Education
David’s Undergraduate Transcript is available here.
Publications
• Ramsay, et al. A Novel Fourier Approach to Guitar String Separation. Proceedings of Irish Signals and Systems Conference. Jun 2011.
• Ramsay, et al. Base plate mechanics of the barnacle Balanus amphitrite (=Amphibalanus amphitrite). Biofouling. 2008; 24(2):109-18.
Bose
Summer 2010, September 2011 ~ present
Since 2010 David has worked as an intern, rotated through several product and research divisions as a new hire, and spent over a year as a full-time systems/electrical engineering in Bose Research. For a summary of his technical/project work at Bose, click here.
David started in the Applied Audio Research Group of Bose Corporation as a summer intern. Though short, it proved to be a powerful learning experience in practical signal processing and audio measurement technique. His work during this period led to his nomination for the PACE program, which he returned to after his year abroad on Fulbright.
The PACE program- a highly selective group (David was one of seven candidates selected for it in the five years since the program’s inception)- provided him the opportunity to rotate through several divisions within Bose.
He started in the Noise Reduction Technology (Headphones) Advanced Development Group, working under the supervision of veteran engineer Dan Gauger. His seven months there, designing and testing noise management algorithms based on perceptual modeling in Matlab, formed a solid foundation for his research methodology and gave him the confidence to proceed as a truly independent contributor within the company. He finished his rotation with a working prototype that he led through human factors testing.
From NRTG, David moved to Automotive’s Electrical Engineering group, where he spent another rotation learning car amplifier circuit design. He took the opportunity to solidify his hardware design skills in a product development environment. David supported several projects, including troubleshooting amplifier start-up procedures and EMC testing. David finished his rotation with a trip to the Bose Manufacturing plant in Mexico, teaching on-site engineers about the latest amplifier design as well as proper troubleshooting procedures.
With several months of solid bench-work under his belt, David spent a final rotation in the Process and Data Management division. His role in this group was to understand business processes across the company to refine corporate data integration tools. Through interviews with engineering management, David learned the processes and documentation required to take concept work through to production. He specifically asked for this opportunity, to gain insight into product lifecycle management on a macroscopic level.
After PACE, David accepted a full time role in the group he started with- Audio Applied Research (AAR). Since joining in September 2012, David has had the opportunity to work on several ground-breaking technologies. In particular, David has focused on speaker array spatialization, equalization in rooms, audio measurements, psychoacoustics, and advanced signal processing (especially advanced limiting/compression topologies). As a systems engineer, he has designed, wired, and tuned over ten prototype systems in his tenure with AAR, refining his critical listening abilities along the way. While most of his daily work is with Matlab, David has also learned Objective-C.
One of David’s first prototypes in AAR has made it into the late stages of product development and should be available as a commercial product within the next year. His work in NRTG is also actively being considered for inclusion in products spanning several product categories, and is covered by a patent application undergoing legal review within the company. Additionally, the amplifier David supported within Automotive is actively manufactured and installed in thousands of new cars.
Outside of his engineering role, David has also helped shape the Bose youth culture. He founded and runs the ‘Bose Young Professionals’, a successful grass-roots group with 200 active members. The young professionals group received administrative and financial corporate support after a year of cultivation, and has garnering attention and praise from around the company.
David is also actively involved in Bose recruitment as a travelling college recruiter and technical interviewer. As a result of his successes, David was asked to sit on a board for new hire initiatives in Research. He remains a passionate advocate of strong mentorship programs and cultural support for the company’s youth.
David has also had the opportunity to take two very practical and demanding internal Bose courses, as well as several courses at Berklee’s online music school over the past two years. Check out his education section for more details.
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Fulbright
September 2010 ~ September 2011
David spent the 2011 academic year in Dublin, Ireland as one of two Fulbright research students in the country. At the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), he worked in collaboration with the ‘People Oriented Technology’ Biomedical Research Group and the Audio Research Group to design and implement a new musical interface (based on the electric guitar) for people with disabilities. His work was conducted under the mentorship and supervision of Dr. Ted Burke. Click here for technical details about the project. David concluded his experience by presenting part of his research at the Irish Signals and Systems Conference at Trinity College.
