Michael E. Gruber

Carnation, Washington
Email: grubinski AT gmail DOT com

Synopsis

I am an intelligent, curious, well educated and enthusiastic person. My education and experience, as detailed below , have prepared me to be a key contributor in any engineering effort. I am not interested in management positions, I am an engineer, and design is my passion.

Work Experience

2004-Present  Grubinski Engineering, Carnation, Washington
Proprieter/Inventor
  • Developed, produced, and sold the "Grunt Box" in conjunction with a fellow engineer in the MR2 community. All test and proof of concept work was done on my own car. I did all of the circuit design and board layout work, and my friend did the PIC processor software. This system has been successful in the marketplace, and our customers are delighted with it's excellent performance. I enjoy new challenges, and actually putting the electronics design skills I learned in school to use was very enjoyable.
1999-Present  Vixel, Inc./Emulex Corp. Bothell, Washington
Principal Engineer
  • Major contributor to SOC804 ASIC firmware product. This included a board support package in assembly and C language to support the embedded ARM9 processor and the associated ARM PrimeCell devices on this ASIC. Application level software was written in C++, using the Nucleus real time operating system. Responsible for ASIC and board bringup as hardware became available, working closely with hardware and ASIC engineers to achieve this goal. I acted as the chief liason to Nucleus and ARM for tools support issues. Directed Nucleus/ARM personnel when they were called on site for support.
  • Responsible for all phases of design and implementation, from architectural design through coding, of several major subsystems of the Vixel Fibre Channel switch family. Worked closely with owners of other major subsystems to ensure performance of the system as a whole. Participated in design review, code review, and ongoing monitoring of the development of these and other subsystems to ensure high quality of the finished software. Responsible for mentoring of new firmware engineers in order to bring them up to speed quickly with respect to our code base and development processes.
  • Performed extensive work in implementing, testing, and deploying the FSPF routing protocol on Vixel's Fibre Channel switches in accordance with FC-SW2 standards. This work included interoperability work with other Fibre Channel space vendors, both at our headquarters in Bothell, and at other sites, such as the SNIA center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
  • Developed code to extend the Simple Name Server (SNS) Fibre channel functionality on Vixel's 7100/7200 switch product. This involved tracking a rapidly evolving standard, and implementing new commands and features as they became well defined. Participated in OSFI (Open Switch Fabric Initiative) work with other Fibre Channel space vendors in order to ensure interoperability of our products with theirs.
  • I participated as part of a team in porting existing code for our Fibre Channel switch product to both a new hardware platform and a new software environment. I was responsible for porting of the low level POST code. This work involved coding in both assembly and C languages. This work was done in the Wind River Tornado 2 environment. The software runs on the vxWorks real time operating system, on an Intel i960 platform.
  • Developed dynamic HTML content for an embedded web server based on Wind River's WindWeb server product. This interface was used for management and configuration of a Vixel Fibre Channel hub product. I was responsible for ensuring consistency with other pre existing management interfaces, and proper functionality of the result. This product utilizes the vxWorks real time operating system, running on a Motorola PowerPC 860 processor.
1997-1999  Zetron, Inc. Redmond, Washington
Software Engineer
  • Sole developer of a testbed system using a GNU cross compiler and the uC/OS real time operating system in order to hold down capital outlay. In conjunction with this effort I also tested the RTEMS real time operating system (version 4.0). This testbed was based on the Motorola ColdFire architecture, and the development was done under Linux.
  • Participated in architectural design of a new product on which an entire family of related products will be based in the future. Scope included processor and component selection, RTOS selection, and tools selection, as well as high level software design.
  • Responsible for concept, design and proof of concept for some of the most critical software algorithms to be used on this new product.
  • Performed research on and selection of a software version control system. This system has been put into place as the standard of my corporate division.
1995-1997  Quadtek, Inc. Redmond, Washington
Embedded Software Engineer
  • Sole responsibility for design, maintenance and bug fixes to Quadtek's C and assembly language software code base. Integrated new features into existing code in a coherent manner. Performed many changes to the existing code to ease maintenance in the future.
  • Proposed a redesign of the platform on which we hosted our PC based system processors, based on my analysis of available hardware. This proposal was accepted, and led to a reduction in our hardware cost of approximately $2000 per system sold.
  • Ported code for the company's flagship product to a new and much less expensive frame grabber, saving $700 per system in hardware costs.
  • Participated in the company's new product design and development efforts. Instrumental in the requirements specification and software/hardware architecture design for a new product being developed for an existing customer.
  • Worked closely in concert with hardware design engineers to integrate any necessary low level code in support of new hardware features. Provided test code in support of debugging these features as necessary. Performed logic design for programmable array type devices when required.
  • Responsible for direction and oversight of contract engineering personnel as required. Provided electronic design and software design support to these personnel as required.
1994-1995  University of Washington Seattle, Washington
Research Assistant, Biorobotics Laboratory, Electrical Engineering
  • Responsible for preliminary design work on an advanced surgical tool for use in endoscopic surgery.
  • Performed analysis of design requirements using MATLAB software package.
  • Completed software design, coding, test and digital hardware design prior to leaving my position in the Biorobotics Lab.
1993-1994  University of Washington Seattle, Washington
Teaching Assistant, Electrical Engineering Department
  • Assisted in design and supervision of lab exercises for junior/senior level microprocessor design course. Presented several lectures for this course. Performed grading and tutorial duties for this course.
  • Presented weekly quiz sections and lab sections for sophomore electrical circuit analysis course. Performed grading and tutorial duties for this course.
1983-1993  Johnson Matthey Electronic Materials Spokane, Washington
Technical/Production Support (Various Positions)
  • Over a period of ten years with Johnson Matthey I moved through a variety of positions, each with increasing technical or supervisory content. I participated in or supervised production machine setup operations, electron beam vapor deposition, and electroplating. One highlight of my tenure at Johnson Matthey was an improvement to our vapor deposition process that resulted in a yield improvement from 30% to 90%+ on parts produced for our highest volume customer at that time. During the last 5 years of my employment at Johnson Matthey, I was taking a full course load of engineering undergraduate courses.

Education

December, 1994 University of Washington Seattle, Washington
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
  • Concentration of study in Control Systems, System Theory, and Applied Mathematics.
  • Three year academic fellowship awarded by the Seattle ARCS chapter.
  • Teaching assistantship awarded by the University of Washington.
May, 1993 Gonzaga University Spokane, Washington
Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude
  • Achieved my degree in five years concurrent with full time employment. G.P.A. at graduation was 3.91 on a 4.0 scale.
  • For senior project, was the principal designer of a circuit which doubled the resolution of a rotary encoder with no changes to the optics. A design based on this work is now in production.
  • Awarded second place at the IEEE northwest region 6 student paper competition for my paper; "Adaptive Automotive Electronic Fuel Injection Control Software".

Volunteering

I served as a "Big Brother" for five years in Spokane. I also served in the same capacity here in Seattle for two years.

Interests

Reading, running, weight lifting, and automotive pursuits are some of the ways I enjoy spending my time away from work.