James Lambert
Verified Expert in Engineering
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Developer
London, United Kingdom
Toptal member since November 7, 2022
After his PhD, James worked as a private tutor for 10 years. He founded Inspired Minds in 2016, which ran programming and robotics-themed events for children and adults. James and his business partner raised seed funding to explore space propulsion concepts, and Pulsar Fusion was born in 2019. James splits his time between programming and running Pulsar and its many academic collaborations and hardware projects. He loves getting involved in original projects, often based on hardware.
Portfolio
Experience
- Python - 7 years
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - 5 years
- Hardware - 5 years
- Arduino - 4 years
- Proof of Concept (POC) - 4 years
- Swift - 4 years
- SQL - 3 years
- Flask - 2 years
Availability
Preferred Environment
SQL, Python, NumPy, Pandas, Swift, REST APIs, Hardware, Architecture, Proof of Concept (POC), Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
The most amazing...
...project I've worked on is a rocket engine combined with a fuel feed system. My team designed the hardware and software control systems from scratch.
Work Experience
Senior Software Developer
Pulsar Fusion
- Built and designed a React front-end to control and test rocket systems. Used React, JavaScript, Node.js, and CSS to build a simple and responsive control panel that allows engineers to test devices in an easy-to-use/hard-to-misuse way.
- Designed, built, and developed the control logic back-end for rocket systems using Python, Flask, NumPy, and SQL.
- Created and developed an iOS app for measuring magnetic fields. This app allowed engineers to quickly and conveniently verify that components were wired correctly without using a bulky testing kit. Used SwiftUI and CoreMotion.
Head of Operations
Pulsar Fusion
- Raised €325,000 from the UK Space Agency for nuclear-powered electric propulsion systems research. Pulsar's collaborators were Southampton University, Cambridge University, and Nuclear AMRC on October 2022.
- Gathered €50,000 via the UK government's satellite applications catapult for Pulsar's academic collaboration program with Southampton University. This program validated the electric propulsion product line I developed at Pulsar.
- Designed and fabricated two hall-effect thrusters and a lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) hollow cathode.
- Built a high vacuum testing lab at Pulsar's Milton Keynes workshop.
Software Developer
Openset Ventures
- Designed, built, and developed a MOSFET control board plus the embedded control software for our in-house rocket system control board, using C++ and Arduino.
- Created and developed a data analysis dashboard for rocket test firing data using Python, Jupyter, Matplotlib, Pandas, NumPy, and SciPy.
- Built a data analysis dashboard for evaluating testing data from Pulsar Fusion's electric propulsion systems using Python, Jupyter, Matplotlib, Pandas, Numpy, and SciPy.
- Constructed and designed a market research dashboard for visualizing the satellite spacecraft marketplace using Python, Pandas, Jupyter, Matplotlib, Altair, NumPy, and Qlik. The founders employed this dashboard to drive business strategy.
Hardware Consulting Expert for Game Rooms
SPYSCAPE,
- Designed an immersive spy-themed game that was a huge 2x8m installation of targets, which responded to being hit with balls thrown by players and lit up.
- Devised and prototyped the game, including the hit detection system. A major challenge was making individual targets sensitive enough to ensure weka hits were always registered while hard hits didn't trigger adjacent targets.
- Tested the hardware and provided written and video results. This required ESP32 prototyping in C++.
- Provided written instructions for installing and operating the product.
Cofounder
Inspired Minds
- Designed and developed an iOS cipher-breaking game. The game was part of the company's immersive escape-room-style educational offerings. The app was developed in Swift and SwiftUI and customized to run on iPadOS.
- Created and developed an AppKit app to help students understand fractions, decimals, and percentages. This required a lot of UI work and user testing, the kids loved the app and their test scores increased by typically 20% on standardized testing.
- Developed and designed a Python programming game environment that allowed students to learn the language by programming a Mars rover to explore the planet, looking for signs of life. Utilized Python, Jupyter, HTML, and CSS for the project.
Experience
Control Software for Testing Rocket Systems
https://github.com/Jamesalambert/control_boardThis project aims to simplify the testing program of chemical and electric propulsion systems. The user may configure sub-systems in a dependency tree format, making accidental activation less likely. This also makes comparing different firings easier due to a common underlying control stack.
A delegate object handles control logic. This means the software can easily be reconfigured to operate different systems.
iOS Puzzle Solving Game
https://github.com/Jamesalambert/CipherGameUsers are given a letter count to help them solve the code and can also ask for hints. This project grew out of one of my student's enthusiasm for these puzzles.
The story was written by my talented friend Tara Siddall. The Git repository also includes a Mac application called Puzzle Builder. This is a handy support application for generating JSON-formatted puzzles from raw text.
Arduino Control System
https://github.com/Jamesalambert/Arduino_ControliOS CoreMotion App: MagField
https://github.com/Jamesalambert/magFieldOur engineering team needed this app to validate the assembly of pulsar's products quickly. The app uses the Core Motion framework to access the magnetometer, where readings can be nullified to remove the device's magnetic field. The app uses the iOS native share sheet for sharing data in the CSV format.
Spy-themed Game
I sketched out the game concept, constructed a hardware prototype, and subsequently brought the design to life in CAD.
The primary challenge was finding a suitable sensor technology that would give adequate sensitivity without letting strong hits trigger neighboring targets.
A secondary project involved designing a climbing ledge that could detect body weight, accommodate other LiDAR sensors, and remain safe for people to climb.
Integrating a remote team of six, I successfully delivered CAD illustrations, testing data, and installation guides for both installations.
Visual Note-taking App: Index Cards
https://github.com/Jamesalambert/IndexCardsCertifications
Machine Learning
Coursera
Skills
Libraries/APIs
NumPy, Matplotlib, Mypy, REST APIs, Pandas, SciPy, React, Node.js
Tools
Jupyter, Git, Figma, Xcode, CAD
Languages
Python, Swift, CSS, HTML, Python 3, Embedded C++, SQL, JavaScript, Octave, C++, Objective-C
Frameworks
Flask, SwiftUI, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), UIKit
Paradigms
Mobile Development, REST
Platforms
Arduino, Mobile, iOS, MacOS, Raspberry Pi
Storage
MySQL
Other
Electronics, Arduino IDE, APIs, Technical Consulting, Technical Reports, Proof of Concept (POC), Embedded Systems, Microcontrollers, Hardware, Architecture, CTO, Team Leadership, CEO, Machine Learning, Logistic Regression, Front-end Development, Internet of Things (IoT), UI Animation, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), CSV, Data Acquisition (DAQ), iPad, iOS Camera, ESP32, Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
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