Interview with Rob Gosnell

Featured Engineer

Rob Gosnell

Rob Gosnell - Computer and Electrical Engineering Senior, Lipscomb University

How did you get into electronics/ engineering and when did you start?

Back when I was in the military and even after the end of my tour, when I was working as a electronics field technician, I found myself wondering why certain parts were designed the way they were. I always thought that if I ever go back to school I would design electronics that are easier for the technicians to use. Now that I am almost to the end of my coursework I am looking forward to living up to that promise.

What are your favorite hardware tools that you use?

My favorite hardware tools would have to be a soldering iron and a blank protoboard. Its similar to an artist with a blank canvas, I can make it anything I want!

What are your favorite software tools that you use?

LABView is great. A lot of my upper level classes use LABView so I have grown quite fond of its ease of use and how robust it is. MultiSIM is another favorite of mine for building and analyzing circuits.

What is on your bookshelf?

I keep all my engineering textbooks because I always end up referencing them every year. Aside from that I have some project idea books that I like to look at during the summer.

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?

When troubleshooting and debugging I always check the obvious things first. This might not sound like a trick but you would be surprised at how many hours are wasted trying to find a bug when the answer is a simple fix.

What has been your favorite project?

I really liked working on the water drop photography project (see my profile) as well as the LED tower that was built by another classmate and myself. (Search lipscomb engineering LED tower on youtube) But my favorite project would have to be the wi-fi robot that I worked on for my senior project.

Do you have any note-worthy engineering experiences?

I successfully burned up 144 LEDs in a matter of 10 seconds because I forgot to connect the limiting resistors. As far as I know that is still a Lipscomb record!

What are you currently working on?

Right now I am working on building an inverted pendulum as well as a wi-fi robot. The inverted pendulum will be controlled by a c-Rio and the program will be written in LABView.

The pendulum project is a final project in my Mechatronics class. Me and 3 others have been working on building a linear inverted pendulum which will be controlled by a cRIO-9074 using a NI 9403 module. The final goal of the project is to have a pendulum that will, upon starting the system, have the motor balance the pendulum and keep it balanced even through outside disturbances. The system is comprised of a track and car with a motor and 2 encoders mounted on the car. The encoder give us feedback on the position and speed of the pendulum and the car. With this information we are able to adjust the output to the motors to balance the pendulum.

What do you want to do when you graduate?

I would love to get a job working with robotics. I think robots will serve a bigger role in the future and I want to be on the ground level of development.

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