Greetings!

This compilation showcases a few projects I’ve worked on that I believe demonstrate my curiosity about the world, desire to solve interesting problems, and skills for building and making.

I’ve also included a list of books I’ve read to illustrate that, besides feeling comfortable in a shop, I naturally gravitate towards engineering, science, and technology as personally interesting topics.

The best way to get a firsthand look at my work is to see my off-grid camper van. I’m selling it, and it might be gone in a few weeks, but if there’s one thing I could show that would exemplify my shop skills and demonstrate my knowledge of technology and engineering, it would be that van.

Off-Grid Camper Van

Of all the things I have taken on, this is the most complex and ambitious. I nicknamed it “The Spaceship” because I had to design and build all the life support systems humans need but in a cubic area no bigger than something you could fly to space. Harvesting energy, storing energy, clean drinking water, dealing with waste, heating, cooling, refrigeration, multiple forms of heating food and space for cooking, storage solutions for personal items and gear, sleeping quarters, and an intuitive user experience all had to be designed and built.

 100% Electric Truck

When I was 16, I converted a Chevy pickup truck to run on 100% electricity.  I dismantled it, removed the gasoline powertrain, and then designed, built, and installed a battery electric powertrain in its place.

While the size and scale of this project were by far the biggest I had taken on at the time, curiously it wasn’t that different from all the other vehicles I was constantly building as a kid. I found one in my memories bin (photos included below) that I made out of LEGOs. It happens to be powered by a rocket engine. I can remember building cars powered by small hydrogen fuel cells, solar panels, even airplane propellers my brothers and I carved out of wood.

Looking back, the electric truck was a totally natural evolution of how I played as a kid, just bigger and more powerful.

My Latest Creation

I have always loved woodworking. This is a 12-foot-long, live-edge, hickory desk and cabinet. I share this to illustrate that I have a sense of aesthetics when building and making.

I also included a photo of me as a young kid with a little table and a little chair I made. I share these photos of my childhood because, for me, developing these skills has been a lifelong interest. As long as I am able, I will be building and making.

Filming in the College of Agriculture at Purdue University

Filmmaking

The average person probably doesn't think of filmmaking as being adjacent to highly technical professions like engineering, but it is. Imaging equipment has become extremely advanced in the past decade, and understanding it requires a very deep knowledge across a wide array of equipment and technology. Making it all work together properly takes advanced understanding.

I have included a few photos of a set I built for a feature film. The set had working electrical, plumbing, and special lighting for the film production.

Every day at the ad agency, I was making something, whether that be a video, a piece of equipment to help with production, a set, or a prop. I had to be a jack of all trades and think on my feet. I ended up making the widest, most varied selection of items while producing films. I never knew what I would be asked to create.

Building a set for a movie

Set in use while film is in production

An image from the final film

Heat Pump System

I wanted my van to be heated and cooled as much as possible with renewables. When you only have room for 800 watts of solar, that means you need to be really efficient with how you heat and how you cool. When I studied abroad in India and traveled to Nepal, I was inspired by how much of their heating and cooling utilized heat pumps. I was also inspired by the seemingly miracle-like quality of heat pumps—a 3X efficiency gain over resistance heating. All of this led me to ask the question: Can I install a heat pump on the van? The answer is yes.

I built what ended up being a prototype bracket out of extruded aluminum. I then fabricated the assembly out of carbon steel and gave it a paint job that matched the van. I machined HDPE to perfectly conform to the irregular shape of the van’s back door. This distributed the weight of the heat pump system evenly and added to the aesthetics of the design.

Outdoor Adventures

I am an Eagle Scout and I have had a lifelong orientation towards the outdoors. I have been skydiving, whitewater rafting and kayaking, dogsledding, backpacking, snowboarding, and skiing. I have flown a plane, walked 1.1 thousand miles across California, lived in India, and trekked through Nepal. Experiences like these have taught me to be adaptable across a wide range of scenarios. The same stamina it takes to summit a mountain helps when trying to understand a concept or solve a problem. It helps develop team skills. The African proverb is true: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Final Thoughts

I’ve been building, making, experimenting, failing, and problem-solving my entire life. From hydrogen-powered K’nex vehicles and rocket-fueled LEGO cars to full-scale electric trucks, off-grid camper van systems, fine woodworking, sourdough bread baking, welding, and a deep understanding of filmmaking technology — I bring a hands-on mindset and a lot of curiosity.

