Rob Knudson
DAQ Hardware Group Leader, Neutron Instrument Technology Section, Neutron Technologies Division, Neutron Sciences Directorate
Bio
Rob Knudson leads the Data Acquisition Hardware Group in the Neutron Instrument Technologies Section, Neutron Technologies Division in the Neutron Sciences Directorate. The DAQ Hardware group develops, maintains and supports beamline technologies within NScD in several key areas. DAQ Hardware is responsible for developing the printed circuit board designs and FPGA firmware for the neutron event pipeline, providing the high speed parallel bridge connecting detectors to computing and distribution of accelerator timing to beamline systems. DAQ Hardware also designs and supports beamline electrical systems including motion control, sample environment interfaces, shutter control (HFIR only), and interlock PLCs.
Rob Knudson joined ORNL in 2013 as a Digital Hardware Engineer in the Instrument Data Acquisition and Controls group in the Neutron Sciences Directorate. Rob Knudson has contributed to the hardware and firmware designs of a number of critical beamline data acquisition modules including the FEM9 (fan-in fan-out concentrator module, lead engineer), the OCC (optical communication card – contributing engineer), Fiber Timing Adapter (accelerator timing receiver, lead engineer), and the Modular Carrier (base platform for the modular DAQ hardware system, lead engineer).
In 2018 Rob became the IDAC Tech Team Lead where he led hardware upgrade efforts for instrument improvement projects at the SNS and HFIR. In 2019 he became the HFIR IDAC Team Lead during which time he coordinated the upgrades for the SANS instrument improvement projects.
In 2020 Rob became the group leader of the newly formed DAQ Integration Group which was responsible for networking and computing for beamlines, long term data storage, and the analysis cluster. DAQ Integration developed software for sample environment and motion control for all beamlines in the user program at SNS and HFIR. At HFIR, DAQ Integration was responsible for the electrical design of beamline motion control, shutter systems, detector, and sample environment interfaces. In 2023 the two DAQ groups, Integration and Development, were restructured into the current groups DAQ Software and DAQ Hardware. Rob became the group leader of DAQ Hardware at this time.