Second Order Effects

In 2015, Rajveer Meena set the record for reciting the most digits of Pi when he stated 70,000 decimal places. For Pi Day, we put the SOE team to the test to see how many digits they could recite from memory. While no one got as far as 70,000 decimal places, we were impressed with our team's abilities. Shoutout to Nandini Gunderia for knowing over 30 digits!

ColoradoBiz named Flora Materials Startup of the Month! We are proud to continue partnering with them to research and develop sustainable, algae-based flooring. Check out the full article to learn more.

SOE’s work is sold in stores, orbits the earth, and drives on roads, but we don’t often get to consume the things we create. During our holiday party in Seattle, the team got out of the office and into the kitchen to finally taste the fruits of our labor. Split into four groups, the team put their cooking and collaboration skills to the test, crafting food from Japan, Greece, Mexico, and the US. To mix things up even further, the Seattle team got to work with people they might not normally see around the office, like friends, family, and a few familiar faces from LA. Creating is central to SOE's mission and operations, and celebrations are no different. This time around, however, our creations were delicious.

We are #hiring a Senior Electrical Engineer to join SOE’s Advanced Hardware division! Led by Felix Alvarez, this team is dedicated to transforming creative ideas into high-reliability hardware. With backgrounds in everything from toys to aerospace, these engineers know the value of experimentation and iteration. They are the kinds of people who disassemble things just to reassemble them and like hiding “easter eggs” in long documents. Check out some of the hardware they’ve developed and let us know if you want to join John Dewing, Mengyi Tao, Tajjeev Nadarajan, and the rest of the team on their next project! https://lnkd.in/gQi9yvUG?

As an Electrical Engineering major in his junior year at UCLA, Omid Janani’s passion for circuit design led him from his campus FSAE and Cubesat clubs to SOE’s Electrical Engineering internship. His learning goal was to apply what he was studying in school and practicing recreationally to commercial work with power and digital board design. Starting in September, Omid began working on mixed signal boards with power and digital circuitry, as well as analog sensing. He revised schematics and PCB layout and performed bring up testing on a carrier board for mounting and testing custom radar silicon developed by JPL to detect water on the moon, gaining him future credits as a co-author on a correlated research paper by Dr. Adrian Tang.? Another one of Omid’s favorite projects was owning the schematics, layout, and release of a test board for a propulsion controller. He was proud to be credited again, this time as the board’s PCB Engineer. One piece of technical knowledge Omid will never forget is that “a diode across the gate resistor of an FET can be used to adjust turn-on or turn-off time independently, dependent on diode orientation.” Omid is excited to apply all of his new practical knowledge to his personal and academic projects. Thank you to Omid for all his hard work and contributions last year! #UCLA #ElectricalEngineering #SecondOrderEffects #EngineeringExcellence

Hall effect technology is increasingly popular in gaming controllers. Unlike conventional analog potentiometers, which rely on physical contact to register input, Hall effect sensors turn magnetic field strength into electrical signals to detect movement. This contactless approach eliminates wear, significantly increasing the longevity and reliability of the controller. We worked with mobile console company Gamevice to incorporate a Hall effect sensor into each trigger on their FLEX model, providing a console-like range of travel that gives the player greater control. When actuated, a magnet on the trigger lands precisely on top of the sensor to achieve maximum sensitivity. The new sensors are less susceptible to wear and provide a more consistent user experience over a longer period. Learn more about how our team brought this product to market by reading the full case study here: https://lnkd.in/gkd4qXwD #HallEffectSensors #GamingTechnology #Engineering #Gamevice #TechInnovation #MobileGaming #ControllerDesign #FirmwareDevelopment #EngineeringSolutions #ContactlessTechnology #SecondOrderEffects

Second Order Effects ?? SmallSat Symposium Phillip Marks and Abishek Murali, will be at #SmallSatSymposium in Mountain View, CA from February 4th to the 6th!? SOE solves business challenges through engineering. We offer expert consulting, function as your external engineering team, or create custom products when off-the-shelf solutions fall short. For those also attending, let’s meet up! Respond to this post, send us a message, or email us at [email protected]. If you are unable to attend, you can still reach out to us at [email protected] or learn more about our developments for space at soeffects.com. We look forward to seeing everyone there! #SmallSatSymposium #smallsat #spaceindustry #spacetech

At the 2024 Build Better summit, SOE’s Head of Advanced Hardware, Felix Alvarez, shared his experience leading engineering teams that take napkin sketch concepts to full production. He discussed one of the key components of SOE’s engineering approach: building the right thing. At SOE, we prioritize both the user experience and “the engineering feat,” measuring the success of a product not only by the build quality but how closely it fits the needs of the client and consumers. Watch for Felix’s first-hand knowledge, and follow us here on LinkedIn to learn more of how we build the right thing.

After building a satellite to house a telescope payload, our client needed a thermal monitoring controller for their extremely sensitive optical system. They asked Second Order Effects to create a temperature control system that was configurable to different thermal setpoints. To avoid the required complexity of software qualification, SOE designed a thermal controller solution that could be configured and programmed with 'shorting plugs' connected on the outside of the thermal controller. Ensuring the satellite could compensate for when thermal environments dropped to a level that could damage the sensitive optical equipment was critical to the success of this long-term Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) mission. To find out how our team designed this thermal controller, which is currently in orbit, visit our website: https://lnkd.in/gF2F5SD7.

Marion Yuga is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Information Management at the University of Washington, Seattle. She joined the SOE team as a Technical Project Management Intern to learn more about the operational aspects of running a business. Marion’s learning goals were to participate in an infrastructure program and oversee a project from start to finish. Starting this summer, Marion participated in an infrastructure project to evaluate project health and company success. She assessed components like resource capacity and demand, as well as project and portfolio financials. Working alongside the project management team, they also set out to create more concrete metrics for elements like “team health” and “client success.” Having a background in healthcare, data science, and business intelligence, Marion also took this opportunity to learn more about hardware engineering. “I’ve learned that [conformal thermal interface materials] have an expiration,” she says. “You wouldn’t expect it. It’s like having a phone with an expiration.” Marion left the LAX office at the end of the summer to finish out her internship with the SEA office for two more months. While the native New Yorker will be closer to school in SEA, she will be missing out on Pizzeria Sei, which she declared “the best margarita pizza on the west coast, as evaluated by a New Yorker.” Thank you to Marion for all her hard work this summer. Although we will miss her in the LAX office, we know she will bring that same dedication and commitment to SEA! #UniversityOfWashington #SecondOrderEffects #ProjectManagement #TechnicalProjectManagement #PM