Joshua Himmens

HTTP 418: Autonomous Clue-Finding Robot in Simulation

joshua@himmens.com (Joshua Himmens) — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Project Overview

For ENPH 353, my partner George and I built “HTTP 418”—a control system for an autonomous clue-finding robot operating in a Gazebo simulation. The robot’s goal was to navigate a course while reading clues from signboards, avoiding pedestrians and vehicles, all using only its onboard camera. The project culminated in a competition where robots raced to collect all clues correctly.

Full Report PDF | GitHub Repository

HTTP 418: Autonomous Clue-Finding Robot in Simulation

joshua@himmens.com (Joshua Himmens) — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Project Overview

Full Report PDF | GitHub Repository

PCB's and Robotics: The Rolling Ohms Rescue Bot

joshua@himmens.com (Joshua Himmens) — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rolling Ohms in ENPH 253

Every summer the UBC Engineering Physics ENPH 253 course drops four-person teams into an intense six-week sprint: design and build a fully autonomous rescue robot that frees stranded “pets” (plushies) and returns them to a safe zone. Our Rolling Ohms bot line-tracked around the course, scooped friendly pets with a servo arm, and flung hostile ones with TPU flywheels spinning at ~50 km/h tips to clear an eight-foot arc.

PCB's and Robotics: The Rolling Ohms Rescue Bot

joshua@himmens.com (Joshua Himmens) — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rolling Ohms in ENPH 253

Every summer the UBC Engineering Physics ENPH 253 course drops four-person teams into an intense six-week sprint: design and build a fully autonomous rescue robot that frees stranded “pets” (plushies) and returns them to a safe zone. Our Rolling Ohms bot line-tracked around the course, scooped friendly pets with a servo arm, and flung hostile ones with TPU flywheels spinning at ~50 km/h tips to clear an eight-foot arc.

AltaML

joshua@himmens.com (Joshua Himmens) — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

At AltaML, I spent several months immersed in impactful machine learning projects, tackling real-world challenges at the intersection of data science, software engineering, and public infrastructure. Below, I reflect on some key challenges and insights from my experience.

Document Classification: Challenges and Insights

My first major project involved information classification for a large enterprise client with strict regulatory requirements around document retention. The core challenge was classifying documents with incomplete or partial textual information, often with an extremely limited dataset for training and validation.

TRIUMF Science Week Presentation

joshua@himmens.com (Joshua Himmens) — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Below is a copy of a speed talk that I completed at TRIUMF in summer 2024 as a part of the TRIUMF Science Week. If I get a video of the presentation I will be sure to upload it!

Deep Learning at TRIUMF

joshua@himmens.com (Joshua Himmens) — Fri, 17 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Summary

Particle reconstruction in the ATLAS detector is the practice of associating calorimeter and tracker signals particle and determining which particles caused them, with how much energy, and through what process. One crucial step in reconstruction is cell segmentation where we determine which calorimeter signals belong to which tracks from the inner tracker. Current methods to perform segmentation rely on algorithms that grow with quadratic complexity, posing a challenge for segmentation after the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrade, which promises a significant increase in the number of collisions per event and, therefore, the complexity of each event. Working under Dr. Max Swiatlowski, I am applying PointNet and other machine learning approaches to cell segmentation in the ATLAS calorimeter.

ALEASAT - Fly Your Satellite! Training Week Photos

joshua@himmens.com (Joshua Himmens) — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

"New Year's Prayer" by Jeff Buckely

joshua@himmens.com (Joshua Himmens) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is my new year’s eve prayer.

You, my love, are allowed to forget
about the Christmas you just spent stressed out in your parents’ house.

You, my love, are allowed to shed the weight
of all the years before,
like bad disco clothes.
Save them for a night of dancing stoned with your lover.

You, my love, are allowed to let yourself drown
every night in bottomless wild and naked symbolic dreams.

Presentations

joshua@himmens.com (Joshua Himmens) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

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Presentations

Super Secret Extra Stuff

joshua@himmens.com (Joshua Himmens) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000