These are projects I have done because I wanted to do them. I didn’t do them for a grade or an accolade. I have done them to challenge myself on a personal level, to push myself to see what my brain and my skills can achieve. If you’re looking for someone who is comfortable with tools and technology, who is genuinely curious and loves making things, I’d be excited to help on your project.

 

Reading List

Science & Nature

  • A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson

  • The Body – Bill Bryson

  • The Pleasure of Finding Things Out – Richard Feynman

  • Until the End of Time – Brian Greene

  • The Quantum Universe – Brian Cox

  • Einstein’s Relativity and the Quantum Revolution – Richard Wolfson

  • Thermodynamics – Jeffrey C. Grossman

  • Why We Sleep – Matthew Walker

  • Keep Sharp – Sanjay Gupta

  • The Human Brain Book

  • Outlive – Peter Attia

  • Endure – Alex Hutchinson

Psychology & Behavior

  • Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman

  • Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely

  • The Honest Truth About Dishonesty – Dan Ariely

  • Blink – Malcolm Gladwell

  • Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell

  • David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell

  • The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell

  • Sweet Spot – Paul Bloom

  • 10% Happier – Dan Harris

  • Lost Connections – Johann Hari

  • Stolen Focus – Johann Hari

  • Irresistible – Adam Alter

  • The Biology of Desire – Marc Lewis

  • How to Change Your Mind – Michael Pollan

  • This Is Your Mind on Plants – Michael Pollan

  • How to Be Perfect – Michael Schur

  • Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl

Environment & Sustainability

  • How to Avoid a Climate Disaster – Bill Gates

  • Hot, Flat, and Crowded – Thomas L. Friedman

  • An Inconvenient Truth – Al Gore

  • Our Choice – Al Gore

  • Cradle to Cradle – McDonough & Braungart

  • The Upcycle – McDonough & Braungart

  • Energy and Civilization – Vaclav Smil

  • Energy: Myths and Realities – Vaclav Smil

  • Grass, Soil, Hope – Courtney White

Food & Agriculture

  • The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan

  • In Defense of Food – Michael Pollan

  • Cooked – Michael Pollan

  • Food Rules – Michael Pollan

  • Flour Water Salt Yeast – Ken Forkish

Leadership & Work

  • Start with Why – Simon Sinek

  • Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink

  • Drive – Daniel H. Pink

  • Build the Life You Want – Arthur C. Brooks & Oprah Winfrey

  • This Is Marketing – Seth Godin

  • How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie

  • Invent and Wander – Jeff Bezos

  • The Bomber Mafia – Malcolm Gladwell

  • Crossing the Unknown Sea – David Whyte

Memoir & Biography

  • Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson

  • Elon Musk – Walter Isaacson

  • American Prometheus – Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin

  • Permanent Record – Edward Snowden

  • Greenlights – Matthew McConaughey

  • Promise Me, Dad – Joe Biden

  • Becoming – Michelle Obama

  • A Promised Land – Barack Obama

  • The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama

Politics & Society

  • Peril – Bob Woodward

  • Rage – Bob Woodward

  • The Trump Tapes – Bob Woodward

  • It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism – Bernie Sanders

  • Factfulness – Hans Rosling

  • Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing – Jacob Goldstein

  • The Geography of Nowhere – James Howard Kunstler

Relationships & Emotions

  • Eight Dates – John Gottman

  • The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work – John Gottman

  • What Happened to You? – Oprah Winfrey & Bruce Perry

  • A Therapeutic Journey – Alain de Botton

Fiction

  • The Martian – Andy Weir

  • The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

  • The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

  • The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien

  • Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling

  • Fairy Tale – Stephen King

  • The Institute – Stephen King

  • The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

  • The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

Culture & Humor

  • No One Asked for This – Cazzie David

  • Nepal: Culture Smart!

  • Smokejumper – Jason A. Ramos