Nicholas Vallidis


 

Contact Information:

Seattle, WA
E-mail: nick AT cmu DOT edu
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~vallidis/


Education

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Chapel Hill, NC 
PhD in Computer Science, August 2002
MS in Computer Science, May 2000

Carnegie Mellon University; Pittsburgh, PA 
BS in Computer Science, May 1997 
Minor in Engineering Studies (Materials Engineering focus)
Graduated with University and Departmental Honors
 



Research

"WHISPER: A Spread Spectrum Approach to Occlusion in Acoustic Tracking"
Spread spectrum technology applied to acoustic human-motion tracking produces a robust tracking device with better performance than existing acoustic systems. Including low frequency sound in the tracking signal allows the system to use diffraction in order to continue to function when the direct sound path between emitter and sensor is occluded.
 



Work
Experience

Google, Seattle, WA

Software Engineer, August 2007 – Present

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Skeyes Unlimited, Pittsburgh, PA

Senior Scientist, January 2005 – July 2007

  • Designed and implemented ground control software for the Skeyes mapping/autopilot system
  • Created various hardware and software components of the Skeyes mapping/autopilot system for the Yamaha RMAX unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

 

Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, Pittsburgh, PA

Commercialization Specialist, July 2003 – July 2007

Postdoctoral Fellow, September 2002 – July 2003

  • Designed and implemented inertial navigation system for both autonomous ground vehicles and autonomous helicopters
  • Designed and implemented backup/safety communications system for autonomous helicopter
  • Designed and implemented forward looking obstacle detection and avoidance software system for autonomous helicopter
  • Designed and implemented numerous small embedded systems (both hardware and software) to improve performance, usability, etc. of autonomous helicopter
  • Investigated advanced navigation and estimation methods for future inertial navigation systems
  • Designed and implemented a ladar-based perception system for discriminating vegetation from rigid obstacles
  • Performed theoretical analysis of top speeds for autonomous vehicles based on current performance of perception systems

 

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill Computer Science Department, Chapel Hill, NC
Research Assistant with Tracking group, August 1997 May 2002

  • See “Research” section above
  • Investigated the use of CMOS Smart Sensors in an optical/inertial hybrid human-motion tracking device 
  • Reverse engineered a video projector and modified it to project 1bit color at 1440 frames per second (from 24 bit color at 60 fps)


3rd Tech, Chapel Hill, NC
Engineer, Summer 2000

  • Assembled/tested components of HiBall-3000 tracking system


BEI Technologies, Inc., Little Rock, AR
Product Development Engineer with Systems and Space Division, Summer 1999

  • Prototyped electronics of an embedded DSP system
  • Developed software for the prototype system


NASA Ames Research Center Intelligent Mechanisms Group, Moffet Field, CA
(Intelligent Mechanisms Group is now part of Autonomy and Robotics Group)
Research Technician, Summer 1998

  • Assisted in the design of a six-legged robot named Dexter
  • Implemented driver software for control of Input/Output under VxWorks
  • Developed a simulation environment to test control strategies before the robot was built


Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Software Engineer, Summer 1997

  • Performed preliminary design work for a prototype of a mobile computing system using Java Cards (Smart Cards that run Java)


Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science Dept, Pittsburgh, PA
Lab Assistant, January 1997 May 1997

  • Helped design a robotics lab class for Andrew's Leap (A summer program for high school students)
  • Designed an interface board for attaching sensors and actuators to a microcontroller


Carnegie Mellon University Field Robotics Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Research Technician, December 1995 -- February 1997


Carnegie Mellon University Field Robotics Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Volunteer, September 1995 December 1995

  • Worked to complete construction of the Daedalus planetary explorer


Alaras Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC
Programmer, Summer 1994, Summer 1995

  • Designed and implemented the initial version of the product Alaras Mixxer
  • Maintained and developed code for Alaras’s other software products
  • Handled technical support issues including bug-finding, bug-fixing, and calls

 



Previous
Research

“Design and Implementation of a Hexapod Robotic System”
Senior Thesis at Carnegie Mellon University
I implemented a 6-legged robotic system with an artificial neural network providing partial software control. The research showed that the neural network could be trained without using a simulation of the robot or hand training. Instead, the mechanism itself was used to train the network.
 



Scholarships 
Fellowships

·  UNC-Chapel Hill Dept. of Computer Science Alumni Fellowship (2000-2001)

·  NASA Graduate Student Researcher Program Fellowship (1999-2000) 

·  Merit Fellowship from UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate School (1997-1998)

·  Andrew Carnegie Merit Scholarship (1993-1997)

·  T.J. Watson Memorial Scholarship (1993-1997)

·  Merit Scholarship from Carnegie Mellon University (1995-1996)
 



Honors
Awards

·  University Honors at Carnegie Mellon University

·  Departmental Honors at Carnegie Mellon University

·  Recipient of Small Undergraduate Research Grant (spring 1996)

·  Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society

·  Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society

·  CIT/SCS Dean’s List for seven semesters (3.75 out of 4.00)

·  Certificate of Merit from Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute for contributions to the Atacama Desert Trek Field Experiment

References available upon request