Robert Heffern

Applied research and development for the CrossLab Connect service organization, spanning machine learning, AI systems, instrument telemetry, and emerging-technology evaluation. Designed and shipped FSE-in-a-Box, a retrieval-augmented LLM application serving 300+ field service engineers, and owned predictive maintenance systems for a deployed instrument fleet.

One of five engineers who built a GraphQL API sustaining 10,000 requests per hour for RE/MAX Real Estate, taken from initial conception to production in eight months. Wrote the complete API documentation and contributed to 200% growth of the consultancy over five months.

Worked on a clinical trial testing whether virtual reality reduces pain during pediatric burn dressing changes. Collaborated with national game development and 3-D real estate companies to scan patients' homes and local landmarks for long-term-care enrichment programs.

Designed, built, and troubleshot a fiber-based STED nanoscope achieving ~100 nm resolution, working alone. Built an optical coherence tomography microscope from scratch during rotation, producing 3-D images of human brain tissue samples.

Developed a novel stimulation protocol for imaging genetically encoded fluorescence changes in zebrafish embryo notochord touch-sensing neurons. Used patch clamping to measure vestibular hair cell responses and measured ionic currents in ex vivo neurons of the auditory pathway.

Designed, prototyped, and tested a six-degree-of-freedom wireless motion sensor head-mounted on a chinchilla, transmitting via Bluetooth at 1.2 kHz. Work spanned wireless data transmission characterization, circuit power design, animal welfare protocol, and data analysis.

Planned and performed high pressure-temperature mineral physics experiments at the Advanced Light Source and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, studying kutnohorite, aragonite, and carbon dioxide. Debugged, repaired, and maintained the laboratory's Raman spectrometer.

Designed, built, and tested a chronically mounted in vivo neural recording helmet for rat hippocampus with electronically controlled 0.5 µm depth resolution. Designed and built a weaving loom for braiding fine wires used in brain recording.

Prototyped, built, and troubleshot precision timing hardware and software in production; contributed to $3.0M in profit with a team of four. Maintained the internal timing ensemble to picosecond accuracy and verified secure-area-destined systems for accuracy and stability.

Authored reliability studies for commercial and research satellites and International Space Station modules, and presented estimates to Japanese, domestic, and U.S. government customers. Planned and conducted hardware radiation testing at Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of Maryland, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Characterized silicon strip detectors under annealing and variable radiation dosage, contributing to published work on oxide charge, interstrip capacitance, and breakdown behavior in sLHC prototype detectors.

Authored senior thesis on negative thermal expansion crystals, using extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Contributed to laboratory work on skutterudites and colossal magnetoresistance materials.

Worked every function of the family automotive repair shop, including transmission and torque converter rebuilding, diagnosis of uncommon faults, telephone and electrical wiring, carpentry, bookkeeping, marketing, and customer relations.

M.S. in Bioengineering with a thesis on a fiber-based STED microscope, focusing on STED patterning, excitation delivery, and fluorescence collection and imaging.

B.S. in Applied Physics with a thesis on the study of ZrW2O8 metal-oxygen peaks through EXAFS analysis.