While he designed and prototyped his project using Matlab (attack detection, string separation, pitch-shifting, and melodic prediction), David spent the majority of his year learning how to implement his signal processing on microprocessors in real-time. He gained experience with Microchip, TI, and Analog Devices development boards. During his work, David was able to audit a Digital Signal Processing course at DIT, as well as a Laptop Orchestra graduate course at Trinity College with visiting Princeton professor (and PLOrk co-founder) Dan Trueman.
Living abroad was one of David’s life-long goals, which he worked for several years to realize. David was in contact with DIT for over a year before his trip, and he pursued funding through several avenues upon graduation. Fulbright- the most prestigious of his options- was the first to commit their support.
David took full advantage of his Fulbright year. Outside of his project work, David was very active in the Rock Climbing, Guitar, SCUBA, and Caving societies. He also attended live concerts at least once every week.
The Irish music scene completely changed the way David appreciates live music and music culture. The Irish are very respectful, and generally value good acoustics, undistorted reproduction, and exceptional dynamic range. Experiencing these elements of live performance gave him new insight into sound reinforcement.
After completing his project, David backpacked through 17 European countries over the course of three months. He ran with the bulls in Spain, hiked the tour de Mount Blanc through France, Italy, and Switzerland, went ‘wadlopen’ in the Netherlands, and kayaked through Poland. Traveling alone (and without technology) for so long was a challenge, and proved to be a powerful learning experience.
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GE Energy
August 2009 ~ December 2009
While a senior in college, David spent 5 months working for GE Energy outside of Chicago, IL. He was an intern in the Transmission and Distribution Project Division, where he took on several projects spanning technical and marketing disciplines.
David’s primary project with GE was to automate the design process for generating substation schematics and wiring diagrams. David worked on one- and three- line drawings, creating a substation schematic template that would automate the wiring table back-end.
His secondary project was on the marketing side- reviewing and comparing GE Energy’s website and technical marketing material against the competitors. His work led to several important presentations to branch management. David’s work spurred an overhaul of the website. His design concept, based on industry best practice, served as a template for future work on the new site.
Finally, David supported several other projects, including supply chain review, component selection, and preliminary legal analysis for substation permitting. He gained a wide breadth of experience during his co-op with GE.
David’s two page co-op report, written at the end of his assignment, can be found here.
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NRL
Summer 2005, 2006, & 2007
Beginning in 2005, David worked in the Nanomechanics and Tribology division of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC. He was recruited as part of the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP), and placed under Dr. Kathy Wahl and Dr. Irwin Singer’s supervision.
His first summer was spent on the design and creation of an apparatus for testing the material properties of spider silk- a natural substance that is not well understood and has never been effectively artificially duplicated.
David created a machine to provide real-time stress/strain curves of the silk, and presented his results to a team of mentors. He was granted two awards for his work- one for his research, and one for his final presentation- and was asked to return to the NRL for another internship.
During David’s next summer with the lab– as part of the NREIP program– he supported the spider silk project as well as new research on barnacle shells. He contributed significant new knowledge to the group, through advanced imaging (atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy), modulus mapping (nanoindentation), and video analysis.
In 2007 David spent his final summer at the NRL, during which he designed a machine to measure the structural rigidity of the barnacle base-plate. He used his fixture to successfully gather valuable new data to supplement the existing model of barnacle mechanics (important for Naval use on ship hulls). This research resulted in his first peer reviewed journal publication: Ramsay, et al. Base plate mechanics of the barnacle Balanus amphitrite (=Amphibalanus amphitrite). Biofouling. 2008; 24(2):109-18. Click here to read more about this work.
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Early Education
David showed interest in engineering at a young age, and started his technical education at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology– the top public high school in the nation. At TJ, David took electronics classes (microcontrollers/audio), robotics, calculus, CAD, Architectural Drawing, LISP and C++ programming, alongside a standard high school curriculum. He earned 23 college credits through extensive AP classes, and completed a final school project in 3D animation.
