Joseph T. Foley's CV repository
Files to look at
Joe usually updates PDFs of the various versions with the name "-publish.pdf" He recommends looking a foley-main_cv-publish.pdf to start
Early synopis
Joseph T. Foley has a varied career stretching across multiple startups and consulting jobs. His first startup position was with the founding of Brute Force Games in Cambridge who’s intent was to build a modular immersive gaming system that could be deployed in gaming parlors across the country. Due to Disney’s entry into the market, he moved on to another startup: Emode. This company promised better understanding of employees for HR divisions of companies through carefully constructed surveys developed by a Harvard Doctor of Psychology. His position there was as a “Magic Mechanic”, in short IT manager, software developer, and designer. Joseph returned back to his graduate career focus and instead did small consulting jobs on the side. A former colleague hired him to develop a web interface for a startup called “Uffinity” which was to be a social network aggregation site for businesses to connect to newly graduate young professionals. Upon graduation, Joseph worked at iRobot’s Government and Industrial division overseeing the DARPA Chembots project. Once that project was completed, Joseph moved to Iceland but acted as a consultant for Professor Sanbae Kim at the MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab at MIT performing FEA analysis on the Cheeta-bot’s major leg elements. He was also a consultant for the small machining and design firm Brass Drift on the west coast. Owner Peter Luka hired Joseph to apply design methodologies to redesigning machine elements he was manufacturing. Joseph was soon hired as a lecturer at Reykjavík University which he progressed to the position of Assistant Professor. He has continued to do consulting while maintaining his position at the University: designing an automated zebrafish embryo dispensing robot for the startup 3Z, developing a Distributed Quality Control concept with Professor Sanjay Sarma, developing microcontroller based IoT systems for Icelandic museums and Escape Room companies. Joseph’s latest IoT consulting project was a collaboration with the artist Sigrún Harðardóttir to develop an interactive art piece that instrumented a room, instrument, and furniture into an immersive experience.
Further development
Dr. Joseph T. Foley (MIT B.Sc, M.Eng, Ph.D) has worked on analyzing how to make manufacturing processes use less energy. At iRobot, he developed shape-changing robots to fit through small holes. As a professor at Reykjavík University, Joseph is continuing to expand his interests into engineer and artist collaborative works, Shape Memory Alloy research, and the Axiomatic Design method. He is a member of the scientific committee for the International Conference on Axiomatic Design 2017 and has published an article on how Axiomatic Design can be applied to artistic endeavors. His personal projects with Icelandic museums resulted in development of low-cost synchronizers for video installations and a wireless tablet-based interface for playing video works on screens.
Joseph Timothy Foley (MIT BSc ‘99, MEng, ‘99, PhD ‘07) previously worked at iRobot's Government and Industrial division designing and building shape-changing robots. At Reykjavik University, he focuses on Mechatronics and Mechanical Design for teaching. His research interests include Axiomatic Design, aircraft maintenance, product design, embedded smart devices, wireless communication, physical security, and engineering-artist collaborations.
Dr. Joseph Timothy Foley (MIT BSc ‘99, MEng, ‘99, PhD ‘07) has worked as a researcher and designer in a large variety of fields with a heavy emphasis on infrastructure and mechatronics. His graduate research at MIT focused on integrating RFID into smart devices in a scalable and secure way. He worked as a postgraduate researcher in the Environmentally Benign Manufacturing group at MIT in partnership with SKF, investigating methods of reducing the impact and energy usage of manufacturing processes. At iRobot's Government and Industrial division, he developed shape-changing robots as the technical lead for the Harvard-MIT-iRobot DARPA ChemBots team. This research resulted in a US patent on the manufacture of enhanced Shape Memory Alloy springs, a topic he still is researching.
He is now an assistant professor at Reykjavik University teaching topics in mechatronics and mechanical design. He has integrated Axiomatic Design into the courses he currently teaches to provide students with a common framework for the heavily multi-disciplinary nature of modern computer-controlled manufacturing and smart devices. His research interests include aircraft maintenance automation, product design, embedded smart devices, wireless communication, physical security, and engineering-artist collaborations. His most recent developments in Axiomatic Design research include Creative Axiomatic Design (CIRP DC 2016), Desirable Complexity (ICAD 2017), and Axiomatic Design as an Ontology (CIRP DC 2017). In addition, he was the head organizer for the 12th International Conference on Axiomatic Design 2018 at Reykjavík University.