René Harder



Nashville, TN
United States of America

consult-harder.com

 rene@consult-harder.com
 LinkedIn

Employment

Senior Engineer

Volumetrix LLC, Nashville TN

Responsible for the development of medical devices for clinical and home use.

  • Requirements generation through evaluation of regulatory compliance, risk assessment, clinical and user needs. Translation of design inputs into system architecture for software as well as hardware.
  • Design of hardware systems for the analysis of physiological signals, parameters and data. Including the identification and assessment of new sensor modalities that allow for more accurate or novel diagnosis of physiological events.
  • Translation and performance optimization of diagnostic algorithms for the application on embedded systems, including the development of low level drivers for application layer HW access (Bare-metal, FreeRTOS/SafeRTOS and Linux).
  • Evaluation and hardening of systems for electromagnetic compliance and noise immunity.

Senior Hardware Engineer

InvisionHeart Inc., Nashville, TN

Development of FDA 510k cleared wireless 12Lead ECG system.

  • Hardware development including schematic and printed circuit board design.
  • Board bring-up and validation of design requirement
  • Low level Firmware development (ARM Cortex-M4, C/C++, GCC toolchain)
  • Development of interface specification for wireless data communication such as BT/BLE
  • Validation of conformance to consensus standards such as IEC/ISO or ANSI/AAMI

Engineering Intern

Robert Bosch GmbH, Hildesheim, Germany

Time Synchronization in heterogeneous Networks

  • Developed a time synchronization protocol with low demand in traffic and high accuracy
  • Created a test environment based on OMAP 5912 DSK platforms
  • Wrote Linux kernel device driver for reference clock synchronization between different network nodes based on the IEEE 1394 bus
  • Determination of propagation time as a function of network load in wired and wireless networks ( e.g. IEEE 802.11x and IEEE 802.3)

Service Technician

RFN Handel & Service e.G., Magdeburg, Germany

  • Apprenticeship (Aug. 1997 – Jan. 2001) , Radio and television technician
  • Service Technician (2001), Repaired and services electrical appliances, television, VCRs and Audio-Systems

Research

Research Engineer

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Development of a scanning SQUID microscope with pulse tube cryocooler

  • Designed, characterized and optimized microfabricated SQUID sensors
  • Assembled a cryocooler based SQUID microscope
  • Implemented cryocooler noise compensation utilizing a DSP (TMS320C6713)
  • Characterized and optimized the completed cryocooler SQUID system

Research Intern, Non-destructive Testing

Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal (FH), Magdeburg, Germany

  • Designed, prototyped and characterized mixed signal circuits for NDE applications
  • Development of an embedded system based on an Atmel 8bit microcontroller for data acquisition, processing and display of reflective RF based testing solutions.

Education

Ph.D in Electrical Engineering

Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN

Dissertation: A Modular Point-of-Care Platform for Real-Time Monitoring and Transmission of Physiological Signals.

Diplom Ingenieur Electrical Engineering(FH) [German Graduate Degree]

Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal (FH)
Magdeburg, Germany

Thesis: Entwicklung eines hochauflösenden SQUID Mikroskops mit Pulsröhrenkühler. [Development of a high resolution SQUID microscope with pulse tube refrigerator]

Patents

Smart mobile health monitoring system and related methods

WO2014116968A1

Compression device, system, and method for decreasing abdominal venous pooling

WO2014071292A1

Anordnung zur mikrowellengestützten zerstörungsfreien Prüfung [Device for microwave based non-destructive testing]

DE102008019940B4

Publications

Heart rate variability during sleep in children with autism spectrum disorder

Clinical Autonomic Research

Efficacy of Servo-Controlled Splanchnic Venous Compression in the Treatment of Orthostatic Hypotension: A Randomized Comparison With Midodrine

Hypertension

Smart Multi-frequency Bioelectrical Impedance Spectrometer for BIA and BIVA Applications

IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems

A Modular Point-of-Care Platform for Real-Time Monitoring and Transmission of Physiological Signals

Vanderbilt University

Ratiometric imaging of calcium during ischemia-reperfusion injury in isolated mouse hearts using Fura-2

BioMedical Engineering OnLine, vol. 11, no. 1

Continuous-waveform constant-current isolated physiological stimulator

Review of Scientific Instruments, vol. 83, no. 4

Ultrafine-scale magnetostratigraphy of marine ferromanganese crust

Geology, vol. 39, no. 3

Abstracts & Presentations

Measurement of Body Composition in Infants, Children and Adults using a Novel Bioelectrical Impedance Vector Analysis Device Linked to a Smart Phone

presented at the 2nd Annual Vanderbilt Surgery & Engineering Symposium
,
Nashville, Tennessee

Heart Rate Control During Sleep in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

presented at the th Bi-Annual Conference on Pediatric Sleep Medicine
,
Amelia Island, Florida

Autonomic smart health system

presented at the 24th International Symposium on the Autonomic Nervous System
,
Kohala Coast, Hawaii

Comparative efficacy of an automated binder against midodrine in the treatment of orthostatic hypotension in autonomic failure

presented at the 24th International Symposium on the Autonomic Nervous System
,
Kohala Coast, Hawaii

Ambulatory Autonomic Health Monitor System for Patients with Autonomic Dysfunction

presented at the 35th Annual Interational Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
,
Osaka, Japan

A Cost Effective, Modular, Open Source, Wireless Hardware Platform to Introduce Students to Smart Mobile Health Care Technologies

presented at the BMES 2012 Annual Meeting
,
Atlanta, Georgia

Disproportionate conduction slowing in the RVOT of D1275N SCN5A mice

presented at the Heart Rhythm 2012
,
Boston, Massachusetts

Ultra-fine scale magnetostratigraphy of Mn crust by SQUID microscopy with spacial domain inversion,

presented at the AGU Fall Meeting
,
San Francisco, California