David Valkenaar
Versatile engineering across physical, digital, and intelligent systems—with the ability to carry difficult projects from research through working implementation.
My work spans physical products, software, automation, robotics, AI-assisted development, and the operational systems that connect them. I specialize in learning unfamiliar domains, identifying missing capabilities, and building practical tools that move work forward.
Capability overview
The capability areas come first. Open the related work beneath each one to see the projects that support it. Professional cases are described with confidential information removed.
Turning a real need into a coherent software product—from product definition and interaction design through implementation, testing, release, and support.
A calendar-native Android product that connects planned work with an honest record of time spent.
View the productCombining mechanical systems, sensing, vision, and control to make sophisticated equipment more useful to the people running experiments.
Laboratory tooling that advanced experiments by allowing robotic arms to respond to visual commands from an arm-mounted camera, with practical AI work that predates today’s generation of AI tools.
Designing mechanisms, electronics, controls, and feedback into physical systems that operate more consistently with less manual attention.
A practical sensing-and-control system developed around heat, airflow, safety, and the imperfect behavior of a real physical process.
A compact earlier prototype connecting mechanism design, timing, and dependable dispensing.
Identifying operational tools that do not yet exist, then building them to remove friction from complex, traceable work.
Structures for turning dense manufacturing knowledge into clearer, testable instructions for real work.
Systems for coordinating equipment, constraints, priorities, and traceable workflows in a demanding engineering environment.
Using advanced AI tools as an engineering environment: orchestrating work, preserving context, automating repeatable steps, and increasing development throughput.
A working orchestration and context system for coordinating agents, tools, handoffs, evidence, and long-running technical work.
Finding a missing capability in an established tool and adding it without asking the user to abandon the platform they already rely on.
A deliberately small extension that makes a frequently needed list-control action available where users expect it.
An Android overlay that adds useful navigation information while respecting the interaction and visual behavior of Google Maps.
Researching, designing, installing, and troubleshooting interdependent systems under real constraints—and sustaining the work until the whole system functions together.
Electrical, mechanical, spatial, and supporting subsystems brought together through constrained-space design, electronics, research, troubleshooting, and long-horizon execution.
How I work
Full case studies will show the problem, constraints, decisions, implementation, testing, and outcome—not just a finished artifact.
Learn the domain, user, environment, and constraints.
Identify the missing capability and the smallest useful path.
Build across the physical, digital, or operational layers required.
Test in context, correct assumptions, and leave a dependable result.
Earlier hands-on work
Contact
Detailed case studies and a reviewed résumé are in preparation.
Email Hominocentra Systems