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It's neat to see this on hacker news. Good to hear that folk are noticing that our system works! I've been working on embedded systems at Zipline for 6 years, a

It's neat to see this on hacker news. Good to hear that folk are noticing that our system works! I've been working on embedded systems at Zipline for 6 years, and oddly haven't made it out to Rwanda yet. Everyone there seems to know my name, though, because of all the weird problems I've helped remotely debug over the years. I think Zipline's flight operators deserve the lion's share of credit for our success in Rwanda.

recuter 5y ago
You should write that up somewhere. Maybe even here.
a_diplomat 5y ago
I was stationed in Rwanda for several years, and visited your operations centers several times. Truly awesome stuff, that's also helped Rwanda in a bigger way, by giving the country well-deserved recognition for its propensity towards innovation.
mkeespiet 5y ago
Any change we can get it contact with you? For our project www.4x4electric.com we would like to visit different Zipline projects in Africa to generate more attention for this kind of projects
- sgtnoodle 5y ago
  Cool! I raced solar cars in university, and now I volunteer with the American race organization. Of course, the University of Delft was my team's nemesis! :-) I'll email you from your website contact info.
  - geoduck14 5y ago
    I'm curious what you do for the American race organization - I'm assuming you are referring to American Solar Challenge. I've dabbled with solar cars, too, and it is rare to find a fellow racer.
    - sgtnoodle 5y ago
      Yep, I am one of the electrical scrutineers for ASC. I help inspect all the teams' cars for compliance with the race regulations as well as for general soundness to make sure there aren't any safety concerns.
pabs3 5y ago
I think the Zipline drone systems would be great for remote sensing of environmental data; for example of destruction of the Amazon or bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. Have you looked into those sorts of markets?
- sgtnoodle 5y ago
  I imagine there's already some reasonably cost effective ways to do that. For example, existing satellites or piloted single engine aircraft like Google uses for their mapping. Zipline's aircraft tend to fly the same trajectories over and over again, whatever's lowest energy, fastest, or avoids flying over populated areas unnecessarily. The vehicle isn't really designed to fly repeated grid patterns. We're also hesitant to intentionally collect aerial photography. It isn't necessary for our core business of efficiently delivering medical supplies, and could negatively impact the perceived utility of our system. You should check out Saildrone. They make autonomous boats for collecting ocean science. https://www.saildrone.com/ https://www.saildrone.com/
  - jpm_sd 5y ago
    hey, thanks for the plug. We're big fans of your work too.
kmeraz 5y ago
which skills does one need in order to do the work you do?
- ptero 5y ago
  Look at our career site, https://flyzipline.com/careers/ https://flyzipline.com/careers/ (we are hiring!) Even if you do not see a perfect match, consider applying -- most teams value good engineering skills higher than a perfect match of some technology lists.
  - kmeraz 5y ago
    thanks! I’ve been doing full stack web dev for a few years now and thinking of switching to something new - maybe embedded
    - sgtnoodle 5y ago
      Cool! People working in embedded tend to have a wide variety of backgrounds. Detailed knowledge of various internet protocols would be quite relevant and valuable. Have you worked in any compiled languages much?
      - kmeraz 5y ago
        I’ve done some C with Arduinos before and a bit of rust. You wouldn’t happen to have any internship type of opportunities, would you? or maybe some one-off tasks that I can be asked to solve, given some basic direction
- sgtnoodle 5y ago
  My job specifically? Experience with microcontroller programming, as well as software development in general. Familiarity with linux. It helps to have a decent understanding of physics and mathematics. I myself studied computer science in school, and I think that foundation helps me to write more elegant solutions to certain problems than I would know how to do otherwise. I seem to be pretty good at drilling down into complex problems and finding relatively simple solutions. I am also pretty good at pushing back on things when they don't pass my smell test, and am willing to crack eggs as needed. Those are skills I practiced quite a bit in my solar car racing days. It's the sort of thing that many engineers struggle with, and are often afraid to do. In a good organization, though, it's the sort of behavior that others respect and appreciate. It helps to have an optimistic, easy going attitude.
RheingoldRiver 5y ago
I've watched a (the?) video that explains how you developed the landing/catch mechanism for the drones a couple times when it's gotten posted here over the years, and it's seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen, both the iterations and the final design you arrived at.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
grubby 5y ago
u guys do very cool work at Zipline. Interviewed for an internship and had a really fun unique OA, which I never thought I’d say.

