3. Education
- Attained an "A" level Engineering Pass & achieved the school-wide Engineering
Prize, in 1976.
- Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterbury, 1982.
- Attained “Professional Engineer” status during 1988, through IPENZ (“Chartered
Engineer”)
- Professional courses attended about pneumatic, hydraulic, earthquake
engineering & manufacture.
- Digital Electronics, Computer, Embedded Control System : design and program.
- Analog Electronics studied @ University & studied/applied/designed, over 32 yrs.
- Many subjects studied and applied in role as Pro. Engineer, at various times.
- Managerial / organizational / sales / marketing / PR courses attended, as necessary.
Engineering Experience
March 2014 to Present : EV Design, USA
Inventions Consultant. Design, Build & Test for “pre-investor” Stage Invention-Prototypes.
Mechanical Invention areas
- Acrobatics equipment.
- Disabled equipment.
- Art & Entertainment equipment (for Shows, Movies, Museum Displays and Events, etc).
Electronics / System Invention areas
- Internet - Of - Things (IOT), including “Wearables”.
- Bluetooth / ZigBee RF link application.
- Digital Power Supply for high power lighting system = prove out new design concept.
- White Goods controller, with IOT subsystem (consultancy only).
- Drone Software System (consultancy only).
- Photography & Movie Filming Platform (consultancy only).
- Industrial Control System. Test new concept & rebuild a prototype to increase reliability.
- Lighting. Test & compare Fluorescent, HID & LED lighting systems. Make
recommendations for horticultural, public and industrial use cases.
Ken Gibbs Resume Page # : 3 of 8. August 2015
4. Systems Design area – OS Review & Recommendation
Compare various Operating Systems intended for Embedded Control Systems (consultancy
only). Make recommendations regarding the best solution for the clients specific
Application.
Comparison was between ;
- Linux OS's (embedded varieties).
- RTOS based OS's (these tend to be naturally embedded).
- “Bare-Metal System” OS's (similar to RTOS, but bespoke for the particular application).
May 2010 to March 2014 : EV Design, USA
Consulting Engineer. For an Electric Vehicle “Powertrain” prototype. This was a design,
build, test and supply contract. Product is to be a mass produced, low-end system for the
mass market (and therefore made to a budget price). Included a charging system for the Li-
Ion battery packs, the complete Electronic Control System and the complete Electro-
Mechanical powertrain.
February 2010 to April 2010 : Personal Enhancement, USA
Further managerial, sales and marketing coursework / workshops attended, for personal
enhancement purposes.
August 2009 to February 2010 : EV Design, USA
Switching Power Supply Consultant. Digital Power Supply prototype, built for a US
company requiring a water treatment system power supply.
March 2009 to July 2009 : Vacation
- Emigrated to the USA, after marriage there.
- Vacationing.
January 2009 to March 2009 : EV Design, UK
Engine Design Consultant. Hydrogen fuel research for possible invention.
August 2008 to December, 2008 : Visteon Electronics, Essex, UK
Management Consultant. This contract involved the development of the “VistWay”
product development (“PD”) management system (“PDMS”), a software tool to entirely
direct PD programs, internally.
Ken Gibbs Resume Page # : 4 of 8. August 2015
5. Role involved the evolution of “Vistway”, including its testing, improvement and the
development of it, while running actual PD programs. The program chosen for test was in
the Driver Information area. (Contract cut short by the 2008 recession).
With the numerous functions and understandings added, Vistway was able to initiate even
though it was considered to be a difficult program. This had very tight timing/budgetary
constraints and initially it had minimal customer acceptance (i.e., internally).
July 2008 : Personal Enhancement : Florida, USA
Sales “BootCamp” attendence. Increasing Sales/Marketing ability through direct
experience and training under expert tutors.
