Max Henstell

Lager Data

Head of Hardware Engineering • Aug, 2020 — Sept 2022

Responsible for all aspects of hardware engineering - including electrical, mechanical, and firmware - for a startup focused on modernizing embedded development with cloud-based tools. Also resposible for backend API design, as well as user-facing CLI tools and Python libraries.

Consulting Engineer

Dec, 2017 — Present

I consult for companies on a wide range of challenges, offering skills in backend and embedded programming, infrastructure planning and training, hardware and mechanical design, and general assistance in paying-down technical debt and integrating industry best-practices.

Carmera

Lead Sensor Engineer • Oct, 2015 — Dec, 2017

Second employee at a small 3D mapping startup. Utilized a wide range of skills to translate "ground truth" from multiple sensors to usable 3D models.

• Built a "Google Maps"-like mobile 3D mapping vehicle from the ground up
• Wrote data collection and processing software to aid in 3D pointcloud generation
• Wrote and maintained cloud-based 2D/3D data collection and processing pipeline and other backend systems
• Designed, built, and installed custom PCBs and plastic enclosures for vehicle-mounted 2D "swarm" sensors

Makerbot Industries, LLC

Software Engineer • Nov, 2014 — Oct, 2015

Primarily worked on Makerbot Desktop software, used for basic 3D CAM and job spooling for Makerbot printers. Worked on low-level integration with all Makerbot Replicator printers.

Under Construction

Creator • 2018

Under Construction is series of wooden construction markers - the kind you might see on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere - with the slowly-flashing yellow light on top. The lights communicate to take on different patterns and respond to human presence, making for an eerie experience. Under Construction was funded in part by a generous grant by SDCAP for the 2018 YOUtopia festival in San Diego, California.

Death & Taxis (art car)

Creator • 2015 — 2016

Death & Taxis was a seven foot long, coffin-shaped art car painted to look like a New York City taxi. I designed it in Solidworks, then cut and welded it together from scratch. It utilized a 14hp electrical motor and steer-by-wire controls, along with a 200 Ah battery bank with onboard generator for charging. The car was disassembled and flat-packed for shipping from Brooklyn to Nevada and was reassembled at Burning Man 2016.

Domestar

Co-Creator • 2012 — Present

One of the early large-scale Arduino-based LED sculptures. Domestar was a 16-foot (now 30-foot) custom-fabricated PVC dome covered in 6,400 individually-addressable RGB LEDs, controlled and mapped via custom Processing software. I did electrical and firmware design and implementation, as well as structure fabrication and Processing/C++ work.

Software Engineering / Dev Ops

Backend design and Implementation (Python, Java, C, C++), Terraform, Docker, Vagrant, AWS, git, Linux, bash, redis, OpenVPN, Infrastructure planning and implementation, process automation, continuous integration, best practices implementation, API planning/implementation/integration, documentation, training

Hardware Design and Implementation

Circuit design, prototyping, PCB capture and layout (EAGLE), DFM, manufacturing, testing, firmware design and implementation (C/Python)

Design and Fabrication

2D design (Illustrator/Corel Draw/Inkscape), 3D design and modeling (Solidworks), 3D printing, laser cutting (Epilogue), CNC Milling (Shopbot/Sherline), MIG Welding

State University of New York at Fredonia

Bachelor's Degree, Communications / Jazz • 2005 — 2009

Cum Laude