Outside of the classroom, David earned a varsity letter as a member of the school’s football and golf teams, and was actively involved in Boy Scouts and the Future Business Leaders of America. He played music (saxophone and guitar), and began experimenting with recording as the frontman of an alternative rock band. David was also very involved as the president and influential leader of his church’s youth group, Catholic Life Community.
Over his high school summers, David worked for American Technology Services (software testing, internal application development, etc.) and the Naval Research Laboratory. He attended the Presidential Classroom series on National Security at Georgetown University (2004), and took workshops in Visual Basic, saxophone performance, and Java.
David achieved a 3.89 GPA during his time at TJ. He was awarded two activity letters and two academic letters for his involvement. David graduated with an AP Scholar award, a National Merit Finalist Scholarship, and a Bronze Congressional Award for Youth. He scored a perfect 800 on the math section of his SATs (1520/1600 overall, 35/36 on ACTs), and was awarded several merit-based scholarships upon entering his undergraduate education at Case Western Reserve University.
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Case Western Reserve University
David was accepted to Case Western Reserve with a Trustee’s Scholarship, the highest merit-based scholarship the university offers. He started in 2005 as a Biomedical Engineering major, before switching to Electrical Engineering. He graduated cum laude in May of 2010 with a GPA of 3.79 and a dual degree: a B.A. in Music (Guitar) and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (concentration in Signal Processing), with a minor in Biomedical Engineering.
David took engineering classes such as Signals and Systems, Digital Communications, Signal Processing, Computer Design, and Electronic Analysis/Design while an undergraduate. He supplemented his coursework with practical projects- check out the projects page to learn about his work in robotics, control, and circuit design.
David was also a very active musician at Case. He took several semesters of music theory, eurythmics, and music history courses alongside his classical and jazz guitar lessons. He was engaged in college radio, and a regular performer- take a look at the music page for more information.
David graduated with a staggering 215 credits for his dual degree (120 are typically required). Despite his demanding course load, David still managed to be active with IEEE, Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society, and the Golden Key Honor Society. He was also a member and Seargent-at-Arms for the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity.
David continued working at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory once he started his degree, and added experiences at the National Institutes of Health and GE Energy. He also spent part of a summer at Berklee’s summer guitar workshop in Boston, MA. Upon leaving Case Western, he earned a Fulbright scholarship to Ireland, which he precluded with a short internship at Bose Corporation in Boston.
David earned Dean’s Honors every semester at Case, with High Honors in six semesters. In addition to his three scholarships and honor society recognitions, David was also honored with a ‘Who’s Who Among Students at American Colleges and Universities’ selection. Check out the video below, in which the president of Case Western talks about David’s ideas and achievements at the 2010 Case Western Reserve University Graduation Ceremony.
Watch President Barbara Snyder of Case Western University discuss David at the 2010 Graduation Ceremony (2 minutes)
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Education After Undergrad
After his undergraduate education, David had a variety of learning experiences through Fulbright and Bose Corporation.
During his year in Ireland, David audited a DSP class at the Dublin Institute of Technology, as well as a computer music class through Trinity College taught by Dan Trueman (the Princeton professor behind PLork). He was a guest lecturer in the DSP class, and helped to administrate parts of the class for undergraduate seniors.
While at Bose, David earned a Professional Certificate in Music Production from Berklee’s online school. He also had the opportunity of taking two internal Bose courses- audio measurements and acoustics. Both courses were extremely practical and insightful, and both included rigorous 10-12 week semesters with multiple lectures, problem sets, and practical labs each week. The final exam for the measurements course included a full day’s worth of practical measurement exercises in addition to a theoretical section. The acoustics course, which is structured after Dr. Bose’s famous MIT course offering, focused as much on lumped-parameter modeling and general problem solving as it did on the wave equation and speaker modeling/architectural acoustics.
David has been to two conferences- AES 2013 and the Irish Signals and Systems Conference 2011 (where he presented). He was also fortunate enough to attend the high caliber internal Bose Technical Conference this past year. He is an active member of Audio Engineering Society.
Outside of the classroom, David has learned a lot from his mentors, his projects, his colleagues, and his travels. In several cases, the most powerful learning experiences have come from unexpected places- for example, creating and championing the Bose Young Professionals group. Take a look at the Bose and Fulbright sections for more details.
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