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EMMANUEL AVIONICS, INC.
Electronic Design & Litigation Support
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FULL CURRICULUM VITAE
Duncan G. Cumming
Ph. D. (Camb.)
310-***-**** abo29t@r.postjobfree.com
Expertise
ITC Experience
Power Supplies
Electronic Hardware
Embedded Control Systems
GPS Systems
Joystick Design (Games)
RF SystemsProfessional SummaryDr. Duncan G. Cumming, Ph.D. (EE, Cambridge University, England, 1979) is the president
of Emmanuel Avionics, Inc at San Pedro, California. He has been in the business of
electronic design since 1979. Dr. Cummings core business is the design of electronic
controls for the Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) market, including inertial measurement,
autopilots, electrical power controls, RF systems and video technology. These technologies
are mostly applicable to the civilian market, although some UAVs do have military
applications. Dr. Cumming has a wide scientific background, and is able to provide expert
testimony and assess both the performance and the newness of various technologies. While
this is primarily useful in Intellectual Property disputes, it has occasional applications
in other types of cases.
Employment History
From:
1996Emmanuel Avionics, Inc.
To: Present San Pedro, CA
Position:
President Electronic hardware consulting.
From:
1984Cambridge Electronic Design, Inc.
To: 1996 San Pedro, CA
Position:
Chief Executive Officer Electronic hardware consulting.
From:
1982Unified Technologies, Inc.
To: 1984 Los Angeles, CA
Position:
Senior Systems Design Engineer. Designed video game software and CRT display.
From:
1979Hughes Aircraft Co.
To: 1982 Los Angeles, CA
Position:
Member of Technical Staff commissioned electron beam microfabrication system.
From:
1979Cambridge UniversityEngineering Dept.
To: 1979 Cambridge, UK
Position: Postgraduate Research Student Researched revolutionary new e-beam imaging.
WIDE EXPERTISE
Dr. Cumming has a wide range of expertise acquired over the years. Clients have included
everything from one man operations to Fortune 500 companies. Some of the major clients are
shown below:-
From:
1984
Client:- Aero Vironment, Inc.
To: Present Simi Valley, CA
Duties: Design and construction of numerous electronics packages for unmanned air
vehicles.
Embedded Control Systems including Atmel and Motorola. Experienced using Integrated
Development Environments.
Switched Mode Power Supplies. Over the years, Dr Cumming has worked on a wide variety of
switched mode power supplies. From computer card supplies (5V) to high voltage (30kV), and
some exotic supplies with input voltages of less than a volt. He has used most supply
topologies at one time or another, for boost mode, buck mode and both.
RF Systems including receiver design, video transmitter design, digital control systems
and radio modems.
Transducers including accelerometers, integrated gyros, conventional rate gyros, pressure
transducers, strain gauges and magnetometers.
Inertial Measurement Units (IMU). Both design from scratch, and utilization of
commercially available units.
Unmanned Air Vehicle Design, including both fixed wing and rotary types, on all scales
from 6 inch wing span to 270 feet.
From:
1983 Client:- Hughes Aircraft Co
To: 1984 Torrance, CA
Duties: Enhancement and maintenance of electron beam microfabrication system.
Magnetic Deflection Systems. High resolution deflection systems for electron beam
microfabrication, raster mode and vector mode deflection systems for cathode ray tubes,
and one combined system that did both raster and vector deflection simultaneously.
From:
2009 Client:- Sage Cheshire, Inc
To: 2010 Lancaster, CA
Duties: Design and construction of space suit chest pack for Red Bull Stratos high
altitude parachuting record attempt.
Global Positioning System. Selection and interfacing of suitable GPS receivers for a
large variety of tasks, including supersonic speed measurement using civilian GPS
receivers.
From:
1986 Client:- Applied Research Associates, Inc.
To: 1989 Albuquerque, NM
Duties: Design and construction of numerous electronics packages for 70 foot unmanned
surveillance blimp.
Video Camera control systems. Pan/tilt units, gyro stabilized camera mounts.
Autopilots. Dr Cumming has designed autopilot systems for fixed wing, rotary, blimp, and
balloon systems.
Infra Red, Visible Light, and Low Light video camera systems.
From: 1984 Client:- Other
To: Present
Duties: Electronic Hardware Design Projects
RF design for underground pipe detection, metal detection, and other low frequency (VLF)
applications.
