Education

BS Electrical Engineering, South Dakota State University
BS Mechanical Engineering, South Dakota State University

Work Experience

Jensen Hughes – Lead Engineer

2014 – Current

Areas of Expertise

Primary responsibilities include maintaining documentation and analyses for nuclear power plant fire protection programs and supporting Jensen Hughes Proprietary Software RiskAdvisr™. This includes modeling nuclear safety performance criteria, performing detailed circuit analysis, and refining failure likelihood analysis for both BWR and PWR nuclear power plants.

Technical duties in support of nuclear analyses include:

• Technical team leading and supporting Project Managers
• Evaluation of plant design changes driven by regulatory updates and modifications
• Support of cable aging management through walk-downs, inspections, and documentation
• Use of Jensen Hughes software suite RiskAdvisr to demonstrate regulatory compliance
• Management of complex data sources
• Scoping technical and staffing resources to generate project proposals

In addition to technical roles, John is a Product Owner and Subject Matter Expert for Jensen Hughes’ proprietary software RiskAdvisr™ and has thorough knowledge of the suite. RiskAdvisr is used to coalesce complex data into a user-friendly interface for the long-term maintenance of plant documentation and analyses.

Duties in support of RiskAdvisr™ include:

• Migration and conversion of analysis data into the software environment
• Training internal and external clients
• Software feature documentation
• Future feature planning through Agile practices
• Built-in report generation
• Supporting client technical needs and user feedback

John has also supported other divisions in Jensen Hughes, including the fire forensics and litigation group, where he used his knowledge as an engineer to support point of origin investigation and documentation pertaining to household fire and water damage. This experience was also utilized for industrial compliance inspections, documenting differences between as-built and design specifications.

Daktronics – Student Engineer

2008-2013

While working at Daktronics, John focused on the development and testing of video display technology. This included the testing of circuits and components on multi-layer printed circuit boards with FPGA and microcontroller-based controls. Also supported design, test, and documentation of PCB constituents including power supplies, LED calibration, and fiberoptic communications. Prior to supporting hardware design, he was a customer service representative for the department and regularly worked with customers and their needs.

Notable Accomplishments

FSAE Student Competition – Wild Hare Racing

2008-2014

While attending college, John was a member of the Formula SAE team at South Dakota State University. John served as the team lead for the electrical systems group, powertrain group, and later the overall team lead. During his time on the team, John worked with the various lead engineers to focus on improved technical documentation while also advancing the team’s growth. The year after his 5 year tenure on the team was Wild Hare Racing’s most successful season, securing an overall 7th place finish at the FSAE-West competition in 2015.

The team’s goal in addition to completing a successful season was to serve as representatives for South Dakota State University. The team worked with industry sponsors, collegiate resources, and local events to promote STEM and Engineering awareness.