Isaac Davenport PhD EE

SKILLS

• Strategy
• Sales
• Account Management
• Technical Personnel Development/
• Training
• Real Time Programming
• Communication Protocols
• Software and Firmware Development
• Project Management
• Digital/Analog Design and PCB Layout
• Technical Documentation
• Product Architecture
• Systems Engineering Requirements Mgt.
• Image Processing
• Embedded Systems
• Instrumentation/Test Equipment Design
• User Interface Design
• Experiment Design / Data Analysis
• Medical Device Design

ACADEMIC DEGREES AND ASSOCIATIONS

PhD Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder 1998
MS Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder 1997
BS Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology 1995
Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
Member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES)

JOB  HISTORY

2011 – Present  Independent Engineering Consultant

2013 – 2014 VP Engineering, Orbotix Sphero

1998 – 2012 Engineer then President then CTO at Syncroness \ Kinetek

1995 – 1998 Research Assistant, University of Colorado Boulder

1993 – 1995 Ethicon, a Johnson and Johnson Company

My role has been design engineer, technical lead, account manager, reviewer, project manager, and executive.  At Kinetek Systems (which was purchased by Syncroness) I held the titles of design engineer through president.  As CTO at Syncroness I re-organized the operations/engineering department creating new roles for existing employees to bring clarity to the engineers, project managers, account managers and especially the customers about what would be done by whom on our projects.  I provided leadership and direction to managers who in turn provided leadership for thirty engineers between their departments.  I have also held two year's worth of weekly training seminars to develop senior technical staff in sales, leadership, communication, technical, and process development skills.  At Sphero I traveled extensively to Asia to ensure design transfer and manufacturing success as well as supervising the engineering team responsible for the firmware, electronics, and mechanical design of the Sphero and Ollie robots.

CONSULTING ENGAGEMENTS

I most frequently work on projects which use my skills in Embedded Systems Hardware and Software, Control
Systems, Network design and management, Image Processing, Experimental Design, Data Analysis, Technical
Documentation and Project Management. Many of the projects are within the arenas of Instrumentation and
Biomedical Design. The following consulting engagements represent projects carried out as a contractor. I have
been involved in dozens of projects since in a system architect or account manager capacity.

2014-2020  Toys2Life smart toy.  Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) based radio kits that allow kids to make any existing toy talk to any other existing toy by instrumenting them with radio medallions.  Created a dialog engine for generating synthetic dialog between toys.  Created toolkit for kids to write and voice act synthetic characters akin to the non-player-characters in video games. Received Signal Strength Indication is used to detect which toys the kids are moving closer together.

2016-2022  CTO at Actall Inc. working on development of custom 2.4 GHz and 900 MHz radio systems for staff duress and RTLS, Real Time Location Tracking, using BLE, Bluetooth Low Energy, and LoRa, Long Range, radios with a custom LoRaWAN, Long Range Wide Area Network, stack.

2014-2015 Worked on SQL database system and National Instruments Labview based calibration and recording system for CCS, Continental Control Systems, metering company on their Wattnode energy meter production system.

2013-2014  Worked on Sphero's "Sphero II" and "Ollie" robot releases and cell phone app releases.

2004 — 20011 Technical Account Manager / Engineering Manager At Kinetek and then at Syncroness I played
the role of account manager and supervisor for the engineers. As an account manager I was ultimately responsible
for customer satisfaction. I wrote proposals, engaged in the early sales dialog, selected project leads, performed
resource management between multiple customers, and oversaw customer communication and expectation
management. As an engineering manager, I provided technical mentoring as well as project management and
leadership mentoring. I assisted in troubleshooting, provided technical answers and identified resources outside of
the company for specialty needs.

2011 Pump Manufacturer I worked with the engineering team to update and re-architect a high precision peristaltic
pump including a new graphical user interface and more advanced independent channel control.

2011 Automated Tensioning System for Soft-goods I worked with the mechanical team on mechanism design,
developed the architecture for, supervised the execution of the development of the motor control electronics and
firmware, and assisted with debug and review.

2010 Pipeline Cleanout Launching Station I assisted with system architecture development, vendor qualification and management, electronics and wiring schema and ladder logic.

2010 Web Based Mass Management Software I assisted in GUI design, early stage mockup coding, database
schema design and testing, of this Java based enterprise application.

2010 Design of a Novel Electric Motor I managed a cross disciplinary team to take a novel bench top motor design
and package it for beta prototypes.

2009 Debug, Updates, and Re-qualification of Automated Defibrillator I managed staff responsible for developing
and qualifying a fix for a circuit shortcoming on an AED. Later I assisted with customer expectation management
and requirements management for GUI updates to the product.

