Born and raised in Pierre, South Dakota, after playing with electronics since he was young, Mr. Merkle attended LeTourneau University in Longview, TX, where he earned a B.S. degree in Computer Science and Engineering. After graduating, Mr. Merkle worked as an Electrical Engineer for Xerox, where he designed microprocessor-based communication products. After following the company during its move from Lewisville to Fresno, California, he transitioned to other technology companies around the United States working as a software engineer. Starting in 1998, at BSQUARE Corporation, Mr. Merkle focused on writing Windows CE device drivers for certain products, continuing a similar task in his job at Two Technologies Corporation in Horsham, Pennsylvania from 2002 to 2013. After some time away from the lone star state, Mr. Merkle returned to Texas to work for American Microsystems LTD in 2013, where he took the role of Lead Embedded Software Engineer and continued his work on Windows CE device drivers while creating programs for the Linux based product Triton and for Android-X86.
Today, Mr. Merkle works as a Firmware Engineer for Crestron Electronics in Plano, Texas. In his job, he has managed SPI Linux and MTD Linux device drivers, Conexant CX20709 audio integration via Linux, and the integration of light sensors into certain products. In addition to working, Mr. Merkle runs an “embedded workshop” class at the Dallas Makerspace where he teaches people how to use the Raspberry Pi GPIO library with C/C++ and Python. When not in the office or teaching classes himself, Mr. Merkle continues to be an avid builder of electronics.