RESUME
Professional
Info
I am qualified as a Professional Engineer, holding a BE(Hons) 1st Class and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. I have worked in industry as a Development Engineer/Scientific Modeler, Consultant, Product Designer and Fabricator.
I am also currently studying part time towards a Graduate Diploma in Applied Psychology (GradDip) through the University of Auckland New Zealand.
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I am an award winning communicator, who enjoys working in a team, but equally can self-motivate and self-direct as is the nature of completing a PhD.
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I have experience in a number of computer programming languages and am most proficient with Python.
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I love teaching and being an integral part of passing on what I was fortunate enough to learn from other excellent teachers.
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I have a strong sense of integrity and strong interest in ethical practice in all my pursuits, both professionally and recreationally.
But don't just take my word for it, see what others say about me here.
Below you will find out a bit about my experience and specifically the skills I developed and used in my work and education. You can also find a list of my publications, should any of these be of interest.
Skills
Computational Modelling
Physical System Modelling
Data Analytics
Computer Programming
Signal Acquisition
Signal Processing
Scientific Communication
Tutoring
Languages
Python
SQL
C/C++
HTML
Matlab
XML
JavaScript
LabView
Work
Experience
Child and Youth Care Practitioner at Cholmondeley
Nov 2022 - Present
I currently am a casual employee at Cholmondeley respite care centre, ensuring care, education and developmental needs are met in a safe and stimulating environment for tamariki. This role is starkly different than the academic and engineering environments I am used to, providing a different form of work satisfaction. Serving children of our community does not really feel like work, just a huge amount of fun and is a nice supplement to my Psychology study.
Lead Modelling, Simulation and Development Engineer
at Kinetic EV Ltd
Apr 2020 - Jul 2022
In January 2020 my former PhD supervisors were approached by the three founders of Kinetic EV Ltd, looking for an individual competent in scientific modelling and simulation. Thanks to the recommendation of my supervisors and the shear luck that I had finished my PhD studies the month prior, I became employee number one at Kinetic EV. Kinetic EV is a startup current split between the United Kingdom and New Zealand, developing novel electric vehicle systems for network based applications, the likes of urban public transport.
Specifically, I was Kinetic EV's Lead Modelling, Simulation and Development Engineer, with the following responsibilities:
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Create Physical System Models of a novel electric vehicle technology and associated infrastructure for urban public transport. This involves designing, developing, implementing, testing and documenting a software based (Python) model, integrated with an SQL database.
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Run model-based scenarios to analyse system behaviour, enabling optimisation of vehicle performance, quantification of energy demand and identification of necessary system component ratings.
University of Canterbury Mechanical Engineering Teaching Assistant/Academic Tutor.
2015 - 2019
During my post graduate study towards a Doctorate of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering, I worked as an academic tutor for the Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics Departments. This involved the following responsibilities:
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Creating course content, including:
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Examination/assessment material.
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Tutorial questions/problems and solution sets.
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Supplementary lecturing notes.
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Facilitating Tutorials.
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Lecturing.
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Pastoral/academic support.
I loved the opportunity to teach, since it carried the added benefit of solidifying my own knowledge of course content. I took my Teaching Assistant roles very seriously, only accepting requests from Professors if I knew I could dedicate the time necessary to serve the students well.
During my own years of education and in employment, I, like many others, operated on a Performance Goal approach to learning. A Performance Goal mindset promotes competition among peers and limits learning potential through a fear of failure mentality.
In contrast to the Performance Goal approach, I now foster a Learning Goal mindset in my own work ethic and with students I tutor. The Learning Goal approach is open to periods of confusion, failure, and discomfort as part of the longer term mastery of a particular skill or subject area.
Graduate Mechanical Engineer at Beca.
Jan 2014 - Apr 2015
After graduating from the University of Canterbury with a degree in Mechanical Engineering with First Class Honours (BE Hons), I worked at Beca in the Christchurch Building Services team. The February 2011 Earthquake devastated the Christchurch City Centre, but by the time I was working at Beca, the design and rebuild of the city was in full swing. It felt fantastic to be contributing to the cities rebuild and offered me opportunities on many different projects, to name but a few:
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Christchurch Hospital - the Acute Services Building
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CPIT (now known as the Ara Institute) - creation of new and refurbished learning spaces
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Burwood Hospital - energy modelling
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The Crossing Shopping Centre - mixed ventilation design for the car park building
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Lyttelton School Development
A highlight project would be The Crossing Car park on Lichfield St in Christchurch. I worked closely with the architects to ensure their facade design enabled sufficient natural ventilation, minimizing the amount of mechanical extraction necessary and thus reducing energy consumption.
Intern Fabricator at Alec Farrar Ltd.
Nov 2012- Feb 2013
In the summer of 2012-2013, I worked as a fabricator for Alec Farrar Ltd. Alec Farrar Ltd provides precision engineering solutions and manufacture. The company has a long history beginning in 1931 and since this time it has continued to provide a variety of manufacture techniques and post-manufacture solutions.
