Karl Mochel

AWEA (American Wind Energy Association) Conference Game

I found out the Energy division was looking for someone to help them build something to teach people the value of software running a windfarm. I created this storyboard and pitched the UX Research group building the experiences.

Storyboard used to generate interest and win the project.

With my team of 4 developers from the UX Research group and the aid of FirstPerson consulting I led the build of the game. The result was played in these gaming chairs. The game used gestures sensed via a Kinect as the mechanism for players to interact with the game.

Person in gaming rig gesturing to control game.

We also created games for iPads to go along with the data collection.

Images from GE's AWEA 2015 booth.

Intro image that was spread across the three screens of the chair rig.

Genix

Global Research had built a tool for creating models, but it was difficult to use. I proposed integrating the functionality into an experience for building Digital Twins.

Slides from the proposal deck.

We won the funds to build the project and I led a team of developers and designers to build Genix, a tool to operationalize machine learning algorithms and physics protocols.

A page from GENIX

Rapid Data Forensics (RDF)

After doing user research across GE Aviation one of the tools we proposed was a visualization tool to do EDA (Exploratory Data Analysis) of engine fleets. RDF provides interactive visualizations that let users explore how different factors contribute to failure modes.

Focus on dates and signals of issues.

Focus on clusters and flight characteristics.

User research indicated one of the issues engineers had was understanding how engines performed over long periods of time. This visualization shows how engines performed over thousands of cycles (each time an engine is started till stopped)

RDF showing all engines aligned on the first time they were serviced.

The next stage of RDF would have been to move beyond EDA and show analytic summaries first to speed up the engineers research.

Wireframes showing a more notebook approach that also could have summaries early in the process.

These learnings were then taken to other GE businesses. Here I designed an RDF-like tool for the wind energy group.

PulsePoint takes RDF and translates it ideas into a tool for vibration analytics of wind turbines.

Other projects

For GE's introduction of Digital Twins I directed the production of this rendered introduction of the concept for a power plant.

Digital Twin graphic in front of turbine.

One of my first projects at the UX Research Lab was the information architecture for the HMI of a Direct Positioning system for ships.

Wireframe of layout for the HMI