Jim Bretl

Experience

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  Dynetics Engineering Corporation and Needs-Mett, Incorporated

  May 1993 - Aug 2003

  Project Engineer to Engineering Manager

  Needs-Mett is a manufacturer of electro-mechanical equipment. Project requirements included re-engineering existing designs as well as new product development and product packaging. Coordinated design and manufacture between two facilities. Projects required integration of technology products from other OEMs. Activities included primary customer interface, prototype design and development(CADKEY, Autocad), manufacturing optimization and CNC programming.Enjoyed the opportunity to work closely with software and electrical engineers in developing, testing and optimizing control systems and operator interfaces. Machine control and data acquisition were accomplished through a PC operating under Windows '95. Worked with Visual Basic, C++ and WinMaker. I am also comfortable with programming (FANUC) and setup of machining centers as wells as moderate setups and operation of manual lathes and mills. Show less

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  Marine Hydrodynamics Lab - University of Michigan

  Sept 2004 - Jul 2010

  Research Assistant

  Model building, model testing and Dynamo-meter development for the towing basin. Performed experiments and post processing analysis.

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  Ocean Power Technologies

  Jul 2009 - Aug 2016

  Senior Hydrodynamicist

  OPT is one of the leading developers of ocean wave energy technologies. As a member of OPT’s advanced technologies group, one of my primary roles involves modeling performance metrics of a variety of wave energy converter design. The focus of our modeling is mooring loads, power conversion and motion studies. Another significant role is planning, executing and evauluating model scale tank tests. These tests range include both survival and operational conditions.Commercial codes include WAMIT for frequency domain characterization of geometries. ANSYS, Matlab and Rhino for geometry and mesh development. Orcaflex and Matlab for time domain realizations and graphics. Show less

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  Korvis, LLC (now part of Ascential Medical & Life Sciences)

  Sept 2016 - now

  Manufacturing Project Engineer