Dave grew up in Palo Alto, CA spending some of his youth hanging out in Stanford’s Mechanical Engineering Design Division where his mother worked as a secretary and administrator. After getting a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering with an Art minor he spent nearly a decade working on Strategic Defense Initiative projects (a.k.a. Star Wars) for Lockheed in Sunnyvale, CA. Wanting a career change that would offer a more hands on experience and creative outlet Dave turned to Stanford's Design program for a mix of engineering, embedded electronics and art. His projects included a silver goblet to celebrate marriage to his wife Eleanor, a programmable light sculpture, and six mobile robots designed to behave as a group. He moved to Los Angeles, CA in July ‘96 to work for WET Design on the water fountain at the new Bellagio Hotel (opened in 1998) in Las Vegas, NV and returned to the Bay Area in April '98, joining PARC shortly thereafter to work on Mark Yim’s Modular Robotics project.