2009 SPL Meter Network Appliance I managed the electronics and firmware design for this TCP/IP based sound
pressure level meter.

2009 Power Adapter for Apple Products I managed the electronics and firmware design, performed vendor
management, and assisted in development of initial prototypes for this miniature power converter.

2008 Portable Blood Filter I managed the GUI development and electronics integration for a prototype portable
blood filtration device which used peristaltic pumps and multiple levels of interlocks and control for mobile therapy.

2008 Air Quality Monitor I managed the electronics and firmware design for a pilot production product that
packaged a new sensor technology for use in military applications.

2008 Wireless Bridge Monitoring Product I managed the electronics, firmware design, and manufacturing launch
from concept to pilot production for an 802.11 based data acquisition system for testing bridges.

2008 CAN Bus Based Home Automation System I managed the electronics and firmware design for this modular
home automation system.

2007 Radiometer Web Based GUI I architected and assisted in reviewing and debugging code for this Ruby on
Rails based data visualization and instrument control software.

2007 Background RF Measurement I managed the development of firmware for a linux based airplane mounted
computer to collect blackbody signals in flight for terrestrial, atmospheric and oceanic scientific data collection.
The system utilized custom FPGA based designs tightly integrated with the FPGA modules provided by the front
end card provider. The system would measure blackbody radiation of the target and remove anthropomorphic noise
sources in real time.

2007 Electronic Business Card I assisted with parts selection and architecture as well as firmware and software
design for a hand held mini-power point card which was cost engineered to be a high end give away.

2007 Wireless Sprinkler Control System I provided management and review services to this program to re-vamp a
wireless sprinkler controller system.

2006 Heated Coffee Mug I managed the engineers and oversaw the manufacturing launch of this cost engineered,
battery powered heated coffee mug. I also assisted in troubleshooting the electronics and firmware which were
designed in conjunction with a Chinese contract manufacturer.

2006 Hopscotch I managed the electronics and firmware development for this television time limiting device. This
device was designed for high volume production, a low cost of goods sold and a high consumer “WOW” factor.

2006 Votepad I managed the electronics development for this optical vote detection device. I assisted in selection
of major components, debugging the electronics and working with the contract manufacturer on early production
issues.

2006 Actall I updated the PIC assembly firmware for this wireless man down unit to allow use of a new 900 MHz
transmitter module. I supervised testing and assisted with production of the device.

2006 Sakura I managed the firmware and electronics development for this sample slicing microtome for the

histology market. I assisted in creating the architecture for the system and debugging the firmware and electronics.

2006 Bridge Diagnostics I managed the firmware and electronics development of this wireless strain gage based
bridge diagnosis device. I assisted in creating the architecture for the system and debugging the firmware and
electronics.

2005 Cardio Optics I created documentation for the quality system. I debugged C, Java, and JNI code in a linux
environment to get the customer from beta product to release product. I supervised internal and contract staff to
meet release milestones for a camera based catheter system. I attended and technically supported animal trials of
next generation research versions of the product.

2005 Remote Control Weapon Turret I developed firmware, assisted in the architecture and helped debug the
FPGA design while managing the program to develop a reticule overlay and azimuth elevation controller for gun
turret. The system allows a remote operator to target the enemy using a variety of camera inputs and fire when
ready. The system uses NTSC inputs and the FPGA overlays text and graphics by clamping to a low or high voltage
corresponding to black or white. The azimuth and elevation motors were controlled using joystick input from the
operator.

2004 FIT I assisted in the hardware and firmware design of a home use sensor system for monitoring shower
temperature. The device has a 4 button 7 segment LCD user interface. The device is battery powered and water
proof with programmable alarm points and display units.

2004 PHT I led the hardware and firmware design for the Core:Tx wireless USB device. The device uses a coriolis
effect accelerometer to track user motion and report it to a PC application. The device is battery powered and
uses a single LED-single button interface to allow wireless network binding. More information on this product is
available at www.performancehealth.com.

2004 TX91 I led the redesign team for the TX90 tension meter. The existing text based display became obsolete
and was upgraded to a graphical display. In addition to redesigning the user interface to take advantage of the
graphic capability, I also cost engineered the circuitry to reduce the cost of goods sold by 20%. More information
on this product is available at www.tensitron.com.
2004 EEE I designed the circuitry for a power system monitoring and control system. I also was involved in
designing the firmware for the user interface. Tasks involved controlling several high current sources and loads.
The device was controllable through a menu driven, four button, LCD based front panel interface or through an
RS232 connection, a modem connection, or a network connection. The device would monitor several voltages
currents and frequencies in real time and allowed for programmable load switching set points for parameters that
were out of specification.

