Steve Hicks

Bio

Steve is currently a Digital Hardware/Firmware Design Engineer working in the DAQ Development Group in the Neutron Sciences Directorate at the SNS.  He uses VHDL to write firmware for critical boards that enable the overall DAQ hardware ecosystem to take data at all the SNS instruments and most instruments at HFIR.  More recently he has been picking up the skills to design PCBs including schematic capture, layout and testing to help the group deliver more custom hardware as the group transitions to a more flexible hardware architecture.

He started his career at ORNL in the I&C Division assembling hardware (including analog and digital interfacing circuits) and software for a variety of data acquisition and control projects for mostly internal Laboratory customers.  Steve's passion for mechatronics was highlighted by the successful upgrade of the Triple-Axis Spectrometers at HFIR in the 1990's.  This desire to use computers and software to control the physical world would continue to be practiced through the design and delivery of many systems that had moving parts, rotated, dispensed, took images, logged temperatures, humidity, pressure, flow, and other variables to support research and development projects throughout the Laboratory.

Publications