Hello, I am Willem, a 27-year old mechanical engineer. I enjoy designing, building and testing all kinds of mechatronics. I like to show these devices to the world through this website, which I launched in 2012. I post my work here to demonstrate my creativity and skills, but also to inspire others and share my knowledge.
All of this started when I was still in primary school. I tore apart anything that would otherwise be thrown away and used the components to build new stuff. I remember at some point being quite impressed that I could toggle a light bulb with the press of a button. At age 11 I discovered rocketry and quickly assembled my first water rocket and launch platform. To me, launching a plastic bottle rocket and seeing it fly over the top of the house was equivalent to putting a man on the moon…
A lot has changed since. I kept developing and flying these water rockets; at the height of my personal space era, the rockets featured carbon fibre composite pressure vessels and fully automatic parachute recovery systems, safely bringing back rockets from their 150+ meter apogees. I discovered microcontrollers and programming. Later on while in university, I discovered CAD and pretty much rely on it now to manage the ever-increasing complexity of my projects. I am really proud that my M&Ms and Skittles sorting machine became so popular that millions of people around the world have seen it in action. My balancing cube is completely open source and has been successfully built by several other creators.
Professionally speaking, I specialize in the development of simulation and emulation models of complex industrial systems. I am also experienced in related topics such as model-based systems engineering and automated testing and verification methods.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments about me or my work! I’m also on LinkedIn; a button that leads to my profile can be found at the bottom of this page.