I mainly worked constructing the vast array of SAFA toolboxes. This experience taught me an abundance about fabrication and gave me experience using many different manufacturing techniques, including:
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Sheet metal fabrication
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Foundry mould making and casting
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Heat treatment
This work experience was to fulfil the University of Canterbury Bachelors of Engineering Hons. Practical Work Experience Requirements. I was fortunate to work closesly with Peter, who had over 40 years experience with SAFA and taught me a lot practical skills not covered in the professional engineering degree.
Intern Weapons Engineer at Hardy Rifle.
Nov 2011- Feb 2012
I was extremely fortunate to work at Hardy Engineering (now Hardy Rifle) as a summer intern in 2011-2012. At this time, Hardy Engineering had 3 employees including the owner operator Dan Hardy. At that time the company mainly focused on designing and manufacturing high quality firearm suppressors for recreational and law enforcement/military use. The company was in a period of rapid growth and Dan wanted to expand its product line to include aftermarket firearms components and complete custom firearms.
Thus, I was hired to design numerous firearm components using CAD software. Working closely with Dan, I designed and then developed manufacturing drawings for the first generation of prototype:
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Rifle receivers
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Rifle bolts (and shroud)
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Trigger guard
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Detachable magazine
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Scope mounts
This opportunity let me hone my CAD skills and better understand important aspects of design for manufacture. More over, it marked the first time I was designing highly engineered products for mass production and sale, a very exciting experience as an undergraduate engineer.
Education
Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Mechanical Engineering
University of Canterbury
2015 - 2019
A 4 year scholarship generously provided by MedTech CoRE enabled me to complete a PhD specialising in bio-mechanical engineering, specifically cardiovascular modelling. My thesis is titled:
"Model-Based Arterial Flow and Stroke Volume Estimation for Hemodynamic Monitoring in a Critical Care Environment."
In a nutshell, my thesis develops a clinically applicable, minimally invasive method of measuring stroke volume. Stroke volume is the volume of blood your heart ejects with each heart beat.
In many engineering applications, the three-dimensional nature of a fluids volume makes it more difficult to measure than the fluids pressure. However, pressure and volume are interdependent, their relationship described by the properties of the system, for example fluid density and vessel elastance/stiffness, etc. In a clinical setting, pressure is easily and frequently measured. Thus, my thesis focuses on developing and implementing a mathematical model that describes enough of the system properties to be accurate, but not so many as to be too complex to be implemented in a clinical setting.
In order to achieve the goals of my PhD, I developed and implemented more than 50 different functions, most of which were in Python. Many of the functions I developed were novel algorithms designed to perform tasks like:
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Data management (I dealt with hundreds of hours of all sorts of different medical signals)
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Format conversion and data structuring
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Data separation (separating the data into more manageable medical events)
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Data pre-processing
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Filtering
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Peak detection
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Systole and Diastole detection (start and end of a cardiac cycle in different metrics)
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Computation modelling
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Problem and model definition
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Developing and implementing necessary data pre-processing
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Parameter identification and optimization
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Model performance validation
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Thus, to complete my PhD I developed and honed the following skills on a daily basis:
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Signal Processing
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Data Analytics
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Computer Programming
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Computational Modelling
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Scientific Communication
If you are interested in learning more, the abstract of my thesis provides an overview of my work.
BE(Hons) 1st Class, University of Canterbury
2010 - 2013
In 2010, I left the whānau fold and my life in the North Island, to pursue a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterbury. This 4 year degree was a monumental challenge for me, requiring a high level of self motivation. My curiosity and love of learning coupled with a supportive family, helped me to overcome the challenges and complete the degree with 1st Class Honours.
Mechanical engineering is a fantastic discipline thanks to its ever expanding breadth, encompassing any and all dynamic systems. Thus, the degree itself is incredibly broad, but also accredited by Engineering New Zealand, ensuring all graduates have developed the skills necessary for industry and the future.
Publications
Publication List
Journal Papers
Balmer, J., Smith, R., Pretty, C. G., Desaive, T., Shaw, G. M., & Chase, J. G. (2020). Accurate end systole
detection in dicrotic notch-less arterial pressure waveforms. Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing, 35(1), 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10877-020-00473-3
Balmer, J., Pretty, C. G., Davidson, S., Mehta-Wilson, T., Desaive, T., Smith, R., Shaw, G. M., & Chase, J.
