Projects

Contactless Water Conductivity Sensor

Corrosion-immune and biofouling-resistant sensor for measuring conductivity in natural or urban freshwater systems

Musical Rocket Bells

What would rocket nozzle bells sound like if they were played like musical bells?

Giant Wind Chimes

Very large windchimes precisely designed and tuned using FEA and CAD software

Long-Distance Relationship Light

A pair of networked RGB LED widgets that synchronously change color when one of them is activated

GOES-16 Image Fetcher and Desktop Background Utility

Want a (nearly) real-time picture of the Earth from space as your desktop background? Look no further.

Ultimate Deathtrap: The Danger Scooter

80s childrens’ kick-scooter converted into an electric 20mph monstrosity

Portrait Printing Typewriter

Brother SX-4000 electric typewriter modified to print JPGs as ASCII text

The Scanmera

Microtek ScanMaker4900 flatbed scanner modified into a large-format VIS-NIR multispectral camera

Keiran K. Cantilina, MS

University of Minnesota Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering

About Me

I am a Senior Research Engineer at the Cleveland Clinic, working as part of the Automated Surgical Robotics Lab in the Lerner Research Institute Department of Biomedical Engineering. My research background focuses on finding solutions to engineering problems by drawing on interdisciplinary knowledge and resources.

I’ve developed a toolbox of skills that has generalist characteristics by nature and specialist characteristics by education. My problem-solving style is a hybrid between the applied tactics of engineers (“Let’s make something happen”) and the experimental methods of scientists (“Let’s find out how this works”). My professional research spans a variety of topics in fields ranging from molecular biology to electrical engineering.

In my free time, I love to work on personal projects that make use of discarded electronics, broken appliances, and obsolete hardware. In the spirit of promoting upcycling, I enjoy the challenge of reusing and re-purposing materials with the smallest budget possible. This website serves as a portfolio for some of these side projects.

Outside of research, I enjoy playing the carillon, restoring old typewriters, pickling, amateur radio, and building dangerously speedy electric scooters.

Interests

instrumentation
electrical engineering
robotics
data science
experimental design
biotechnology
microbiology
plant science
hydrology
interdisciplinary collaboration

Education

MS in Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, 2018

University of Minnesota
BS in Biological Sciences (Plant Biotechnology), 2015

Cornell University

Recent Publications

AM Truhlar, TG Denes, KK Cantilina, SK Leung, MT Walter, AG Hays (2018). Absence of genetic selection in a pathogenic Escherichia coli strain exposed to the manure-amended soil environment. In PLOS ONE.

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(Masters Thesis) K Cantilina (2018). The Development of a Novel Capacitive Water Conductivity Sensor. In the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy.

PDF Project

J Gottula, D Lapato, K Cantilina, S Saito, B Bartlett, M Fuchs (2013). Genetic Variability, Evolution, and Biological Effects of Grapevine fanleaf virus Satellite RNAs. In Phytopathology.

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