Professional Career
I started my professional career as an integrated circuit product engineer at Hewlett-Packard in Colorado Spring Colorado on January 7, 1982. I transferred to Hewlett-Packard, Loveland in August 1984. In Loveland, I also worked as an integrated circuit product engineer for the Loveland Technology Center. As the integrated circuit business grew LTC merged with the Fort Collins integrated circuit center which finally became the Integrated Circuit Business Division or ICBD. Since the merger of the two technology centers, my job evolved into a Test Process Engineer or TPE. The job involved the introduction and integration of integrated circuit test equipment into our manufacturing facility.
After completing my MS degree, I moved on to work in the Information Technology department within ICBD. I was a member of the Engineering Analysis group providing engineering solutions for the engineering community with ICBD manufacturing.
In 2000, HP split into two separate companies Hewlett-Packard Company and Agilent Technologies Inc. The part of the company that I was working within went to Agilent. I continued my career with Agilent in the IT department which managed proprietary software developed for Manufacturing Execution Systems and Engineering Analysis Systems.
Second Career
After 21 years in the high tech and computer industry, I had an opportunity for a change. From my "after work" hobbies of motorcycles and old VW Bugs, in September of 2003, I opened a motorcycle service shop working directly with a custom motorcycle shop, BoneDaddy's Custom Cycle in Red Lodge, Montana. The custom bike shop had opened 3 months before I arrived and did not have a full service shop. My shop provided that service for four years. Montana winters are very long and the motorcycle business does not thrive during that period, I found myself going back to my original career working on computers. In 2004, I contracted with the Joliet Public School to be responsible for their IT requirements. This was great synergy between the motorcycle shop and the school IT function because of the opposite seasonal requirements of each position. In late 2007, I moved back to my home of Colorado and started my own independent motorcycle shop, HoltHammer Cycles. In conjunction with the motorcycles shop, I have also started VailWebs a website development company. This companies focus is on individuals and small businesses wanting a web presence at a reasonable cost.
Interest
My interest in Computer Science includes
computer graphics
and
genetic algorithms.
My interest in Auto Mechanics include the Classic VW Bug.
My interest in Motorcycles is mainly with the Harley-Davidson brand
and what I specialize in my motorcycle shop,
HoltHammer Cycles.
I'm also interested in the motorcycle industry as a whole.
Computer Graphics
The pictures below are from an advanced computer graphics class. These pictures were computer generated, using a technique called Ray Tracing, by a program I wrote in the computer language Pascal. The process to generate the images below took over night to create and because of the limited depth of color on my computer at the time, I would transport the data file to work to check the results. The debug time for each modification to the program was about 24 hours becuase I this cycle.
This is image contains a scanned image read into the program and displayed on a flat surface. The poster is on the left wall of the shop. The back wall is reflective giving the double image of the bike in the center of the floor and the poster. The wheels of the bike are refractive to light. Click on the image for a larger view.
I still have some interest in Ray Tracing and found a program that is much easier to use then the one I wrote. It is called POV, Persistence Of Vision.
This image is of am jpg image rendered on a shere. It was rendered many time with each rendering the sphere is rotated slightly. I then used these images to create an animated gif which gives the illusion of a rotation. Click the image for a larger view.
Genetic Algorithms
The project is to solve a problem of finding a minimum path. The problem is in the NP-hard class of problems known as the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). NP is the set of problems that are solvable by non-deterministic polynomial time algorithms.
Genetic Algorithms have been found to be robust when solving combinatorially explosive, well mapped problems. The TSP, which has a problem space of n!, is combinatorially explosive but does not map easily into a GA.
My approach is to solve the TSP using a binary representation. To solve the TSP using a binary representation requires the use of special repair algorithms to prevent illegal tours. This repair algorithm is used to break ties between cities that are to be visited at the same time within a tour.
Using a simple genetic algorithm with the modification of a repair algorithm good solution for the TSP can be found. The problem space is n! where n is the number of cities. For the 48 city problem this is 1.24E61 possible solutions. The GA evaluated 18E6 paths to find a solution within 5% of the optimal.
The above paragraphs are from a report I wrote for a class in Genetic Algorithms. This report was published at the Fifth International Conference on Intelligent Systems in Reno, NV in the summer of 1996.
For the complete report, click here.
Classic VW Bugs
My interest in the Volkswagen Bug started when my Mom got her 1961 Bug. My Dad taught most of us kids how to drive in that car. I was 10 years old when he first put me behind the wheel. We would drive the back roads to his shop that was located 7 miles from our home. A few years later for my 8th grade graduation, he presented me with the keys to a 1968 Bug ... the hitch being that the engine was blown and all the pieces were in the back seat. I started saving my money from my paper route and would buy parts as money became available. Please Visit Holtkamp Electric
HoltHammer Cycles
My interest in motorcycles started sometime in the 1970's. My cousin had a Honda 50 "mini-bike' with clutchless shifting. I would ride my bicycle about 5 miles to go trail riding in a park behind his house. I left the motorcycle interest after I grew too big for the Honda 50 and receiving the 1968 VW Bug for my 8th grade graduation. It wasn't until 1976 that my interests included motorcycles again. I decided that I wanted to buy a Harley-Davidson and went to the local Harley dealer ... Dale's HD in Mt Vernon, IL. I talked to Dale Walksler about a 1976 FXE Super Glide sitting on the showroom floor. I took the paperwork to the bank for a loan but without a co-signer I was out of luck. I approached my Dad about help and he said he would sleep on it. The next morning the answer was "NO". I was disappointed but that motivated me even more. I went to college, finished my Electrical Engineering degree and within a month after graduation in February 1882, I had my first Harley, a 1977 FXE. Please visit HoltHammer Cycles for more about my shop.