Samuel Hamner

The Pepper Eater

The Pepper Eater

Providing enterprising Ethiopian women, who process peppers by hand, with a more efficient and safer tool because current methods are labor-intensive and hazardous to their health.

• Startup type: Social Enterprise
• Status: Active
• Stage: Beta

I want to improve the quality of life for others in my community and around the world. I also have a passion to design, build, and create. During my undergraduate studies, this steered me toward the Orthopaedic Biomechanics Lab at the University of Florida. I got to work on medical devices, robots, material science projects, and help design the world's largest telescope (that last one doesn't fit, but it was cool). This then led me to pursue a graduate career at Stanford University, where I have joined the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab and started work on the OpenSim project.

I also have a passion for teaching. I believe that information has the potential to break down barriers. I started as a tutor at the University of Florida, teaching both small personal groups and hosting a university-wide call-in show. This passion was another driver for graduate school, where I have also enjoyed being a teaching assistant, writing biomechanics tutorials, and teaching high-school students about the mechanical properties of chicken cartilage.

Most recently, I have become very interested in Social Entrepreneurship and Appropriate Technology Design. As part of Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability in Stanford's d.school, my team is currently designing a device for women in rural Ethiopia to process dried, red peppers more efficiently and more safely.

Employer:	Stanford Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory
Position:	RESEARCH ASSISTANT
Time period:	January 2007 - Present
Description:	Currently testing and developing open source software for musculoskeletal modeling and dynamic simulation of movement, entitled OpenSim. Additionally, created OpenSim tutorials to introduce the software to users and assist educations in teaching basic biomechanics. Using OpenSim to create three-dimensional dynamic simulations of human running in order to determine muscle function and activity.

Employer:	St. Francis House Homeless Shelter
Position:	Volunteer
Time period:	May 2005 - December 2005
Description:	I volunteered at the homeless shelter in Gainesville, FL every week for 6 months. I did everything from repainting the cafeteria to scrubbing toilets to just listening to residents stories.

Employer:	Thirty Meter Telescope Project
Position:	Mechanical Designer
Time period:	January 2005 - December 2006
Description:	Worked on a team led by Dr. Stephen Eikenberry of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Florida. Completed preliminary mechanical design, which included kinematic, static, dynamic, and vibration analyses, as well as three-dimensional solid modeling, of the infrared multi-object spectrometer component of the proposed thirty meter telescope (TMT), which is an ongoing multi-university project to construct the world’s largest telescope.

Employer:	Univ. of Florida Orthopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory
Position:	Research Assistant
Time period:	January 2004 - December 2006
Description:	Completed honors thesis project which characterized the static positional accuracy, joint stiffnesses, and hysteresis of the joints of a Mitsubishi PA10-6CE robot arm in order to develop better control methods, which was part of the on-going development of a robot-based, dynamic fluoroscopic imaging system that will actively track human joint motion. Designed and built three experimental setups that were used in a collaborative project to assess material properties of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), a common polymer used in orthopedic implants. Also, involved in projects that included repairing hardware and software for a data acquisition system used with telemetric instrumented hip replacements, designing and manufacturing fluoroscopic imaging calibration jigs, and performing material selection analyses for a biomedical design patent.

Employer:	Broward Teaching Center, University of Florida
Position:	University Tutor
Time period:	January 2003 - December 2004
Description:	Tutored university students in physics, calculus, differential equations, and other introductory engineering courses. Work personally with small groups and hosted live, call-in tutoring sessions on campus closed-circuit television.

Employer:	National Hot Rod Association
Position:	Safety & Technical Inspector
Time period:	January 2003 - December 2004
Description:	Conducted safety and technical inspection of vehicles participating in racing events. Assisted with track maintenance and inspection during events. Certified as an SFI Foundation (technical and safety inspector. (SFI is a non-profit organization established to issue and administer standards for performance automotive and racing equipment.)

Employer:	Iron City Welding
Position:	Shop Assistant
Time period:	May 2001 - August 2001
Description:	Learned to fabricate, repair, and MIG/TIG weld. I also learned how to clean up welding shops.

Employer:	Stanford University, Professor Scott Delp
Position:	Teaching Assistant
Time period:	December 2007
Description:	Developed tutorials for musculoskeletal modeling software which emphasized basic concepts in kinematics, dynamics, and biomechanics.

Employer:	Exactech, Inc.
Position:	Biomechanical Engineer
Time period:	December 2005
Description:	Designed and prototyped surgical instrumentation for newly developed total hip replacement system. Conducted mechanical tests to evaluate the feasibility and validity of newly designed biomedical hip products, for both FDA and ISO approval. Performed finite element analyses to identify worst-case scenario stress conditions for newly designed surgical instruments and implants. Based on the results of the FE analyses, a predictive failure analysis was performed and submitted to the FDA. Conducted several internal literature reviews on critical issues that arose during the design of a new generation orthopedic hip implant system.

University:	Stanford University
Time period:	2011
Degree:	Mechanical Engineering, PhD

University:	Stanford University
Time period:	2007
Degree:	Mechanical Engineering, MSc

University:	University of Florida
Time period:	2006
Degree:	Mechanical Engineering, BSc

Articles:

Hamner SR, John CT, Higginson JS, Delp SL. Muscle Contributions to Propulsion and Support During Running. Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society, Denver, Colorado, March 2009. Hamner SR, John CT, Anderson FC, Higginson JS, Delp SL. Reducing Residual Forces and Moments in a Three-Dimensional Simulation of Running. North American Congress on Biomechanics (NACOB), Ann Arbor, MI, August 2008.

Papers:

Hamner SR, Seth A, Delp SL. Muscle contributions to propulsion and support during running. Journal of Biomechanics, submitted March 2010. Lightcap C, Hamner S, Schmitz T, Banks S. Improved positioning accuracy of the PA10-6CE robot with geometric and flexibility calibration. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 24, pp. 452-456, 2008. Eikenberry, S., et al. IRMOS: The near-infrared multi-object spectrograph for the TMT. Proceedings of SPIE: Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy, vol. 6269, June 2006.

Awards:

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow – 2007 Charles H. Kruger Stanford Graduate Fellow – Stanford University, 2006 College of Engineering General Engineering Scholarship – Univ. of Florida, 2005-2006 Fyfe Family Foundation/MAE Departmental Scholarship – Univ. of Florida, 2005-2006 Boeing/ExxonMobile Corporation Scholarship – Univ. of Florida, 2004-2005 College of Engineering Goodrum Scholarship – Univ. of Florida, 2004-2005 Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honors Society, 2005- Anderson Scholar with High Distinction – Univ. of Florida, 2004 Formula Racecar Team Member, UF Society of Automotive Engineers, 2002-2003 Gator Club of Jacksonville Dr. John Lombardi Scholar – Univ. of Florida, 2002-2003 National Merit Scholar Letter of Commendation - 2000