A System-Level Problem
I participated in a cross-functional taskforce focused on increasing throughput across the APEX X-ray microscopy platform. The initiative connected controls, software, electrical, motion, systems, detector, and applications expertise so that cycle time was treated as a chain of coupled constraints rather than a single slow component.
Engineering Scope
The team established an initial 40 UPH target and investigated a credible engineering path toward 80 UPH through coordinated hardware, controls, acquisition, motion, and software changes. The work included identifying bottlenecks across the scan lifecycle, evaluating continuous-motion and fly-scan architectures, improving detector acquisition reliability, reducing sequencing overhead, and considering safe parallel execution.
My Contribution
My contribution centered on controls architecture, detector integration, motion behavior, EPICS coordination, infrastructure, and the relationship between subsystem improvements and total throughput. This connected work on faster acquisition, detector stability, optimized motion sequences, and consolidated computing infrastructure to measurable system-level targets.
Claim Boundary
The 40 and 80 UPH figures were taskforce targets and development objectives. They are included to show the scale and systems-engineering direction of the work, not as claimed production results.
ENGINEERING INSIGHT
Improving the fastest subsystem does nothing when a different constraint owns the cycle time; throughput has to be optimized across the entire value stream.
Focus areas: systems engineering, bottleneck analysis, EPICS controls, detector acquisition, motion optimization, fly scanning, sequencing, infrastructure, and technical leadership.