This is what I do.
(At least, Mon-Fri.)
For the past 8 years, my day job involved figuring out how to shoehorn
complex hardware into cars and trucks that were not designed for it.
Computers, electronic control units, sensors, cleaning systems - these have to be mounted robustly to the exterior and interior of an autonomous vehicle, be able to survive vibrations and environmental conditions, and behave predictably in a crash.
Over the past four years, I worked directly on the design of such mechanical integrations at Aurora, and more recently served as the team lead and manager responsible for co-ordinating designs across the whole vehicle and handing them off to the manufacturing team to produce at scale.
Prior to Aurora, I spent three years at Apple working primarily on sensor cleaning systems as the sole mechanical design engineer.
Fun fact: if you go up to the version of the Apple autonomous driving mule with the giant “iPhone 4” on top, and spritz the center of the sensor window, you’ll see my mini wiper spring to life. Go on.
It was also during Apple that I created the Prelute - built mostly in an Apple facility between Friday and Sunday nights. Sure helps to be friends with a lab manager.
Shot below Apple Park in Cupertino, CA
As for the brand “Deviant Customs”, it first came into being in 2012 when I made my custom bicycle frame in the class affectionately known as Stanford Frameworks. It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the seat tube being deviated from vertical by 0.5 degrees.
That’s me on the left as a navy Lieutenant aboard a “Saving Private Ryan” landing craft in the Persian Gulf in 2010, with Commander Kenny L.
“Deviant” could also be used to describe my personal and professional journey. After living in Singapore until age 16, I attended “Hippie Hogwarts” (Google it). Then I did a year of military training before going to Stanford for my Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. Following graduation I did another 6 years as a naval officer on various ships, before returning to Stanford for a Masters in Product Design.