2004 Pres3 I provided a design review of the circuit and performed the circuit layout for a high reliability, high
temperature, high vibration tolerance, high part density, remote sensor probe board with data transmitter for oil field
applications.

2003 B&C I designed circuitry and wrote C++ code for a linux based car wash controller interface. The tasks
involved were: controlling several peripheral items on various data communication networks such as EIA232,
EIA485, MDB and cctalk, performing schematic design and capture, layout and design for manufacture, evaluation
and integration of a Quarter Video Graphics Adapter 240x320 (QVGA) screen, monitoring remote site performance
for bugs over the Kiosk's internet connection.

2003 Rubadue Wire I provided an overall architecture and implementation details so that the customer's technician
could create a tension controlled wire coating process. The system used a 1/16 DIN PID controller to control let out
and uptake motors using a tension based input sensor.

2002-2005 Kinetek I installed and administered a 100 Mbit Ethernet network and Cisco T1 voice-data router for
internet and voice over IP service (VoIP) to our offices. I also maintain our PBX phone system.

2002 Synergos I provided system architecture documentation, sensor testing protocols, project management and
technical supervision for Jr. technical employees in their development of a roll over tire status detection system.
Several sensor technologies were evaluated, including, mechanical switches, optical detectors, piezo electric
pressure sensors and video based detection.

2002 Boulder Innovation Group I added features to their 3D positioning probe by updating their FPGA design.

2002 Tactilitics I rewrote the faulty firmware for the RN+ wireless nurse call unit. I integrated an Inovonics 900
MHz wireless network transmitter into the design and verified range and packet collision avoidance. I assumed
responsibility for technical communications with contract manufacturers and provided manufacturability and
reliability enhancements for their design. I diagnosed problems with newly manufactured units as well as units
returned from the field. I also improved the performance and safety of the internal NiMH battery charger.

2001-2002 CCS I upgraded their Wattnode product to be LonMark compatible by rewriting and re-organizing the
firmware written in Neuron C. The Wattnode is a Lonworks network instrument which measures and logs electrical
power.

1999-2002 TX90 I designed, did the circuit lay out, wrote code and brought into production a digital tension and
speed meter which included the following features: small size (less than 2”x2”), LCD and 4 button Menu driven
interface, integrated trickle charger which runs from an external transformer for a NiMH battery pack, analog
output, RS232 interface for data collection, internal calibration for many different wires and filaments as well
as user editable calibration curves, CE certification for industrial environments, Microchip PIC powered design
featuring re-programmable flash memory, low power operation for long battery life. This product is detailed at
www.tensitron.com.

2000-2001 dBm Optics I designed a high speed digital synchronization circuit, wrote C x86 measurement
code and managed two engineers for FPGA and PIC programming on a multi channel optical power meter for
telecommunications components with the following features: Flat panel SVGA display and mouse, keyboard,
scroll wheel, custom keypad interface instrument, expansion chassis support for more channel racks via 100 Mbit
Ethernet, complex data acquisition possible while maintaining strict timing synchronization requirements, support of
yet to be designed hardware through a programmable system timing core. This system is detailed at dbmoptics.com.

2000-2001 Scientech I wrote microcontroller firmware, and provided hardware design reviews for an RS485
based, networkable laser power meter with the following features: field programmable calibration constants,
factory programmable parameters for characterization of physical components, drift following feedback-control to
maximizes A/D input range using a software controlled D/A, RS485 control interface and parser designed to French
government specifications. Details on this product may be available at www.scientech-inc.com.

1998-2000 Spiral Designs I wrote firmware and performed hardware design for a multi channel electrical power
monitor and control system designed for battery backed up networks of DC rectifiers for cell phone base station
power systems. The product has the following features: LCD and button interface, multiple channels of analog and
digital IO through versatile stackable IO boards, RS485 network control of multiple 3rd party rectifier banks, packet
error and collision avoidance on a Modbus protocol network, programmable alarm matrix allowing mapping of any
input onto any alarm or control output, full remote control access through a custom communications board which
can support modem, direct RS232 or Ethernet via a thin server, Motorola 68HC11 design supports program in place
over internet or modem using an external flash chip and custom bootloader software, field programmable PLD for
support of new IO board hardware. Information on the product can be found at www.sdicommtech.com.

1998 World Trade and Marketing I designed, Cost Engineered and did lay out for a water purification control
circuit with the following features: extremely small size, the circuit was slightly larger than a quarter so it could be
mounted in a standard threaded pipe plug, extremely low cost, could be manufactured in 1000s for less than $0.70
each, runs from 9V battery power.

