Charles Lidstone

568 Bathurst Street • Toronto, ON • M5S 2P9 • 416-413-1989 • charles.lidstone@utoronto.ca

Education Summary

M.A.Sc.

Electrical Engineering, Systems Control Group
University of Toronto 1999 - 2003

B.A.Sc.

Engineering Science, Electrical Engineering Option
University of Toronto 1992 - 1997

Employment

2008 contract

Home Electronics - PCB Layout Engineer [work]

PCB Layout of SMT boards for medical instruments; from parts placement to completed boards
Design new library symbols and packages
Edit schematics

2007 contract

Phenostream: Behavioural Based Robotics - Consulting Engineer [work]

Solve manufacturability problems in the assembly of motor control and position sensing circuit on Smart Motor Modules
Robot design for example projects based on Phenostream's robot construction system
Develop end user documentation for Phenostream parts and designs

2005 contract

Empower Technologies / Texas Instruments - Technical Editor (LDK5910, [work]
a development platform for Texas Instruments' OMAP5910 processor)

Overall planning of technical manuals to ensure accuracy, usability and quality presentation as well as to meet marketing subcontractor's objectives
Organization and editing of Software Development Manuals, Hardware Design Specification, User's Guide and Quick Start Guide
Creation of technical drawings & figures and copy writing of selected sections

1997 - 1999

Indigo Manufacturing - Electrical Engineer [work]

Audio amplifier product development
Analog circuit and switch mode power supply design
PCB layout and board level trouble shooting
Thermal and magnetic component design
Microcontroller programming for embedded digital signal processing

1994 - 1996

MCW Custom Energy Solutions - Proposal Coordinator/Technical Auditor [work]

Coordination of proposals and feasibility studies
Graphic design of proposals and promotional material
Energy use and utility auditing
HVAC and electrical system field auditing
Technical writing and graphic design for building operator's manuals

Academic Activity

Thesis

The Gimballed Helicopter Testbed: Design, Build and Validation [research]
(First step in the University of Toronto's autonomous robot helicopter project)

Designed gimbal testbed for operational testing of a RC helicopter
Developed 3D computer model of testbed
Worked with fabricators and vendors to implement testbed
Developed and implemented measurement and data acquisition system
Performed system identification experiments on RC helicopter

Projects

MOST Microsatellite Project - State Estimation using Kalman Filter [research]
(Microvariability & Oscillations in STars, Canada's first space science microsatellite)

Developed MATLAB algorithm for estimating satellite attitude using measurements of Earth's magnetic field
Simulated using telemetry and tracking data from a satellite in orbit

Spectrum Estimation Comparative Study

Comparison of power spectral density estimates generated using conventional and parametric spectrum estimation methods

Adaptive Equalizer Comparative Study

Comparison of convergence rate for adaptive filters in training and blind modes for linear and non-linear error minimizations

Courses

Linear Systems, Non-linear Systems, Robot Kinematics & Dynamics, Signal Processing, Discrete Event Systems, Stochastic Processes, Large Scale Systems

Teaching
Assistanship

Lab & Tutorial Instructor: Circuit Theory, Linear Systems & Control

Teach the use of test equipment and debugging of circuits
Teach problem solving skills related to course material

Computer Skills

Systems

MS DOS, MS Windows, Unix, Linux, QNX

Hardware

PC hardware and network integration, configuration and troubleshooting

Software

General

MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) including Visual Basic for Applications, WordPerfect, Lotus 123, various office and Internet productivity applications and PC hardware diagnostic tools

CAD/CAE

MATLAB/Simulink, CadSoft Eagle PCB, PADS PowerPCB, OrCAD, IronCAD

Graphics

Adobe PhotoShop, Corel Draw and other image editing and optimization tools

Languages

C, Python, Visual Basic, Microchip & M68000 assembly language, CSS & HTML