January 2008 to June 2008 : EV Design, West Sussex, UK
Robotic Vehicle Designer. Design and build of a complete prototype for an all-electric
Agricultural Robot (hard/software, power and powertrain). Design of the ECU was based on
a 16F series PIC micro-controller, with circuit simulations under SPICE.
August 2007 to December 2007 : Jaguar / Landrover Cars, Warks, U.K.
Active Chassis Engineer. Included software / hardware, systems and project management.
A contract role involving consultancy for the Active Suspension Tuning Group, within Jaguar
vehicles R. & D. The objective of the role was to resolve technical and organizational issues
within the group and to bring in the “one-box” electronic solutions needed for cost savings.
Three overall areas were covered, these being ;
i) Organizational structures and planning establishment for the “combined-into-one” ECU
projects.
ii) Technical troubleshooting, method creation and design guidance for various suspension
system projects requiring tuning/development/troubleshooting, to tight deadlines.
iii) Initiation of test design and planning, including collaboration with the parallel
budgeting / resourcing program team.
The role was cross-discipline and roving in nature.
August 2005 to August 2007 : Roving Consultant
Internationally based Engineering Consultant. In all cases, due to confidentiality
agreements, detail cannot be given regarding the projects concerned. See following list ;
1) Magnetics Consultant for a new Sensor Design (with product evaluation). Managed
Labview & C programmers to test a new product line and compare it to the previous
product generations. Duration : 1 month.
Ken Gibbs Resume Page # : 5 of 8. August 2015
6. 2) Real-Time Systems Consultant. Involved Automotive ABS systems. Established a
SoftWare architecture for a RealTime, cost-saving “data bus” system. Duration : 2 months.
3) Designing, build and operation of a concert Sound System
For a small, international music concert (Spain). Also organizing the concert itself, including
marketing, administration, etc. Duration : 2 months.
4) Managerial Consultant : 3 projects. Duration : 1 month.
5) Powertrain Efficiency Engineer. Evaluated CO2 reduction and efficiency system.
Duration : 2 months.
6) Organizational Efficiency Engineer. For an electronic component manufacturing
company (a US, bluechip company). This was a management role covering all aspects of
production. Project yielded a 5 times product-throughput increase. Involved creating test
procedure, design-for-manufacture analysis and Test-Rig Design / Establishment.
Duration : 3 months.
7) System Design Validation Programs Engineer. For Paris-Dakar competition vehicles.
Included the design and establishment of the required test procedures and specs for next
years racer. Duration : 1 month.
April 2005 to July 2005 : Tyco Electronics Ltd, North Wales
Development, Test and Commissioning Engineer – Telecoms. Included the test &
evaluation of products already under development. A hands-on role which included test
hardware / software design, development, build, test and application.
August 2004 to April 2005 : Career Enhancement, Germany & USA
Career Training as a Business Efficiency Expert, through a global Management Technology
company.
January 2004 to July 2004 : Motorola Automotive Systems GMBH, Munich,
Bavaria
Test, Validation and Investigations Engineer (for ECU design). Included the
establishment of a new Test Laboratory to enable improved Quality verification. Involved
the ordering and use of “LabView” and “CVS” / ”Test-Stand”, for various test rigs.
February 2000 to January 2004 : Merlins Workshop Ltd, West Sussex, UK
ECU Designer/Supplier & Project Manager. ECU Designs for Electric Vehicles were
continued from earlier years and expanded to new models and other product lines. SPICE
modeling once again used for the circuitry Design.
Ken Gibbs Resume Page # : 6 of 8. August 2015
7. Involved the further design, build & test of EV control systems and charging systems, for
planned model ranges. Also involved consultancy work for various electronic system and
manufacturing equipment test equipment, in the EV area (included all the Mechanical,
Mechatronic & Electro-Mechanical design / build detail).
July 1999 to January 2000 : Motorola GSM Ltd, Swindon, Wiltshire, UK
Hard/Soft/Firmware analyst and test equipment Designer / Builder, for Telecoms giant.
