An avid Maker before it was a widespread term, Bob Martin has been tearing things apart to see how they work for his entire life. After obtaining a BSEE from the University of Saskatchewan, his early career spanned everything from installing specialized instruments into Arctic weather stations, designing industrial control systems and supporting upper atmospheric research campaigns for Environment Canada.
He moved to the Bay Area 20 years ago and has continued to concentrate on embedded-systems design since. After a decade at National Semiconductor, which also exposed the wonderful world of analog to him, he ended up in a few startups before landing at the Arduino prime enabler of Atmel where he managed a microcontroller applications team. It was here that he became deeply involved with the Arduino/Maker movement supporting both the 8- and 32-bit-based platforms.
With 30 years of embedded-system experience, he now serves as the “Wizard of Make” for Microchip where he keeps the Maker spirit alive through educating aspiring Makers and continuing to create, experiment, and explore as much as he can. He lives in Sunnyvale, Calif., with his wife, twin daughters, and a garage full of surplus wire and boxes of “vintage electronics” that really should be recycled.