G. (2019). Clinically applicable model-based method, for physiologically accurate flow waveform and stroke volume estimation. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 185, 105125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmpb.2019.105125
Balmer, J., Pretty, C., Davidson, S., Desaive, T., Kamoi, S., Pironet, A., Morimont, P., Janssen, N.,
Lambermont, B., Shaw, G. M., & Chase, J. G. (2018). Pre-ejection period, the reason why the electrocardiogram Q-wave is an unreliable indicator of pulse wave initialization. Physiological Measurement, 39(9), 095005. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6579/aada72
Davidson, S., Pretty, C., Balmer, J., Desaive, T., & Chase, J. G. (2018). Blood pressure waveform contour
analysis for assessing peripheral resistance changes in sepsis. BioMedical Engineering OnLine, 17(1), 171. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12938-018-0603-4
Davidson, S., Pretty, C., Pironet, A., Kamoi, S., Balmer, J., Desaive, T., & Chase, J. G. (2017). Minimally
invasive, patient specific, beat-by-beat estimation of left ventricular time varying elastance. BioMedical Engineering OnLine, 16(1), 42. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12938-017-0338-7
Kamoi, S., Pretty, C., Balmer, J., Davidson, S., Pironet, A., Desaive, T., Shaw, G. M., & Chase, J. G.
(2017). Improved pressure contour analysis for estimating cardiac stroke volume using pulse wave velocity measurement. BioMedical Engineering OnLine, 16(1), 51. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12938-017-0341-z
Khan, M., Pretty, C. G., Amies, A. C., Balmer, J., Banna, H. E., Shaw, G. M., & Geoffrey Chase, J. (2017).
Proof of concept non-invasive estimation of peripheral venous oxygen saturation. BioMedical Engineering OnLine, 16(1), 60. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12938-017-0351-x
Smith, R., Balmer, J., Pretty, C. G., Mehta-Wilson, T., Desaive, T., Shaw, G. M., & Chase, J. G. (2020).
Incorporating pulse wave velocity into model-based pulse contour analysis method for estimation of cardiac stroke volume. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 195, 105553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmpb.2020.105553
Conference Papers
Balmer, J., Pretty, C., Davidson, S., Desaive, T., Habran, S., & Chase, J. G. (2018). Effect of arterial
pressure measurement location on pulse contour stroke volume estimation, during a rapid change in hemodynamic state. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 51(27), 162–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.11.649 (Winner of Young Author Award)
Balmer, J., Pretty, C., Amies, A., Desaive, T., & Chase, J. G. (2018). Accurate dicrotic notch detection using
adaptive shear transforms. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 51(27), 74–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.11.664
Balmer, J., Pretty, C., Kamoi, S., Davidson, S., Pironet, A., Desaive, T., Shaw, G. M., & Chase, J. G.
(2017). Electrocardiogram R-wave is an Unreliable Indicator of Pulse Wave Initialization. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 50(1), 856–861. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2017.08.254
Davidson, S. M., Balmer, J., Pretty, C., Desaive, T., & Chase, J. G. (2018). A Simplified Waveform
Energetics Approach to Interpreting Arterial and Venous Pressure. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 51(27), 140–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.11.653
Davidson, S. M., Pretty, C., Balmer, J., Desaive, T., & Chase, J. G. (2018). An Investigation into the Clinical
Utility of Transfer Functions between the Aortic and Femoral Pressure Waveforms. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 51(27), 68–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.11.665
Davidson, S. M., Pretty, C., Kamoi, S., Balmer, J., Desaive, T., & Geoffrey Chase, J. (2017). Real-Time,
Minimally Invasive, Beat-to-Beat Estimation of End-Systolic Volume Using a Modified End-Systolic Pressure-Volume Relation. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 50(1), 5456–5461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2017.08.1082
Smith, R., Balmer, J., Pretty, C. G., Shaw, G. M., & Chase, J. G. (2020). Clinical application of a model-
based cardiac stroke volume estimation method. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 53(2), 16137–16142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2020.12.435
Voluntary
Roles
Community Justice Panel
2016 - 2017
During 2016 and 2017 I volunteered for the Community Justice Panel, a initiative designed to reduce criminal convictions and reoffence within the Christchurch community.
In this role, I along with two others, sat on the panel representing the community. The panel would listen to the accounts of a victim and a defendant regarding a low-level crime/offence that had been committed. There was still a police representative present, but they were forbidden to speak unless they were asked to clarify a particular piece of evidence by a panel member. The panel, in conjunction with the victim and defendant, would then come to a legal and binding agreement regarding a resolution to the offence. This agreement, if fulfilled by all parties involved, would mean the matter would not proceed to the courts, thus avoiding any criminal convictions.
What differentiated the panel from a court room was the lack of lawyers, legal formality and therefore intimidation. More importantly, the panel prioritized additional time and emphasis to hearing the wider circumstances of the individuals involved. Often, where a first or low-level offence is concerned, there may be exceptional circumstances that initially appear external to the event, but none the less have contributed to a offence in a more subtle way. By hearing and addressing the wider needs of all those involved, it is hoped a more holistic resolution could be developed which considered the the complex needs of each case and individual.
The panel was an exceptional experience to be apart of, opening my eyes to extremely complex situations and helping me relate to people from an exceptionally wide variety of backgrounds and cultures. I feel proud to have been apart of the program and it was a privileged to hear peoples stories.