (thanks Gurusabarish)
• Deployed on Amazon Web Services using: S3, CloudFront, Route 53