Involved the debugging and analysis of random cellphone-tower error and drop-out issues
which were occurring increasingly, at that time.
Nov. 1998 to June 1999 : Mannesmann VDO Car Communications GMBH,
Germany
Development Process Management Consultant. Project was about the implementation of
a new microprocessor module for use in car entertainment control systems, specifically
called the “Infotainment Control Module”.
May 1997 to October 1998 : Merlins Workshop Ltd, West Sussex, UK
Electronic Control Systems Designer. ECU Design continued from the earlier products.
Here, SPICE modeling was added for simplifying circuitry analysis. Also carried out test
programs for battery life, including instrumentation. Included much vehicle testing.
January 1996 to May 1997 : Electric Vehicle Design Ltd, West Sussex, UK
Technical Director. Design & Build of Electric Vehicle Prototypes using available chassis
(mainly using Daihatsu, commercial micro-vehicles as the base vehicles).
ECU Design continued from earlier products, but expanded to control Electric Vehicles.
May 1995 to December 1996 : FORD Motor Co. Ltd, Essex, UK
Noise/Vibration/Harshness Engineer. For an outgoing model NVH evaluation program.
Involved equipment purchase for the evaluation phases of the program and carrying out
NVH Test Analysis, with the previous models. It was found that, clearly, the newer models
were a vast improvement.
February 1995 to May 1995 : Wavedriver Ltd., Cambridge, UK
Test Engineer. Evaluating the Electronic Control Units for electrical backup systems being
developed by the engineering department, for suitability to the market application. (The
range of control unit products were being fitted to the likes of high-end electric vehicles
and building electrical systems, at that time).
Ken Gibbs Resume Page # : 7 of 8. August 2015
8. March 1992 to January 1995 : LOTUS Formula One Racing Team Ltd., UK
Senior Electrical Engineer. Responsible for the successful operation of all Electronic,
Mechatronic and Electro-Mechanical assemblies fitted to the Formula One race cars. Also
involved the control of the continuous upgrade process naturally occurring every 2 weeks,
as per the annual motor racing calendar (i.e. race-to-race).
January 1991 to February 1992 : Metropolitan Police, London, UK
Test and Specifications Engineer. Developing the administrative means to successfully
select vehicles for each years vehicle intake. And then in administering the 4,000 Police
vehicles making up the fleet in London, from the engineering viewpoint.
Feb. 1988 to September 1990 : Ministry of Land Transport, New Zealand
Vehicle Legislation Development Engineer. Development of the incoming “Low Volume
Vehicle” design / safety regulations, for any “non-homologated” vehicles being used on
Public roads (for eg, “Hot-Rod” show vehicles, Vintage Cars, Low-Volume Sportscars,
Disabled Driver Vehicles, user-made Mobile Homes, etc).
The Professional Engineer Qualification was gained from the IPENZ Professional Engineer
review process, during that year.
March 1987 to February 1988 : Electricorp, New Zealand
Power-Grid System Engineer. Analysis of the safety-critical “Spinning Reserve” feature of
the nations Power Grid. Involved system analysis using specialized equipment and Report
writing, therefrom.
May 1984 to February 1987 : Smart Auto Systems, New Zealand
Vehicle Control Systems Designer & Manufacturer. Designed, developed and marketed
control systems for vehicles, in the alternative fuels and racing markets. Typically involved
Engine Control Units, but some systems included chassis and transmission control features.
November 1982 to April 1984 : Unilever N.Z. Ltd. , New Zealand
Assistant Mechanical Engineer. Responsible for the Engineering of various, major Plant
Projects within the Unilever factory, under guidance of the Senior Plant Engineering
Manager.
Covered the typical factory disciplines of Electrical & Mechanical engineering. Also included
areas such as materials handling, earthquake proofing, plant safety and control systems of
various types (for example, hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical or electrical/electronic).
*** ends ***
Ken Gibbs Resume Page # : 8 of 8. August 2015
