Brett

Brett Elmendorf

Technical Designer – Atoms | Bits | Pixels| Photons | Waves

brettr26d.com

Strategic | Relator | Maximizer | Ideation | Connectedness

Bio

Brett earned a BSc in Physics, at Butler University, while assisting on photo-ionization experiments in Quantum Mechanics. Working with scientists on the university network, he met the Internet and saw its potential to change the world. A few years of Web programming lead to being one of the first fifty people hired at Rackspace and moving to Texas. As a Racker, he contributed a decade of designing operational software and leading development teams creating projects with multi-million dollar budgets. These mission critical systems provide global data center management and the customer support tools that power Rackspace’s Fanatical Support. After Rackspace, Brett co-founded r26D, that launched TruckingOffice, an early trucking industry software as a service business. Brett has experimented merging design, software, and hardware through CNC machining projects. He looks to the future of applying software techniques for smarter fabrication systems that scale down to unique products and environments.

On the lookout for an organization with a mission to join that is willing to clear the way so our team can focus on great work.

Background

In high school as an amateur architect, Brett designed and built the first skatepark in Brownsburg, Indiana. The park included street obstacles, a vert ramp, and a steel surfaced back-to-back mini-ramp.

While earning a Physics degree at Butler University, he was selected for the Quantum Mechanics Lab. There he machined custom components, milled aluminum mirror mounts, to support a pulsed dye laser experiment exploring photo-ionization. Studying psychology at Wabash College, he created an electric chair sculpture about addiction using primitive Integrated Circuits to animate incandescent light bulbs.

Starting at Rackspace in 2000, he spent a decade designing secret internal operations software including the Rackspace ticketing system and data center automation.

Pursuing a enduring fascination with light, he created Blinkdom, a hardware project wiring up software, LEDs, water bottles, and an industrial robot. He designed Moonbeam, a software project mixing a Monome 64, sound input, and a DMX512 lighting system.

Following an interest in architecture and the built environment, he has experimented with building furniture, plumbing with PEX, wiring line power circuits, and hydronic cooling in an eighty year old coffee factory that serves as the lab for digital fabrication.

Currently at r26D, “arr twenty-six dee”, he collaborates on a variety of projects from ReactJS web interfaces to furniture and temporary architecture, designing in software and physical materials.

Projects

1. TrainQuietZone.com - community advocacy, code

2. WikiWalls - software defined architecture

3. Blinkdom - industrial art

4. H and H Coffee Factory - historical detective and curator

Lab Location

r26D
601 Delaware St
San Antonio, TX 78210