1998-2002 Kinetek I installed and maintained the companies 10 Mbit Ethernet network and phone system. I
also installed an ISDN 128 kbit internet link and provided support for Qwest technicians for BERT testing when
performance would slip due to growing cross talk at our Subscriber Line Interface Card.

1998 Integrated Tire Technology I led a development effort to produce instrumentation involving materials
engineering, mechanical engineering, illumination engineering, image processing and systems integration.

INTERNSHIPS

1998-1999 Biostar I developed a machine vision system for quantification of biological analyte which was installed
for use in quality assurance.

1996-1998 Samsung Display Devices I designed and performed ergonomics experiments. I managed and
coordinated the work of eight engineers from six countries. I designed and managed the development of an
Intel 8051 based optical feedback CRT image correction prototype. I developed a PC based video pupillometer
instrument for dynamic pupil measurement using unique Matlab and WiT image processing feature extraction
algorithms. I led a team of engineers in the optimization of an infra red eye tracking instrument design by
improving the circuitry, user interface, and real time software. I supervised exploratory research into real time
mechanical feedback for the stabilization of CRT images. I served as network manager for a thin net segment of
Win95 and NT machines as well as x-terminals and printers.

1996 Coca Cola I designed and managed the installation of the interface between a PC 104 Linux based control
system and the sensors and actuators on an experimental payload launched by NASA.

1995 Georgia Institute of Technology I performed digital editing and recording work for a di-phoneme based
speech synthesizer.

1994 Cryolife I assisted in the development of an inexpensive, commercially viable light source for the curing
of a biological adhesive, “BioGlue,” which has now passed FDA trials. Details on this product can be found at
www.cryolife.com.

1993-1995 Ethicon I worked in the MIS department which handled the network and telephony needs of the plant.
I managed a mixed Novell — Win 3.11 network with 300 users over Ethernet and Token Ring. I increased the
perceived service level of Windows desktop users. I managed contractors and vendors during a period of intense
network and PC-systems growth.

1992-1993 Ethicon I provided electrical CAD and PLC programming support. I developed the initial prototype
for a machine vision system to perform inspection of sutures and injection molded surgical clips. I managed the
technical portions of the design, construction, implementation and site installation of an international packaging
system which included a pneumatic label application system, networked international graphics database and
inventory control database in an FDA regulated environment. I won the Vice Presidents Award for teamwork.
Information on the company can be found at ethiconinc.com.

EXPERT WITNESS ENGAGEMENTS

Criner vs. Beazer 2016

IBC vs. Crestron, AMX, Control4 2016 

Brigs vs. Walsh, case# 2014CV031291, District Court County of El Paso in the state of Colorado.  Expert report given 2015. 

Schrader Bridgeport vs. Continental Automotive, docket # 6:11CV00014 US District Court Lynchburg VA.  Patent No. 7,518,495.  Claim construction report given 2012. 

Zykronix vs. Coraccess I provided written testimony, expert opinion, and was deposed in a breach of contract case involving electronics manufacturing processes in 2007.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company vs. eMachines Inc.  Civil Action Number  H-05-0778 in US District Court for the Southern District of Texas Houston Division.  Patent No. 6,138,184.  Claim construction report given 2006.

Sunrise Telecom Inc. vs. Acterna LLC.  Case number 04-01601 FMS in the US District Court in the Northern District of California San Francisco Division.  Patent 5,619,489.  Expert report and deposition provided in 2004-2005.

PATENTS

I worked with a patent attorney for Samsung Display devices to submit a patent application for my idea of an “Electronic Copy Holder.” The application went to the patent office on August 6th 1997.

I came up with the electronic design behind a new pneumatic valve controller and worked with Council and
Engineers at Norgren Inc. to file patent 7,723,864 “AC-TO-DC ELECTRICAL SWITCHING CIRCUIT” which issued in 2010.

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

Ph.D. Thesis “The Effects of Video Display Terminals on Ocular Function and Performance” 1998
Bioelectromagnetics society presentation published in the Transactions of the Eighteenth Annual BEMS

Meeting “The Effects Of Electric Fields on Steric Hindrance at the Cell Membrane” Victoria Canada 1996
Society for Information Display Conference Proceedings, Toronto “Changes in Ocular Performance After Display
Useage” 1997
Curricula for Photonics Technical Skills Lab, Front Range Community College 2002

TEACHING ENGAGEMENTS

Algebra Based Physics Front Range Community College 2002
Recitation instructor, Circuits for non-majors University of Colorado at Boulder 1995
GED preparation volunteer, Boulder County Jail 2004-2005