William L. Spies II
www.spieswl.com
resume@spieswl.com
https://github.com/spieswl
http://www.linkedin.com/in/spieswl2
SKILLS, STANDARDS, AND TOOLS
C++ 11/14/17
Python 3
Go
ROS 1 / 2
Boost, Eigen
OpenCV, PCL, CUDA
Git, CMake, Docker
Google Test
Fanuc Robot Tooling
Atlassian Suite
MS Office Suite
ANSI/RIA R15.06
ISO 13849, ISO 26262
NFPA 70E
Budget & Labor Estimation
Leadership Development
HISTORY
Viam, Inc. Remote - New York, NY
Lead Software Engineer, Motion September 2022 – May 2023
• Lead development and deployment of the Motion Planning (a.k.a. Motion) service within Viam’s Robot Development Kit (RDK).
• Developed, solicited feedback on, and presented roadmap for Motion evolution to senior leadership and broader organization.
• Managed team Agile board in JIRA, collaborated on task prioritization with Product department, and held team accountable.
• Directed development of Motion software (written mostly in Go), participated in comprehensive code reviews, oversaw unit and
integration testing, and dispatched personnel for hardware-in-the-loop tests when necessary.
• Developed and maintained the Motion Quality Assurance plan.
• Authored tutorials on setup, configuration, and use of the Motion service aimed at prospective users of the RDK.
• Coordinated cross-team involvement and collaboration on features involving multiple Viam teams, i.e. Vision and SLAM.
• Wrote integration with Open Motion Planning Library (OMPL) to benchmark and compare internal motion planning algorithms.
• Managed team of three engineers across three time zones.
Outrider Technologies, Inc. Golden, CO
Senior Software Engineer, Robotics - TrailerConnect October 2021 – August 2022
• Managed active collaboration between TrailerConnect and Computer Vision and Machine Learning departments.
• Responsible for continued improvement of TrailerConnect perception software, interfaces, and tooling.
• Collaborated with other TrailerConnect engineers on Remote Assistance mechanisms for supporting detection, classification,
and system recovery capabilities.
• Authored, integrated, and supported software interfaces to Ethernet/IP Turck block I/O modules, SMC pneumatic manifolds,
and SMC digital I/O modules.
• Responsible for performance analysis of advanced prototypes and generating corrective recommendations.
• Served as TrailerConnect representative and voting stakeholder on organization-wide safety council.
• Advised organization system safety personnel on TrailerConnect safety requirements and safety validation.
Robotics Software Engineer - TrailerConnect March 2019 – October 2021
• Authored, integrated, and supported ROS and native C++11 code for TrailerConnect Obstacle Detection / Obstacle Avoidance
software, hardware interface software, perception software, simulation software, and configuration management.
• Contributed improvements and optimizations to highest-level TrailerConnect finite state machine.
• Responsible for commissioning of Yaskawa GP7 robot arms, Intel RealSense cameras, SICK safety LIDARs, embedded
VersaLogic computers, and other electronic devices.
• Pioneered data collection tools for assessing system performance with respect to commercial and engineering objectives.
• Prepared Machine Safety Risk Assessment (compliant with ANSI/RIA R15.06) on the TrailerConnect robotic system.
• Validated use of SIL3/Cat4 components and robot controller features to mitigate risks to property and personnel.
• Directed development of documentation outlining system operation, support procedures, and hardware configurations.
• Participated in Agile sprint planning, task time estimation, and task dependency organization.
William L. Spies II
HISTORY (continued)
Northwestern University Evanston, IL
Research Scientist - Computational Photography Lab (CPL) June 2018 - December 2018
• Spearheaded joint effort between Computational Photography Lab and NU ACCESS to leverage Python, WebRTC, and
consumer-grade Android tablets for 3D surface scanning using structured light projection and deflectometry.
• Spearheaded effort with Dr. Florian Willomitzer to adapt Flying Triangulation (arxiv:1305.4168) from MATLAB source code to
C++17, modernized with Eigen, OpenCV, and PCL library features.
Master of Science, Robotics September 2017 - September 2018
• Robotic applications of computer vision (e.g. visual odometry, 3D reconstruction, camera calibration, pose estimation).
• Embedded systems programming in modern C++ (11/17) and Python, including heavy usage of ROS.
• Implementing kinematic and dynamic control of 6-DoF robotic systems and mobile manipulators.
ATS Automation Lewis Center, OH
Systems Project Engineer; Laser Safety Officer February 2017 - August 2017
• Orchestrated team of 12 engineers with more than 100 collective years of PLC, HMI, and robot programming experience on
industrial automation systems for First Solar, General Motors, Tesla, Oral-B, Doosan, and other customers.
• Aggregated ongoing project status and reported engineering progress to division leadership on a weekly basis.
• Assembled initial project task lists, designed high-level architecture for early-stage projects, anticipated manpower needs, and
coordinated with other engineering disciplines from project launch through customer installation.
• Developed material and labor estimates (scope up to 10,000 human-hours) for sales department on an as-needed basis.
• Coordinated with sister ATS divisions on code standard development for use across entire global organization.
Systems Software Engineer; Laser Safety Officer September 2015 - February 2017
• Designed, implemented, and validated machine control software as lead programmer of industrial automation systems for First
Solar, Doosan, 3M, and other customers.
• Integrated safety systems, data handling infrastructure, and human-machine interfaces per individual customer requirements.
• Programmed and integrated Fanuc industrial robots for material handling and machine vision applications.
• Coordinated schedules, task lists, and action items for associate project team members.
• As Laser Safety Officer, handled matters of safe laser integration, operation, and maintenance through authoring workspace
policies and performing optical calculations facilitating safe handling of Class 3 / Class 4 industrial lasers.
Electrical Design Engineer June 2012 - September 2015
• Designed, integrated, and supported electrical controls and power infrastructure of industrial automation systems for Dow
Chemical, General Motors, TRW, and other customers.
• Served as lead controls engineer for General Motors EV/HEV battery assembly systems with budgets exceeding $2 million USD.
• Participated in internal and custom-facing design reviews as part of formal design approval processes.
• Coordinated with assembly teams for install supervision and testing of control systems throughout system commissioning.
• Participated in validation of safety systems in compliance with ISO 13849 and ANSI/RIA R15.06 standards.
University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH
Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering June 2007 - June 2012
Minor in Photonics
PUBLICATIONS & PATENTS
1. Florian Willomitzer, Chia-Kai Yeh, Vikas Gupta, William Spies, Florian Schiffers, Aggelos
Katsaggelos, Marc Walton, and Oliver Cossairt., "Hand-guided qualitative deflectometry with a
mobile device," Optics Express 28, 9027-9038 (2020)
