About#

Me!

Hi, I’m Nathan Vaughn. I’m currently a Product Engineer at Fisher Controls.

I have a degree in aerospace engineering with a minor in non-destructive evaluation from Iowa State University. I’ve worked professionally and personally on a variety of projects, from building my own high-performance computing cluster to working on 3D vision technology for air-to-air refueling. Outside of work, I volunteer my time with robotics competitions for middle and high-school students. I’m a big fan of aviation, building computers, and Python programming.

One Page Resume


Work Experience#

Emerson Emerson

I am working as a Product Engineer in the Special Products group of Fisher Controls in Marshalltown, Iowa. I am responsible for answering and providing engineering input to inquiries from sales and manufacturing worldwide for many of Fisher’s largest sliding stem product lines. Additionally, I work on engineering special orders, which often contain unique material, temperature, pressure, or other requirements.

Bell Flight Bell Flight

I worked as a Python developer within Bell’s Innovation group, primarily focusing on fleet simulation and DevOps.

  • Rearchitected a SQL server data analysis workflow with Databricks and Azure Batch to save over $30k annually
  • Automated testing, static code analysis, and deployments with Azure Pipelines
  • Developed a process for repeatable mass deployments of mission software onto air-launched drones
  • Participated in test events and provided on-site customer support for mission-critical software
  • Simplified Python code distribution and re-usability using JFrog Artifactory
  • Volunteered with the Bell Advanced Vertical Robotics competition for high-school students as the lead software engineer writing control software, documentation, and answering student questions

TRU Simulation TRU Simulation

  • Researched alternative software to generate large certification documents and developed a proof-of-concept in LaTeX for greater engineering efficiency
  • Performed systems tests of a new Citation Latitude simulator before and during customer acceptance to ensure the simulator correctly replicated the behavior of the real aircraft

Collins Aerospace Collins Aerospace

  • Collaborated on a diverse Agile scrum team as part of the software design process for Military Avionics Fusion Flight Management Systems
  • Developed and maintained tests for Ada avionics software to ensure DO-178B certification conformity
  • Worked with requirements and traceability from high-level system functionality down to software code
  • Prototyped improvements to the KC-46 Remote Vision System, including developing a working air-to-air refueling scale model with a 5-axis robot
  • Co-invented a laser projection system to calibrate stereoscopic cameras (US11360375B1)

Michaels Energy Michaels Energy

  • Inspected power supply control units at customer sites across Southeast Iowa
  • Provided remote support and traveled independently to customer sites representing the power company
  • Developed new software independently to generate GPS coordinates from a list of customer addresses to reduce time spent driving

L2 Aviation L2 Aviation

My first summer at L2 Aviation was primarily focused on programming. I developed a tool in VBA using the AutoDesk Inventor API that could automatically generate a bill of materials (BOM). The structure used at L2 was quite complicated, and the normal built-in tools could not facilitate their format. This tool also added a lot of error checking, and support for more niche features, like automatically including an extra 10% quantity of small, easy-to-lose components. BOMs used to be generated by hand by engineers and this tool made it automatic and under 5 minutes. After my experience with this, I was able to develop a small handful of other automation tools for AutoDesk Inventor with VBA.

I also worked on an internal wiring management tool that was written in Python, utilized Qt, and was backed by a Microsoft SQL Server.

Additionally, I was tasked with setting up and configuring their new AutoDesk Vault server. I created all the workflows, set all the policies and got everything organized. This was very helpful, as I utilized this a lot in my next summer there.


Skills#

Building a drone from scratch

Areas

Certifications

Patents

  • Stereoscopic camera alignment via laser projection

Random Public Appearances


Projects#

Senior Design

For my senior design, our team had to design, build, and fly an R/C aircaft designed to deliver a payload to a target a couple of miles away and return back to base.

My Blog

On my blog, I make posts about various projects or technical challenges I have been working on. All content is written in Markdown. There is no ad revenue from it and is just something that I enjoy writing.

Education#

Iowa State University

B.S. in Aerospace Engineering • 2016 - 2020

  • Minor in Non-Destructive Evaluation
  • 3.17 GPA with 152 credit hours

Austin Community College

General Studies • 2014 - 2016

21 Credit hours in English, History, Government, and Sociology


Dripping Springs High School

2012 - 2016

  • 4.0 GPA.
  • I was involved in marching and concert band, and FIRST robotics