recuter 5y ago

You should write that up somewhere. Maybe even here.

a_diplomat 5y ago

I was stationed in Rwanda for several years, and visited your operations centers several times. Truly awesome stuff, that's also helped Rwanda in a bigger way, by giving the country well-deserved recognition for its propensity towards innovation.

mkeespiet 5y ago

Any change we can get it contact with you? For our project www.4x4electric.com we would like to visit different Zipline projects in Africa to generate more attention for this kind of projects

sgtnoodle 5y ago
Cool! I raced solar cars in university, and now I volunteer with the American race organization. Of course, the University of Delft was my team's nemesis! :-) I'll email you from your website contact info.
- geoduck14 5y ago
  I'm curious what you do for the American race organization - I'm assuming you are referring to American Solar Challenge. I've dabbled with solar cars, too, and it is rare to find a fellow racer.
  - sgtnoodle 5y ago
    Yep, I am one of the electrical scrutineers for ASC. I help inspect all the teams' cars for compliance with the race regulations as well as for general soundness to make sure there aren't any safety concerns.

pabs3 5y ago

I think the Zipline drone systems would be great for remote sensing of environmental data; for example of destruction of the Amazon or bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. Have you looked into those sorts of markets?

sgtnoodle 5y ago
I imagine there's already some reasonably cost effective ways to do that. For example, existing satellites or piloted single engine aircraft like Google uses for their mapping. Zipline's aircraft tend to fly the same trajectories over and over again, whatever's lowest energy, fastest, or avoids flying over populated areas unnecessarily. The vehicle isn't really designed to fly repeated grid patterns. We're also hesitant to intentionally collect aerial photography. It isn't necessary for our core business of efficiently delivering medical supplies, and could negatively impact the perceived utility of our system. You should check out Saildrone. They make autonomous boats for collecting ocean science. https://www.saildrone.com/ https://www.saildrone.com/
- jpm_sd 5y ago
  hey, thanks for the plug. We're big fans of your work too.

kmeraz 5y ago

which skills does one need in order to do the work you do?

ptero 5y ago
Look at our career site, https://flyzipline.com/careers/ https://flyzipline.com/careers/ (we are hiring!) Even if you do not see a perfect match, consider applying -- most teams value good engineering skills higher than a perfect match of some technology lists.
- kmeraz 5y ago
  thanks! I’ve been doing full stack web dev for a few years now and thinking of switching to something new - maybe embedded
  - sgtnoodle 5y ago
    Cool! People working in embedded tend to have a wide variety of backgrounds. Detailed knowledge of various internet protocols would be quite relevant and valuable. Have you worked in any compiled languages much?
    - kmeraz 5y ago
      I’ve done some C with Arduinos before and a bit of rust. You wouldn’t happen to have any internship type of opportunities, would you? or maybe some one-off tasks that I can be asked to solve, given some basic direction
sgtnoodle 5y ago
My job specifically? Experience with microcontroller programming, as well as software development in general. Familiarity with linux. It helps to have a decent understanding of physics and mathematics. I myself studied computer science in school, and I think that foundation helps me to write more elegant solutions to certain problems than I would know how to do otherwise. I seem to be pretty good at drilling down into complex problems and finding relatively simple solutions. I am also pretty good at pushing back on things when they don't pass my smell test, and am willing to crack eggs as needed. Those are skills I practiced quite a bit in my solar car racing days. It's the sort of thing that many engineers struggle with, and are often afraid to do. In a good organization, though, it's the sort of behavior that others respect and appreciate. It helps to have an optimistic, easy going attitude.

RheingoldRiver 5y ago

I've watched a (the?) video that explains how you developed the landing/catch mechanism for the drones a couple times when it's gotten posted here over the years, and it's seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen, both the iterations and the final design you arrived at.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

grubby 5y ago

u guys do very cool work at Zipline. Interviewed for an internship and had a really fun unique OA, which I never thought I’d say.