Hi, I'm Miles

I Like

NYC born and raised, I started dabbling with programming at a young age by making silly Flash games and clunky Lego Mindstorms.

Many years later I'm still doing the same thing, just with MUCH cooler equipment.

My beliefs are

Read Up

Sure, jumping right in works sometimes, but a little reading goes a long way. Before starting something new I want to know the basics and best practices first. I'll be thankful for it in the long run.

Hack if you must

Most things can be done the right way. But sometimes, to solve an atypical problem within a limited framework I have to shush the perfectionist and channel Dr. Frankenstein.

Selectively Optimize

5% faster isn't worth it if it takes me 500% longer. Particularly processor-hungry code needs to be addressed, but don't spend an hour sharpening your butter knife.

Make it Fun

Work is only as enjoyable as you make it. Finding ways to get excited about a project can inspire both me and my team to skip the procrastination and face the challenges head-on.

Here's what I've worked on so far

YaHerd

Creator

YaHerd is an event planning web app that allows you to organize your friends whether or not they have Facebook. I created it because many of my friends left Facebook over privacy concerns, leading to the absurd situation of texting them screenshots of upcoming Facebook events I was planning. With YaHerd you can have an attractive and streamlined event planning experience, no account necessary.

Combined my full-stack development expertise with my brother's design / UX expertise to build the application from the ground up.
Developed the application to be massively scalable using a combination of cutting-edge server and cloud-based technologies.
Managed all aspects of domain setup and application hosting / deployment.

Event main page with guest list, chat, and poll voting.

Event main page once the date and time have been finalized.

https://yaherd.co

Wyss Institute at Harvard University

Systems Engineer

As a systems engineer at the Wyss Institute I worked within the Organs-on-Chips project to develop a robotic platform for human tissue culture and experimentation. The robot was designed to automatically perform the complex liquid handling, climate control, and imaging tasks necessary for culturing human organ tissue within microfluidic devices. Additionally, I built a web-based user interface to plan, schedule, and remotely manage simultaneous experiments on multiple robots.

Led all aspects of robot design, development, and construction.
Went through multiple design iterations to optimize for robot functionality, user-friendliness, and long-term stability.
Worked closely with our biology team to design the robotic platform and user interface to synergize with their preferred workflows.

CAD model of the robot and its subcomponents.

(a) A robot set up for an experiment. (b) Two robots in separate tissue culture incubators. (c) Organ chips in tissue culture cartridges. (d) Top down of organ chips in culture.

Schematic of an experiment and all the organ chips, fluidic connections, and cell types involved.

Screenshots of the user interface during different stages of robot setup and experimental design.

(a) Schematic of the robot control network. (b) Schematic of software stack and dataflow.

Wyss Institute at Harvard University

Microdevice Design Engineer

As a microdevice design engineer at the Wyss Institute I worked within the Organs-on-Chips project to design and fabricate plastic microfluidic chips for culturing human organ tissues. The microchips enabled tissue culture with unparalleled fidelity by utilizing complex microstructures and bio-coatings that mimic the cellular environment in the body. Ultimately the microchips could be used to accelerate the drug development process by providing a more accurate model of human organ tissues.

Made major design improvements to the microchips allowing for improved cellular compatibility and experimentation throughput.
Overhauled multiple aspects of the fabrication process to greatly improve fabrication efficiency and yield.
Designed a specialized quality control tracking application that allowed for a data driven design iteration process.

Mature induced-pluripotent-stem-cell-derived human podocytes reconstitute kidney glomerular-capillary-wall function on a chip
Nature Biomedical Engineering

Diagram of the various organ tissues that are grown in the microfluidic chips.

The quality control system for tracking the microfluidic chips through the fabrication and experimentation process.

Bard College

Software Engineer

At Bard College I worked on a cost-effective direct laser writing (DLW) system for the fabrication of microfluidic devices. The system coupled a standard fluorescence microscope, a 3-axis stage, and a UV laser to generate complex patterns with high precision. To make the system as user friendly as possible I programmed a custom user interface for pattern design and machine calibration.

Helped develop the school's first DLW system within a tight budget.
Created a powerful user interface that greatly simplified pattern generation and execution.
Helped students utilize the system for their school projects and theses.

A convenient direct laser writing system for the creation of microfluidic masters
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics