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My name is Caleb Gimpel and I am a graduate of the School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. I love travelling and experiencing how diverse our world and cultures can be.
To me, technology is simply an extension of ourselves. Just as our ancestors used simple tools to get what they needed, technology is an extension of our appendages and we use it like it is a part of us. I love working with technology, both at work and in my free time. Come explore some of the projects I've worked on and where I get my experience. |
Project Experience
The custom-built ion propulsion systemThe Zoran thruster is a small Hall-effect thruster (HET) designed to serve as the primary propulsion system on CubeSats or as part of an array for attitude control on larger satellites. The system is an initial prototype which accelerates its propellant with a combination of electric and permanent magnet fields.
The Zoran thruster was a team capstone project and my role was primarily in the magnetic field design, simulations and optimization. |
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The Automation Breakout BoardThe Automation Breakout Board (ABB) involved the design and assembly of a custom PCB for an automation setup. This project allows the integration of control panels, token readers, inputs, outputs and a Raspberry Pi. The design enabled remote monitoring and control the panel using an API hosted on the Raspberry Pi.
The entire circuit was assembled and tested by hand; as hardware requirements scaled up, new boards were built and tested before bringing into production. |
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Simbox |
The automated deployment system
Simbox is a simulator requestor web application; a user may request 1..n simulators and the web application automatically manages the selection of an available virtual machine, pulls the image and deploys n containers.
The web application is written in Python using a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern. All static data is stored in Postgres and a pub-sub messaging queue is deployed using Redis.
The web application is written in Python using a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern. All static data is stored in Postgres and a pub-sub messaging queue is deployed using Redis.
The electro-magnetic attitude controllerThe Attitude Determination and Control sub-System (ADCS) on the SFU Satellite Design Team designed, optimized and manufactured functional magnetic torque rod prototypes.
Our design started simple with the known constraints to calculate the minimum magnetic moment. From the magnetic moment, we designed the magnetorquer based on the length and size of the core, along with the number of turns. The prototype went through multiple iterations and was assembled by hand with each turn manually counted. |
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The momentum attitude controllerThe Attitude Determination and Control sub-System (ADCS) on the SFU Satellite Design Team designed, optimized and manufactured a functional reaction wheel prototype.
The reaction wheel was designed to minimize physical space and fit three actuators in a single 3U CubeSat. After selecting a DC motor with high torque output at low voltage, the flywheel was designed around the motor to ensure the reaction wheel could generate sufficient moment to actuate the CubeSat within our required timeframe. |
