Eric MacKnight
  • Graduate Research Assistant (MS)
  • MicroSystems and BioMEMS Lab
    Rhodes Hall #919
    Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
    University of Cincinnati
    Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0030
  • Tel: (513) 556-0852
    Fax: (513) 556-7326
  • E-mail : mackniec@ececs.uc.edu
Biography
  • Eric received his Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Electrical Engineering from Ohio University in Athens, OH in June, 2004. He actively worked for two years in the Process Automation industry as the Communications Engineer at the Ohmart/VEGA Corp. world headquarters in Oakley, OH. He has traveled to and worked with many different companies in many different industries in his time there. He joined the Microsystems and BioMEMS Lab at the University of Cincinnati in May, 2007 and is currently pursuing his MS under the guidance of Prof. Chong H. Ahn.

Education
  • 2006 - Present  Electrical Engineering, University of Cincinnati, MS
  • 1999 - 2004     Electrical Engineering, Ohio University, BS

Publications

Journal

  • Coming soon!

 

Work Experience (co-op)

  • Ohmart/VEGA Corp. , Cincinnati, OH (Sept. 2004 – Sept. 2006)

    • The company’s main business is non-contact level measurement using pulse radar, TDR and nuclear technology.
    • Eric worked for Ohmart/VEGA in the chemical, environmental, food and beverage, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, power, pulp and paper, shipbuilding, and water and wastewater industries, as well as for the US Government and US Navy.

    COMMUNICATIONS ENGINEER

    • Serving as the Communications Engineer for a company in the Process Automation industry, his main role in the company was to understand many of the different communications protocols in the industry and be able to apply that knowledge to real-world situations and be able to set up or expand new networks and troubleshoot existing ones. He proved proficient many times over, creating over $1M in new sales and remedying delayed sales as a direct result of his troubleshooting skills and service.
    • Engineering Projects – Serving on several projects from inception to completion and delegating work to other employees; projects include being responsible for: PLC/HMI programming, networking many different products and testing for compatibility, and writing several documents and presentations for use by field service, customers, and sales representatives on various subjects
    • Technical Support – Helping customers over the phone, with e-mail and with direct link via modem to fix equipment malfunction and optimize settings for long-term system stability
    • Field Service – Traveling to customer sites and diagnosing and troubleshooting problems with hardware and software, as well as holding training courses for diverse groups (everyone from operators to engineers to foremen); he generated extra sales for the company and forged stronger personal and business relationships with other companies
    Highlights: Developed a better way to communicate diagnostics from our equipment using free space in the communication protocol, resulting in a more valuable product; Managed the implementation of custom software written to manage information taken from instruments on US Navy ships; Found and set up a wireless solution for my company’s hardwired products; Programmed a PLC as a new product for easy set-up in the field for use in very different applications, which improved the product line

Research Interest
  • BioMEMS
  • Microfluidic devices and systems
  • Lab-on-a-chip (Biochip) and µTAS (micro Total Analysis System)
  • Systems Integration
  • Heavy Metal Ion Detection