Here you can find a description of my professional interests and experiences. I’m always looking for ways to apply technology to resolve everyday’s issues wether it is related to personal applications or broad professional solutions, specially when the incentive is related to improve everyone’s quality of life and is mindful of our environment.

I’m open to discuss about trends, experiences and improvements about topics related to my fields of work. I consider that usually I tend to provide a valuable perspective based on my multi-disciplinary expertise acquired in two decades of continuous learning.

My kind of job: Solving problems!

Solving problems is my main motivation for work. Whether it is related to provide a specific characteristic to a product, the way to produce it or its conception based on the customer’s necessities, I enjoy researching, developing and applying technology to achieve it.

In Latin America there is a growing interest in the latest industrial innovations. But it is equally common that machines and procedures - designed for different environments - require specific adaptations normally tied to restricted budgets.

My added values

I’m an entrepreneur. Being able to successfully run my own business for nearly two decades has helped me to identify key considerations in our every day routine. And this is what I transmit to our customers, who always get a solution that is aligned to their strategic planning and, of course, economically viable.

Like in any business, accounting, taxation, environment issues, regulations, certifications, intellectual property, marketing, customer service, human management, resources management, finance, planning, logistic, are among the topics that are part of my daily routine as manager of my own businesses.

I love research. Building on collective knowledge is my approach to get things done. And as a professional in an Applied Science (I’m an Industrial Engineer) I follow a methodical approach with special emphasis in constant actualization.

In real life we are faced to understand as much as possible about every situation. This was the case when we provided our first solution for a Poultry Incubation Plant that required us to replace the complete control of the incubation machines. Starting from zero, we had to learn about the marvelous of machines giving birth to chick embryos. And we did it successfully: This solution has been monitoring and controlling for several years the conditions for a population of 6 million embryos per month with complexities like keeping the temperature inside each machine in a tight operation range of tents of Celsius degrees. And we build everything, from the electronic devices to the electric cabins and the supervising software.

I have the skills. Having been deeply involved with the development and implementation of our solutions, I have been exercising the real deals of every project. As a professional I rely on the four knowledge areas of an Industrial Engineer (Operations research and Statistics, Production and Logistics, Organization Management, and Economics and Finance), but also, I had to appropriate other disciplines.

I have been on the field when implementing every solution. Developing a control for a machine that counted, weighted and selected more that 6000 chicks per hour (About 1.6 per second) with a confidence over 95% of its results, required a complete understanding of the process and knowledge of every component in the solution.

My experience

After receiving my major as Industrial Engineer in 1999 from Universidad de Los Andes , a usually to 5 university in Latin America, I have established 4 small companies in Colombia:

• asha.eco. Since 2019 I’m in charge of the logistics of this venture, specialized in providing top quality essential oils for consumers and business at the best price available. This requires that the whole operation including acquiring, producing, delivering, and subsequent customer service are followed as efficient as possible. Technology is key to procure every aspect of the business.

• VIDAL & ASTUDILLO Ltda. Since 2004 I manage this company which provides solutions to diverse problems in sciences and the agriculture industry, particularly for the poultry producers. Electronics and software are the main basis of our solutions, on which I take an active role developing and procuring.

• NEGOCIOS & GESTION Ltda. Since 2000 I’m in charge of implementing procedures and software for small companies with solutions raging from accounting to production of manufacturing plants. This includes solutions based in Radio Frequency Identification - RFiD to manage inventories, dispatch systems ensuring accurate counting, weighting and identification. Information Technology tied Logistics are the core of my duties at N&G.​

• INTECOL S.A. In 1999 I was in charge of fully developing a web commerce site. That included the design, programming and deployment of the store including its back-end to ensure a reliable logistics. Developing in new technologies (those days) and implementing logistics were among my first ventures. ​

Technical skills I have collected

Developing in diverse platforms is one of my daily activities, which have made me proficient in the following tools:

• I’m responsible of the software produced by VIDAL & ASTUDILLO Ltda which is developed mostly in C for the micro-controllers based devices we produce and Python for most of the applications which usually run in Docker containers and embedded devices using custom Linux images we produce in Buildroot . Some with interfaces aimed to operators are developed using Kivy .

• I’m also proficient in platforms like Texas Instruments Code Composer, PlatformIO and IAR Workbench to program diverse micro-controllers including TI MSP430, TI Tiva and Espressif ESP32 family of devices.

• During 2011-2012 I was registered as a National Instruments Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer (CLAD). I have developed complete solutions which require user interface, data analysis, diverse protocols communications and high-end database integration. You might want to learn about LabVIEW here which is widely used by scientific and engineers around the globe.

• I’ve used TensorFlow and GNU Octave as part of our current learning and development in Machine Learning.

• I have delivered complete solutions using PLCs and interfaces programmed in Siemens' Step 7, Rockwell Automation and RedLion's Crimson terminals.

• My early experiences with databases like MS Fox, MS Access, MS SQL, Postgres, FileMaker, are now complemented with the current intensive use of NoSQL big-data databases like Apache CouchDB and Graph databases like Neo4j which are usually present in our Data Science deployments.

Also, developing electronic and electric products provided me experience with tools like KiCAD and EagleCAD to create printed circuit boards, and See Electrical, Design Spark to document electric circuits. I’m confident developing electronic circuits which perform analog conversions for voltage and current using operational amplifiers, and implement transducers, drivers to manage memories, transceivers, among others.

Keywords

As a reference, this is a list of applications/technologies I feel confident using:

Language C, Python, Docker, Portainer, Linux, Shell, Buildroot, Kivy, National Instruments LabVIEW. Texas Instruments Code Composer, PlatformIO, IAR Workbench, TI MSP430, TI Tiva, Espressif ESP32, Arduino. TensorFlow, GNU Octave, Machine Learning, Data Science. Siemens' Step 7, RedLion's Crimson, Trilogi, SEW drives, Rockwell Automation hardware. MS Fox, MS Access, MS SQL, Postgres, FileMaker, ToolJet, Redis, NoSQL, Apache CouchDB, IBM Cloudflare, Neo4j, ERPNext. MQTT, CoAP, Modbus, ZigBee, TI SimpleLink, RfID, SPI and I2C (Interfaces to diverse electronic peripherals). Pydantic, FastAPI, Dash, Bootstrap, Telegram API. KiCAD, EagleCAD, See Electrical, Design Spark Electrical, Design Spark Mechanical, Fusion 360, 3D Printing. Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, National Instruments RIO, Home Assistant, Caddy.

Do you want to contact me?

Drop me a message using the contact form  if there is something you may want to discuss with me.

Or if you’re interested in details about my current open source developments, please check my profile at: www.github.com/maovidal

Let me hear from you!