Mason McVicker

Experience

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  SPF Solutions, LLC

  May 2014 - Jun 2015

  Customer Support Engineer

  Resolved issues in client systems and answered usage questions for end users.Automated website deployment and collected and recorded usage metrics for analysis using bash scripts. Built iOS and Android apps from source code for testing and deployment

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  Alabama Astrobotics

  Aug 2017 - May 2022

  Software Developer and Software Team Lead

  Competed in the NASA Robotic Mining Challenge / Lunabotics Competition. - Engineered technical solutions to a variety of problems, including: real time LiDAR visualization over a network, adding color to LiDAR point clouds and path planning. - Formulated and implemented thorough testing protocols. Integrated sensor feedback for system level debugging. Designed training for new club members.- First place in the 2018 and 2019 NASA Robotic Mining Competition, First place for Autonomy, and Efficient use of Power Communications Show less

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  The University of Alabama

  Dec 2018 - Dec 2023

  Academic Researcher

  Master's Thesis: Evaluating Lidar Semantic Segmentation Algorithms for Off-Road EnvironmentsInvestigated the performance of state-of-the-art lidar semantic segmentation algorithms on the SemanticKITTI and RELLIS-3D datasets. I compared the accuracy and efficiency of four diverse algorithms and explored the benefits and weaknesses of each. I also shared limitations and inconsistencies in the RELLIS-3D dataset.An open access journal paper summarizing this work is available at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41315-024-00376-5 Show less

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  Caterpillar Inc.

  May 2019 - Aug 2019

  Engineering Intern

  - Implemented and validated sub-centimeter accurate 3D pose tracking system to benchmark Hydraulic Excavator accuracy. Used Python packages Numpy, zmq, pyqtgraph for data analysis, networking and visualization respectively.- Used Robot Operating System (ROS) and visualized LiDAR and Stereo Camera sensor data with rviz.Developed use cases of multiple LiDAR and Stereo Camera sensors while referencing engineering specifications.- Created a proof of concept control system with feed forward feedback for hydraulic actuator control of a delta robot. Show less

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  Caterpillar Inc.

  May 2021 - Aug 2021

  Robotics Software Engineering Intern

  - Implemented camera to LiDAR calibration system for multiple cameras and LiDAR sensors on a semi-autonomous robotics platform using Robot Operating System (ROS) and g2o graph optimization.- Integrated hardware and software on a new platform and performed calibration used for internal testing. - Performed testing and verification of software packages in an agile environment.

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  Caterpillar Inc.

  Jan 2024 - now

  Autonomy Engineer