Meet software engineer, Brodie Leeson.
What is your role?
I am a software engineer at the Translational Research Initiative for Cell Engineering and Printing (TRICEP). My role involves primarily focusing on the development of an adaptable 3D printer graphical user interface that allows scientists, students and employees to easily control a wide array of printer functions across numerous printers.
My secondary focus is to provide software support across the different projects performed at TRICEP.
What is your area of expertise and what kind of experience do you have in this area?
I have a strong understanding of electronics, software and hardware interfacing. I have three years of C++ experience developing Graphical User interfaces in Qt. I also have two years of HTML and CSS experience, developing web pages and web apps in React framework.
What are some of the projects and collaborations you are currently working on?
My primary focus is on the development of the Adaptable GUI, a graphical user interface that allows for the control of numerous printers with application-specific functionality. This often is not found anywhere else in the world.
What is the future outlook of these projects?
This project ultimately aims to encompass all of the printers developed at TRICEP and aims to simplify printer control. Furthermore, this software aims to enable easy inclusion of new printers and functionalities, which will scale across all printers on the system meaning it will grow as the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute's (IPRI) printer development grows.
How is this work being translated into real applications?
This GUI means our researchers can learn just one piece of software and use it across any of their printers removing the need to learn multiple different GUI layouts to control many different printers. This will effectively allow them to focus on the research instead of learning software control.