Nick Raaum

Nick Raaum

Team Culturing Information

last updated: 31. May, 2011

WHO are you?

• Name - Nick Raaum

• Location (city, country) - Madison WI USA

• Contact Information (email, phone, Skype) - raaumn (at) hotmail (dot) com, 608 (dot) 333 (dot) 2388, nickr82

• http://youtu.be/3IJn0-nF1zY -

• Resume/CV -

Nick J. Raaum
608.333.2388
raaumn (at) hotmail (dot)com
Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, May 2006
Cumulative GPA 3.0/4.0

Work Experience
Seventh Generation Energy Systems, Madison, WIWind Technician/Installer July 2009-April 2011
Install and maintain 2.5kW-100kW Wind Turbines.
Open Source Ecology, Maysville, MOExperiment Participant, December 2008-March 2009
Researched and began preliminary designs work on 3kW solar biomass hybrid steam engine energy systems. Constructed OSE, 1200 sq ft. compressed earth brick shop, with living roof.
Dairyland Power Cooperative, LaCrosse, WI Performance Engineer, June 2007-December 2008
Performed monthly heat rate analysis on five coal fired units and two natural gas combustion turbines.
Monitored critical machinery performance trends on a weekly basis and informed plant management of immediate problems.
Produced monthly performance assessment report for all thermal plants. This report supplied managers with critical performance information including, but not limited to: heat rate analysis, component performance trending, economic analysis, and other monthly performance findings.
Seventh Generation Energy Systems, Madison, WIMET Technician, April 2007-June 2007
Installed meteorological towers for wind data collection, providing meteorological tower clients with wind data summary and analysis.
Field crew member for Vestas 65kW wind turbine installations.
Dairyland Power Cooperative, Alma, WIResident Engineer, May 2006-February 2007

Essentials:Provided 400 M.W. coal power plant with immediate and long term maintenance engineering support and assisted in capital projects.
Technical Assistance:Responsible for maintaining and implementing life-long maintenance strategies on all high-energy piping and boilers.
Assisted plant in immediate day to day technical issues.
This commonly involved investigating plant performance issues, including performing diagnostic heat rate balances and designing and documenting field fixes.

Project Work:Developed replacement bid specification for deaerator.
Assisted in project management for condenser cleaning system.Assisted in project support on baghouse design and installation.
New Forest Farms, Viola, WIMachine Design Consultant Work, Spring 2006
Designed a rotary nut sheller under Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) grant.
Burr Oak Farms, Ferryville, WI Farm Employee, May-August 2005
Operated and maintained wide range of dairy and crop farming equipment.
Developed innovative fixes to a wide variety of mechanical problems.
J&J Gutter Service, Desoto, WI Installer, May-August 2001-2002 and 2004
Provided homeowners with price estimates and advised on most suitable action to eliminate water damage to home.
Installed and trouble shot seamless gutters.

Dairyland Power Cooperative, LaCrosse, WI Engineering Intern, June-August 2003
Responsible for collecting data for the predictive maintenance program at three of Dairyland’s Power Generation Facilities.
Collected and analyzed critical machinery vibration trends and wrote monthly condition reports.

WHY are you motivated to support/develop this work?

• Do you endorse open source culture?

Most ideas are built upon previous ideas. Outright ownership of ideas for critical infrastructure, genetic material ect is just wrong and detrimental to human social development. OS culture has the potential to keep key concepts accessible and in the public domain, so that all people have the needed knowledge and tools at their disposable for right livelihood.

• Why are you interested in collaborating with us?

Yes. However I do think that there needs to be some means of tracking contributions so that an appropriate compensation system can evolve.

• How do you think that the GVCS can address pressing world issues?

Industrial infrastructure and accompanying economy is a dying dinosaur, we need small distributed, autonomous communities, like what the GVCS aims to produce very soon!

• What should happen so that you become more involved with the project?

I need to find a way to make enough from project to service student loan debt. I can live in my own mobile solar structure, and eat low on food chain for little money, but still need to service those loans.

• What are you missing in the project?

IMO low cost simple stirling diaphragm engines, much simpler and safer than steam engines, just need to think along the lines of very low energy densities and bellows rather than pistons.

