Circuit Break Podcast #392

Interviewing Matthew Prater

Related Topics
Dr. Duncan Haldane from JITX on Automating Circuit Design

Dr. Haldane on his background, the problems JITX is trying to resolve, & new auto-router plans. What's the deal with the "hyper-aggressive pogo-stick"?

Robots Have Fall Damage

Matthew Prater joins Parker and Stephen to discuss his student's innovation projects and antimatter positrons.

Don’t Try This At Home

Annika O'Brien joins Parker and Stephen in the MacroFab Variety Hour Podcast.

Other Resources

Circuit Break Podcast
Webinars
Videos
Tour MacroFab's ITAR-Compliant Facility

August 25, 2023, Episode #392

Matt has been teaching Robotics and Embedded Systems at the University of Advancing Technology since 2019. Before that, he worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry for 15 years mostly for Cardinal Health where he made radiopharmaceuticals (radioactive drugs) and worked as the Quality Unit in production for seven years, before switching to R&D as a Senior Principal Scientist.

Guests:

  • Matthew Prater from the University of Advancing Technology

Increasing the dosage

  • Matt on how he began making radiopharmaceuticals
  • Going from manufacturing five to thousands of doses a day
  • Programming robotics…with an Excel sheet?
  • Enviable synthesis machines

Up Late to Fight Cancer

  • Baking radioactive fluorine
  • Cancer cells that eat and make babies
  • Chemistry and Robots
  • “$130,000 to go from 23 seconds to forever”
  • Check flights to Fargo at 3 AM before drugs died
  • House and ER and radioactivity and PET in cancer treatments
  • Getting the fluorine carbon bond to happen where you want to
  • A little bit of spicy sugar

The F-18 Radioactive Tracer

  • Does F-18 spit out a proton?
  • Giving up the graveyard shifts for R&D
  • Cancer and hypoxia
  • Working on Meds that Battle Alzheimer’s disease
  • Drug trials and brain slides

Regs and Pigs

  • The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Agreement States
  • Storing radioactivity in a pig
  • Oil pipelines made from trees
  • Two terms for pigs that aren’t actually pigs

What’s the deal with the University of Advancing Technology?

  • Red Blue Security Teams and serious competition
  • The Automated Motorcycle Visor and Coffin Cases
  • Virtual front row seats and concert drones

About the Hosts

Parker Dillmann
  Parker Dillmann

Parker is an Electrical Engineer with backgrounds in Embedded System Design and Digital Signal Processing. He got his start in 2005 by hacking Nintendo consoles into portable gaming units. The following year he designed and produced an Atari 2600 video mod to allow the Atari to display a crisp, RF fuzz free picture on newer TVs. Over a thousand Atari video mods where produced by Parker from 2006 to 2011 and the mod is still made by other enthusiasts in the Atari community.

In 2006, Parker enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin as a Petroleum Engineer. After realizing electronics was his passion he switched majors in 2007 to Electrical and Computer Engineering. Following his previous background in making the Atari 2600 video mod, Parker decided to take more board layout classes and circuit design classes. Other areas of study include robotics, microcontroller theory and design, FPGA development with VHDL and Verilog, and image and signal processing with DSPs. In 2010, Parker won a Ti sponsored Launchpad programming and design contest that was held by the IEEE CS chapter at the University. Parker graduated with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Spring of 2012.

In the Summer of 2012, Parker was hired on as an Electrical Engineer at Dynamic Perception to design and prototype new electronic products. Here, Parker learned about full product development cycles and honed his board layout skills. Seeing the difficulties in managing operations and FCC/CE compliance testing, Parker thought there had to be a better way for small electronic companies to get their product out in customer's hands.

Parker also runs the blog, longhornengineer.com, where he posts his personal projects, technical guides, and appnotes about board layout design and components.

Stephen Kraig
  Stephen Kraig

Stephen Kraig is a component engineer working in the aerospace industry. He has applied his electrical engineering knowledge in a variety of contexts previously, including oil and gas, contract manufacturing, audio electronic repair, and synthesizer design. A graduate of Texas A&M, Stephen has lived his adult life in the Houston, TX, and Denver, CO, areas.

Stephen has never said no to a project. From building guitar amps (starting when he was 17) to designing and building his own CNC table to fine-tuning the mineral composition of the water he uses to brew beer, he thrives on testing, experimentation, and problem-solving. Tune into the podcast to learn more about the wacky stuff Stephen gets up to.

Related Podcasts

Annika obrien dont try home

Don’t Try This At Home

Annika O'Brien joins Parker and Stephen in the MacroFab Variety Hour Podcast.

Robots have fall damage

Robots Have Fall Damage

Matthew Prater joins Parker and Stephen to discuss his student's innovation projects and antimatter positrons.

MEP FI 406

Dr. Duncan Haldane from JITX on Automating Circuit Design

Dr. Haldane on his background, the problems JITX is trying to resolve, & new auto-router plans. What's the deal with the "hyper-aggressive pogo-stick"?

About MacroFab

MacroFab offers comprehensive manufacturing solutions, from your smallest prototyping orders to your largest production needs. Our factory network locations are strategically located across North America, ensuring that we have the flexibility to provide capacity when and where you need it most.

Experience the future of EMS manufacturing with our state-of-the-art technology platform and cutting-edge digital supply chain solutions. At MacroFab, we ensure that your electronics are produced faster, more efficiently, and with fewer logistic problems than ever before.

Take advantage of AI-enabled sourcing opportunities and employ expert teams who are connected through a user-friendly technology platform. Discover how streamlined electronics manufacturing can benefit your business by contacting us today.