Expert in Robotics and Controls, spent the last 7 years bringing numerous products from the drawing board to market. Strong Product Development skills allowed me to deliver to customers with industry leading product specification standards including General Electric, The U.S. Army and the International Space Station. Currently finalizing a Ph.D. in Human Robot Interaction. Focus is on bringing together current, cutting-edge research with my product development experience to deliver world-beating technologies, and innovative products to market.

Roboticist @ Working on really cool stuff. From April 2015 to Present (9 months) San Francisco Bay AreaGraduate/Doctoral Researcher @ Graduate research into low-cost, high-performance, human-safe robots. Awarded MITACS Accelerate research Internship grant in the field of smart actuators, value of $30,000 in 2009/10. Taught senior engineering class on Real-Time Embedded Systems (lecturer, 2011). Awarded grant to participate in international conference (Shanghai China, 2011). Won best presentation in graduate symposium (University of Western Ontario, 2009). From January 2007 to 2015 (8 years) General Manager @ Founding partner in engineering services business focused on electronics product development. Oversaw product-cycle development from proposal and scheduling to design approval and delivery. Developed specialized skills in product development. Led customers through requirements and specifications analysis, developed schematic and PCB designs in adherence to relevant standards and coordinated turn-key manufacturing. Put in place strategic partnerships allowing access to U.S. governmental (defense) markets. From December 2006 to 2014 (8 years) Electronics Design Engineer @ Worked with a technology start-up specializing in high precision data acquisition. Responsibilities included design, customer communication, sales, and advising/managing engineering team’s projects and priorities. Customers include the Canadian Space Agency and General Electric Global Research Center From December 2009 to October 2012 (2 years 11 months)

Ph.D., Robotics and Control Engineering @ The University of Western Ontario From 2010 to 2015 M.E.Sc., Robotics and Control Engineering @ The University of Western Ontario From 2006 to 2009 B.E.Sc., Computer Engineering @ The University of Western Ontario From 2002 to 2006 Alex Shafer is skilled in: Robotics, Control Systems Design, Human-robot Interaction, Embedded Systems, Project Management, Product Development, System Architecture, FEM analysis, Sensors, Robust Control, Electronics, Robotic Systems, Product Management, Microcontrollers, FPGA