Electrical

Graduated in 2008 with a B. S. in Electrical Engineering at San Diego State University, Gastón Portugal has a passion for his career. Recently, he was part of a team working on an enhanced pedestrian tracking system (JAGR2).

Throughout his education Gastón has been exposed to several engineering projects. Whether designing an innovative prototype, researching for new solutions, analyzing data, programming a microcontroller, or simply testing and measuring a component, he is always motivated and creative at his work. Skills such as soldering and circuit assembly, trouble shooting, operating test equipment (i.e. oscilloscopes, power supplies multimeters, function generators) have been acquired in the development of these projects. Gastón enjoys working in a team environment, and its self-starting and problem solving abilities, makes him a good asset in the working environment.

Fields of interest are Sensors, Prototype design, RF, Digital Signal Processing, and Circuit Board Design.

Projects

JAGR2
Enhanced Pedestrian Position System Using GPS technology and IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) sensor.

Using a GPS receiver combined with an RF data link and an inertial sensor, an enhanced tracking system was developed. The unit incorporates a WiFi enabled embedded web server so the position data can be tracked within a GPS. The information obtained (coordinates, and measurements from accelerometers and gyroscopes) are used to determine and track in real-time the position of an individual walking around campus. This project was designed for military applications.

Prototype website: http://jagr2.sdsu.edu/

LabVIEW
Developed a LabVIEW program to analyzed raw data from an inertial sensor. The data was interpreted, corrected, and formatted for graphical analysis.

Automated Fan Controller
Developed a variable speed fan controller sensitive to temperature changes. This project required the creation of a circuit board, the analysis of a small temperature sensor, the design of a voltage amplifier, the programming of a microcontroller using assembly code, and testing and troubleshooting skills.

Analog Design
Build of a power supply and an audio amplifier.