Joystick Design and human factors engineering, including force operated joysticks,
programmable joysticks, and use in the air joysticks (i.e. not connected to any fixed
object).
Pneumatic Control Systems. Automatic braking and throttle control systems. Investigation
of sudden acceleration problems.
Autonomous Vehicle Design. Dr. Cumming developed the interface units for a vehicle that
entered the DARPA Grand Challenge, a government sponsored unmanned ground vehicle
competition.
Rocket Payload Systems. Both sub-orbital and near-space systems.
Power Electronics. Dr Cumming has designed 400Hz harmonic reduction systems for the
Boeing 747 aircraft, high power oscillators (1MHz, 10kW), motor control systems, and
heater control systems.
Magnetic Levitation Systems. Dr Cumming has designed everything from a simple overhead
solenoid system to a complete levitation system operating entirely from below a flat table
top, with no visible sensors.
High Voltage Pulsed Systems. Dr Cumming has worked with a 10kV, 3Amp, 50nS pulsed system
for field emission cathodes.
High voltage DC systems. Dr Cumming has worked with a number of high voltage control
systems in the electron beam microfabrication industry, up to 30kV. He is also familiar
with the use of thermionic tubes in such control systems, one of the few surviving uses of
the thermionic tube today.
Vacuum Systems. Dr Cumming has experience with both diffusion pumped high vacuum systems
and ultra high vacuum ion pumped systems. He has worked with tungsten, LaB6, and field
emission cathodes and the associated high voltage equipment.
Litigation Support Experience
Date: 1996
Case: Cambridge Electronic Design, Inc.
Project: Testified as the defendant in a contractual dispute with Cambridge Electronic
Design, Inc. This involved a successful petition to compel arbitration in superior court,
and testimony (using telephone conference calls) for the ensuing binding arbitration.
Status: Case closed, no damages awarded.
Date: 2010
Matter: International Trade Commission Action
Project: Acted as a Consulting Expert Witness in a patent validity case involving power
supplies.
Status: My involvement complete, but case ongoing as of October, 2010
Date: 2011
Matter: International Trade Commission Action
Project: Acted as a Testifying Expert Witness in a patent validity case involving marine
autopilots.
Status: Case settled on favorable terms following my testimony at deposition
Date: 2012
Matter: Product Liability Case - Superior Court Of The State Of California
Project: Acted as a Testifying Expert Witness against a luxury automobile manufacturer in
a product liability case involving an automotive braking system.
Status: Jury verdict against the auto manufacturer in March, 2012
Date: 2012
Matter: International Trade Commission Action
Project: Acted as a Consulting Expert Witness in a patent validity case involving
computers.
Status: Case dropped prior to first deposition.
Patents
Patent Number Date Issued Title
7013.001 May 24, 1996 Cordless Free Floating Joystick (Provisional)
Education
Year College/University Degree
1979 Cambridge University, England Ph. D., Electrical Engineering
1978 Cambridge University, England M.A.
1974 Cambridge University, England B.A.
Publications
Cumming, A.D.G. A Method For Determining The Geometry Of Field Emitters Optik, 49 No.1
(1977) 17-23.
Bishop, J.F., Cumming, A.D.G., Ferrari, R.L., Miller K.J. Cambridge University
Vatnajokull Expedition, 1977 Polar Record, 19 No. 118 (1978) 51-57.
Cumming, A.D.G., Smith, K.C.A. Energy Spread And Fluctuations In Field Emitted Electron
Beams Microcircut Engineering ed. H. Ahmed, W.C. Nixon c Cambridge University Press
(1980) 575-579
Cumming, A.D.G. A High Speed, Noise Tolerant Edge Detection Algorithm Using A Low
Bandwidth Signal Chain for E-Beam Registration Microcircuit Engineering (Feb 1981)
Cumming, A.D.G. A High Performance, Low Cost, Isolated Electron Current Amplifier
Scanning c G. Witzstrock Publishing House Inc., 2, (1979) 104-109
Professional Associations and Achievements
Member, IEEE
Fellow of Cambridge Philosophical Society
Copyright c 2010 Emmanuel Avionics, Inc. All rights reserved.
Emmanuel Avionics, Inc. - 1921 N Gaffey #D, San Pedro, CA, 90731 USA
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