• What are your suggestions for improvement of the project?

Get economic activity tied to it as soon as possible to bring more people in.

WHAT

• List all of your skills in these areas: Communications - Organizational - Computer Support - Finances - Design - Natural Building - Electronics - Automation - Metallurgy - Engineering - Fabrication - Agriculture - Energy - Architecture - Video/Graphics/Art - PR/Marketing - Education - Construction - Industry - CNC - Chemistry - Product Design - Other

Design, Engineering, Energy,and Agriculture.

• How have you already contributed to the project?

Worked on the steam engine design a couple of years ago, and was one of the people who built the CEB greenhouse addition.

HOW can you help?

• How are you interested in contributing to the work of GVCS development?

• Can you volunteer to work with us, and if so, how many hours per week?

Not at present as I am somewhat work constrained. I do add to the wiki and do some related research when I have spare time though.

• Are you interested in working with us for pay? If so, what services can you offer, and what is your hourly or per-project rate?

Yes I certainly would be, I'd do hourly engineering/development work @$18/hr, but would probably prefer working on a project bid basis.

• Are you interested in Dedicated Project Visit?

Perhaps, if I feel I have key insights and the right know how to do a good job on the project.

• Are you interested in purchasing equipment from us to help bootstrap development?

Not currently, but when I have land and own farm certainly!

• Are you interested in bidding for consulting/design/prototyping work?

Yes.

• Are you a True Fan? If not, why not?

No, I'm rather low on the financial spectrum at present and seriously pinch my pennies.

• Would you like to see yourself working with us on a full-time basis?

If the project stays true to the GVCS and its mission statement of bringing low cost open source hardware to the people, absolutely!

• Are you interested in using the technologies that we are developing directly?

Perhaps.

• Are you interested in being part of the world's first, open source, resilient community? The GVCS is the preparatory step for the OSE Village Experiment - a 2 year, immersion experiment (2013-2014) for testing whether a real, thriving, modern-day prototype community of 200 people can be built on 200 acres using local resources and open access to information? We are looking for approximately 200 people to fill a diverse array of roles, according to the Social Contract that is being developed. This may be the boldest social experiment on earth - a pioneering community whose goal is to extend the index of possibilities regarding harmonious existence of humans, ecology, and technology - as a beacon of light to benefit of all people on Earth.

Yes, if I can work out a modest income during the experiment.

Others

Hello Marcin,

I caught your response on Jeff Vails webpage. I've been following the whole open source ecology and, resilent communities themes for a while. Where is the E-Farm located? I may be interested in volunteering for some time. I'm a 25 year old with a degree in Mechanical engineering currently employed at a power utility, but perhaps not for long. I've decided it is time to jump in the fray and begin making whatever changes I am able at the grassroot level. Which may mean helping transition our family farm to a more permaculture setup and local volunteering or perhaps another adventure? So please let me know a little bit more about the potential oppurtunities and I'll let you know if it might work for me. Regardless, what you guys are doing is so very important I wish the project the best of luck.

Nick

raaumn@hotmail.com

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Hi Marcin,

Thank you for the response. I have been furiously digging through the open ecology weblog and am listening to an interview of you right now by Vinay Gupta , this is the most impressive project I've ever seen!! I'm so thankful to have found it.

I've been thinking along tangent lines for the last 5 years and have been struggling to find a way to start get inolved. I thought intitialy that I would work at a power plant, gain engineering experience, buy land and build a permaculture project on the side. As it turns out this is too much for me to chew off at once. I did gain some practical experience that may be of help in your project. For example; I've done some energy project including 100kW wind turbine installations, I've convereted my 82 300D mercedes to run on veggie oil, and of course I work at a pulverized coal power plant.

I do have some experience with machine design. For example I designed and had a hazel nut cracker built for a local permaculture group. Concering the ecology portion I put up a 3/4 acre garden this year and spent a lot of time canning. Anyways I just find it so neat to find a group that is working on things I've only been dreaming about. So lets talk via skype, I just got an account my number is nickr82. I'm available anytime after work which is about 5:00 CT. I look forward to hear from you.

Nick