Engineering Experience

Highschool Projects

I attended Liberty high school in Brentwood California, graduating in 2007. From an early age I was interested in mechanics and engineering. My early years were spent tinkering on cars, motorcycles and airplanes in various capacities. My first car was a 1987 Mazda RX-7 that I bought with a blown engine. I installed a rebuilt engine and performed all the necessary repairs to get it back on the road and drove it all through high school and college. I rebuild my first engine at age 17 for our family’s 1979 Ford F-350 4x4, and I’m proud to say it’s still running great today!

College Projects

I attended college at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California from 2007-2012, graduating with both my B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering. I focused on mechanical design, particularly composite structure design. One notable course that I took was on the subject of two-wheeled vehicle dynamics. This included the design and fabrication of a track racing bicycle with the goal of validating a computer generated handling model I created.

For my undergraduate senior design project, I worked as part of an interdisciplinary engineering team on a human-powered helicopter (HPH) design at an attempt to win the Sikorsky prize for human-powered flight. While working on my graduate degree, I advised the next subsequent engineering team working on the HPH design and developed some inexpensive manufacturing processes for making composite tubes to use on the project.

Track racing bicycle prototype, built to validate a computer generated handling model I created. I learned how to braze as part of this project.

Finished bicycle.

Scale test model designed to test various airfoil sections and control configurations for the human powered helicopter senior design project.

Roll-wrapped carbon fiber tube manufacturing.

An inexpensive resistive heating curing oven I built for curing the composite tube members.

Professional Projects

After college I went to work at Easton-Bell Sports in Scotts Valley, California. I was initially hired as an engineering intern, but was offered a full time position at the end of my internship. I worked predominately on cycling projects for Easton Cycling, but also contributed on some Giro footwear CAD modeling and shoe buckle prototype development.

I stayed with Easton Cycling through several ownership changes of that particular brand. All together, I owned or contributed to designs that fell under the brands of Easton Cycling, Race Face Performance Products and Giro footwear. Accomplishments included:

  • Developing complex contours for consumer products, including advanced surfacing and injection molded plastic part design using 3D CAD software (Solidworks)

  • Use of finite element analysis (FEA) to optimize and implement running changes on numerous composite and alloy products

  • Use of product lifecycle management (PLM) software to track design changes and maintain revision control

  • Daily management of existing overseas and domestic manufacturing partners and the vetting of new ones; shipped millions of dollars in product

  • Designed, tested and shipped both composite and alloy road racing handlebars (6+ models)

  • Designed 9 aluminum MTB wheelsets, 2 aluminum road wheelsets, and 2 carbon fiber MTB rims

  • Completed design and testing for a new road racing hub for entry-level wheelsets

Designed and tested a complete line of mountain bike rims as well as several stems and handlebars. Developed new testing protocols and worked to benchmark our designs as compared to other products on the market.

Designed a new line of road bicycle handlebars to maximize comfort, while reducing weight and significantly increasing strength and stiffness. Designed a new impact test for improving side impact durability compared to existing designs.