Hi Richard,
I am very interested in working on this project. The topic is fascinating to me personally, and I think I could do the problem justice.
I have built previously built three 3D printers, including one of my own custom design. While I have not constructed a delta printer yet, I have inspected a few in person and also am familiar with several designs through the RepRap community. Given my experience with 3D printing, I understand the components you've mentioned (e.g. hot end, print bed, etc.) and the mechanics. For example, I understand the necessity of using vertical slide movement to keep the effector level while each layer is being extruded.
As a PhD student in a dynamics lab at Cornell University, I use Matlab on a daily basis and am very comfortable with the math and the programming. Our lab uses Matlab for modeling of walking robotics projects.
Thanks for considering.
Regards,
Matt