My name is Shant Gananian. Mechanical engineer, enthusiast for smart micro-mechatronic systems. I recently completed my second degree and earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering majoring in mechatronics and microsystems technology and minoring in robotics and medical engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. A course of study that I felt was best suited to prepare me for future challenges, given the increasing global integration of mechanical, electronic, computational and control systems by expanding my knowledge and skills in the fascinating fields of automation, robotics and microsystems engineering that I have grown to love over the years.
To expand my academic career, I worked at the Institute for Automation and Applied Computer Science (IAI) at KIT both during my studies and for a year after graduation as a research assistant in the field of identification, control and monitoring of multi-size systems and the application of automation technology for the circular economy.
At this institute I did my Master's thesis where I investigated materials and processes for solution based encapsulation for printed electronic devices. I designed the experiments, developed and modified Water Vapour Transmission Rate (WVTR) test, carried out the experiments in the lab and evaluated the results. I prepared encapsulation membranes with Polyvinylalcohol as a base polymer and with five different nanofiller materials; two type of clays, silica, graphene oxide and glass flakes. I tested these membranes both with my modified WVTR test and by applying these membranes on printed test structures. My results laid the grounds for further research with this type of material system for encapsulation and for a conference publication on this topic for which I am co-author (IEEE International Conference on Flexible Printable Sensors and Systems (IEEE FLEPS 2024) in Tampere, Finland).
After completing my first degree; diploma in Mechanical engineering, majoring in Power Engineering, I built a successful career, 8+ years, in promoting and implementing management systems for production, quality, sustainability and safety, by holding highly responsible positions; Production Manager followed by (quality, health, safety and environment) QHSE Manager positions, in large corporate groups in various industries in the United Arab Emirates.
With good leadership skills, programming knowledge, in-depth knowledge of the product development process and experience in finding creative solutions to complex technical problems, I have a proven track record of producing and improving products, methods and manufacturing processes.
During my studies at KIT, I invested additional time and effort to gain practical knowledge in mechatronics and micro systems technology and acquired in-depth knowledge and practice in the fields of robotics, medical technology, computer science and micro systems technology through several internships, working in teams.
I participated in COSIMA competition for students with ideas and inventions about microsystems (the flyer, our tasks and the agenda of the event as pdf). Our team of four, named POCED, developed and built affordable microfluidic point-of-care-testing (POCT) system, that we had conceptualized in the previous semester during the seminar "Hands on BioMEMS" at KIT - Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT), to help patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) to monitor the progression of the disease from home (our website and the poster). We were awarded with the first prize (the prize certificate).
In the internship about humanoide robots, our team's task was to program the KIT Anthropomatics and Robotics institute (IAR)'s "Armar 6" robot in C++ and by using the robot development environment Armarx software, to collect several parts of a product, situated in different places in a factory hall, while avoiding any collision, and finally, to assemble the parts together in the correct way, i.e. by putting two gears in their locations in a box and putting the cover above it. Tasks included motion planning (navigation, collision detection and avoidance, grasping, placing) and visual servoing among others.
In internship Microfabrication project: Development and production of a microsystem at wbk Institute of Production Engineering at KIT in a joint project with the industrial partner ROSSWAG Engineering, we developed a solution to increase the efficiency of a generatively manufactured impeller through boundary layer control by fabricating the impeller with longitudinal micro channels of
In Virtual Reality internship at KIT-Institute for Information Management in Engineering (IMI), our tasks included developing a Cyber-glove with its printed circuit board and its housing impaired with bending sensors, a joystick and tracking system. Next to the hardware, we revised and redesigned the WLAN transmission protocol, modified, customized and implemented more features by adapting the Arduino code to transmit the new sensor values and enable the usage of the Cyber-glove in the Cave automatic virtual environment. Then we designed new use cases to test and present our developed Cyber-glove.
My work philosophy is integrated into of my way of life. That is, concentrating at every moment, insofar as I am able, firmly resolved, on accomplishing the work at hand with fitting and genuine seriousness, love for others, willingly, with justice, and banishing from my thoughts all other distractions.
Being part of nature, I identify myself not only with my own immediate family, but with the broader rational community and environment, including the work environment, where I strive to contribute to the happiness and flourishing of humanity through duties (rational acts) performed with right disposition (correct understanding). In other words, contributing through virtuous acts that render me just (honest, fair), temperate (disciplined), courageous (industrious and endurant in the face of difficulties) and free (independent).
Each day is a new chance for me to grow by taking ownership of my day, overcoming my shortcomings through self-reflection, careful judgements, training and applying. This struggle toward fulfilling my rightful duties by trying my utmost under the circumstances, is enough to fill my heart with happiness.
After obtaining my master’s degree, and to provide potential employers greater value through my skills, I dedicated months building upon my knowledge and training at the university and further developing my skills in computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE) for simulation and analysis, and program development for analyzing simple to complex systems through researching and implementing many hands-on projects and typical technical problems. To share all that, I decided to build this portfolio website.
Building this website was a challenging task for me, which I accomplished successfully, without any previous experience in this area. To do this, I had to learn, among other things, the basics of web design and HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Markdown and Liquid programming languages.
I hope that the information on this website could be helpful to those who are interested in the subjects and that it can be a bridge to communicate some details about me and my skills.