My projects

This page is intended as a catchall for projects I want to share but don’t have a separate category for. You can also see some of my projects on Github.

Automated handwash station

The reopening of schools in fall 2020 brought new challenges for teachers, including that of sanitation. When my wife mentioned wanting a movable handwash station at her school, I sensed an engineering project. The station I designed connects to a standard garden hose and uses a motion sensor to control the water flow.

Palawano grammar

One of my favorite parts of my two years in Palawan, Philippines was learning the local language. While people in developed areas of the island speak Tagalog, the national language,* indigenous peoples in more remote places still speak their ancestral languages. Learning Palawano (or Pelawan, as its speakers call themselves and their language) sparked my interest in the fascinating field of linguistics. Just for fun, I began writing a grammar of the language shortly before I left. I never finished, and there are now many things I would change based on what I’ve learned since then about linguistics. Even so, I’m sharing this draft here for anyone interested in languages, especially less well-known ones.

* Some Filipinos carefully distinguish between Tagalog, a tribal language, and Filipino, the national language based largely on Tagalog. Others use the two terms interchangeably, at least in everyday speech. Most people I talked to simply called it “Tagalog”.

Click here to download the draft Palawano grammar.

Teaching materials

Before going in to engineering full-time I spent several years teaching. These are a few of the materials I created for my students.

Download calculator worksheet	Many computational errors in math and science classes originate from improper calculator usage. I created this sheet to help my Algebra 1 class make sure they were using their calculators correctly.
Download conservation of mass lab sheet	This is a lab sheet for a classic baking soda and vinegar lab demonstrating the law of mass conservation. It’s designed for students to fill out as they complete the lab.