At Cal Poly Robotics Club I am currently the project lead for the Autonomous Vessel project and a general officer. As an officer, I assist with all aspects of club operation and onboard newer members. As the Autonomous Vessel project lead, I have taken the project from an idea to CAD to physical parts. The goal of the project is to create a reliable boat to eventually collect scientific data for NOAA and the Cal Poly Oceanographic Community.

I lead a small team of about 10 engineers across software and mechanical teams. However, I focus mostly on the mechanical aspects setting targets and teaching the fundamentals of mechanical design to allow team members to effectively complete their own tasks. Individual contributions include much of the conceptual design for the mechanical systems along with the detailed design for many components.

One of these components was the hull. Despite the club having no composites experience or equipment; fiberglass was chosen for the hull due to it’s combination of strength, low cost, and workability into non-standard shapes.

Without formal classroom education in composites, I decided to teach myself and built up a composites program that is now capable of turning out acceptable parts. I did this with research on techniques for composites manufacturing and reinforced my learnings by creating countless test parts. I program and run the CNC machines to make the molds and work hands on with my team from mold prep to part removal and cleanup.