Teams




Blue Marble, as an organization, is divided into multiple teams that all have individual projects. Some of our teams are working on internal projects for commercial product development that are completely developed, designed, and implemented within our organization. Some of our teams are working on external projects for companies within industry.


All of our team information is proprietary, but below is a short description of each of our teams.


Management

Calumet Electronics

Decepticam

  • Project Manager -- Paul Bork

  • Project Engineer -- Mitchell Johnson

  • Project Engineer -- Chad Kern

  • Project Engineer -- Curtis Langley

  • Project Engineer -- Tim Schmalz


  • Team Decepticam is an internally funded project that focuses on the design, fabrication, and assembly of a robot propelled by an omni-directional drive train affixed with a camera. It incorporates the use of an electrical system, a mechanical system, and software to hardware integration via microcontrollers to control the robot. This prototype design could potentially be used for home security, explosive ordinance disposal, or other tactical groups that would like to see, or interact with a dangerous environment from a safe distance.

Digital Image Processing

  • Project Manager -- Derrick Cheung

  • Project Engineer -- John Bush

  • Project Engineer -- Brandon Lien

  • Project Engineer -- Andrew Smits

  • Project Engineer -- Zach Wolberg


  • Digital Image Processing (DIP) is a relatively new team to the Blue Marble Security Enterprise having started in January of 2010 and is advised by Dr. Schulz, Dean of Engineering at Michigan Tech. The four member team is designing an improvement to the conventional method of security camera surveillance. These improvements are targeted towards the key problem with existing systems: too low of resolution to obtain much valuable information from recorded video. To solve this issue, DIP is designing a system that utilizes two cameras to detect and track motion while capturing high resolution photographs of the face of any person that enters the system's field of view.

HMPAR

  • Project Manager -- Steven O'Dacre

  • Documentation Chief -- James Poremba

  • Financial Manager -- Nathan Miller

  • Project Engineer -- Adam Heskitt


  • The Hybrid MIMO Phased-Array Radar project is an exploration into a new type of radar detection system. The theorized system contains elements of two well-established types of radar: MIMO (multiple-in, multiple-out) radar and phased-array radar. The project team is presently engaged in doing simulation work on the feasibility and benefits of HMPAR systems.

Hybrid Vehicle Simulation

  • Project Manager -- Scott Hickey

  • Project Engineer -- Steven Elsesser

  • Project Engineer -- Jeremy Johnson

  • Project Engineer -- Eric Springer


  • The Hybrid team project is creating a stand-alone software package aimed at increasing knowledge and awareness of alternative fuel sources and hybrid cars. The program will have two target audiences the first being intended as an outreach to 8-12th grade and the general public as well as an introductory use targeted at community college, and non-degree seeking distance learning students. The program will consist of two components, one being a vehicle assembly garage and the second being a 3D physical simulation environment. The program’s garage feature will allow the user to pick and combine various components and pieces to create their vehicle. After the vehicle garage the user will be able to experience the program’s 3D simulation environment will provide user feedback relating to fuel economy, and emissions.

Pall

Rinkba

  • Project Manager -- Benjamin Lippi

  • Project Engineer -- Jacob Chalut

  • Project Engineer -- Jacob Henke

  • Project Engineer -- Tyler Stickland

  • Project Engineer -- Christopher Taylor

  • Project Engineer -- Scott VanderLugt


  • Rinkba is an internally funded project starting up Fall 2009. The aim of which is to find and develop a feasible way to integrate autonomous capabilities with an ice resurfacing machine, and then implement the design into a small scale robot. The goal is to create a robot capable of easily resurfacing the broomball courts at MTU, while requiring minimal human interaction.

Wildcard

Wildlife Camera

  • Project Manager -- Nicholas Klotz

  • Project Engineer -- Joe Deppe

  • Project Engineer -- Kyle Desser

  • Project Engineer -- Joshua Mortl

  • Project Engineer -- Daniel Parent

  • Project Engineer -- Andrew Rothwell


  • Wildlife Camera is a new externally funded projected presented to Blue Marble Security by a Ph.D. graduate student. The students dissertation involves studying the nesting success of small songbirds and they would like to identify avian and mammalian predators that predate the nests being studied. An imaging system will help in the success of the study for this student. A CS mount camera integrated with infrared LEDs will be used to capture images and record them onto the storage media. A sensor will detect the light level and when needed, the LEDs will be turned on. The project will strive for low power consumption to reduce time between battery swaps. A solar panel may be introduced for recharging of the battery. The project will be delivered from start to finish this semester and succeed all requirements asked by the student.