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Scott Lefton

Mechanical, Ergonomic & Visual Product Designer
Registered Patent Agent #53,200


OBJECTIVE

To contribute to your engineering project's success through the use of exceptional design, prototyping, patent and project management skills.

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Mechanical and user interface design experience for cost-effective, reliable products.
  • A strong track record of creative, practical solutions to product design challenges.
  • Solid experience with Design For Manufacturing and manufacturing processes, particularly injection molding, machining, sheet metal forming and electronic & mechanical assembly.
  • Extensive knowledge of electronic design requirements in relation to overall electromechanical product design.
  • Design of products for overseas manufacturing and international sales.
  • Exceptional design & fabrication skills with metals, engineering plastics, wood and composite materials.
  • Management skills covering single projects to engineering departments.
  • Strong written communication and visual design skills.
  • Knowledge of patent search, drafting, prosecution, patent laws and USPTO rules.
  • Extensive vendor and contact base for sourcing components and services.

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

Technical
  • Designed the look & feel, structural, control and display details of numerous products, with an emphasis on portable electronic products.
  • Products designed have been market leaders in performance, cost-effectiveness and high reliability.
  • Design work has included inventing new implementations of product features to avoid patent infringement.
  • New patent applications resulted from this effort.
  • Improved the manufacturability, usability and reliability of existing products.
  • Produced Solidworks CAD files and drawings for clients and vendors.
  • Specified, evaluated and refined Rapid Prototypes in a variety of materials.
  • Designed and fabricated numerous functional and visual prototypes of new products and packaging for trade show and beta testing use.
  • Designed and fabricated numerous electronic test fixtures for final test in manufacturing.
  • Registered Patent Agent, working with mechanical and electronic inventions, including producing patent drawings. Registration granted January 28, 2003.
  • Professional memberships in IEEE, NAPP.

    Managerial
  • Managed R&D/Engineering department with an annual budget of over $1M.
  • Created product development methodology for steadily growing market leader in musical instrument electronics, enabling improved forecast, monitoring and achievement of development budget and schedule goals.
  • Wrote job definitions, interviewed, hired and trained production manager, mechanical and electrical engineers, technicians and machinists.
  • Hired contract mechanical designers and industrial designers as needed.
  • Sourced technical components, negotiated purchasing contracts with vendors, monitored vendor performance on key development projects.
  • Participated in product development teams including members of Engineering, Production, Marketing, Sales and Purchasing departments.

    Computer

  • Proficient with Solidworks, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Microsoft Project, Word and Excel.
  • Created websites for professional use.

    Patents Awarded

  • 6,680,431 Violin Shoulder Rest
  • 6,278,059 Electronics housing having a flexible outer flange
  • 5,693,898 Hinged control panel for electrified acoustic guitar (A Correction of Inventorship is appended to the patent file.)
  • 4,891,645 Digital-to-analog converter with on-board unity gain
  • 4,791,318 MOS threshold control circuit

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

  • Director of Mechanical Engineering, Fishman Transducers, Wilmington, MA 03/96-07/03
  • Operations Manager, Fishman Transducers, Wilmington, MA 09/87-03/96
  • Integrated Circuit Designer, Analog Devices, Wilmington, MA, 08/83-09/87
  • Circuit Designer, Plessey Corporation, Hillside, NJ, 07/81-08/83

EDUCATION

  • Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH -- 1982
    Master of Science in Engineering Sciences
    Coursework in Electrical Engineering and Radiophysics, NSF Research Fellowship.
  • Polytechnic Institute of New York, Brooklyn, NY -- 1979
    Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering
    Coursework in Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering.

OTHER SKILLS

Artist, craftsman & photographer, working in wood, metal, glass and digital media. Work has been displayed and sold in numerous craft galleries and featured in Design Book 4 (Taunton Press) and SBS Digital Design magazine. Art and fashion photography incorporated into various websites and magazine articles. Art Direction, Props and Effects work done for various History Channel documentaries. View artwork online at www.scottlefton.com.

 
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Patent Agent Registration # 53,200
Copyright 2002-2009 by Scott Lefton except where otherwise indicated.