Jesse's Engineering Portfolio
If you are looking for an engineer with excellent fundamentals and hands-on understanding of everything from welding to circuits, look no further. I’m a recent mechanical engineering graduate from Carnegie Mellon University with a minor in media design, and I have worked on electric race cars, wall climbing robots, pollution cleaning aquatic vessels, and even a lunar rover.
I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University studying mechanical engineering with a minor in media design in May 2023. At CMU, I was the system lead for the Accumulator Container and designed the Two Force Members on the Formula SAE Racing team. Most recently, I completed an 8 month co-op at Tesla Motors as a vehicle design integration engineer. I have also worked at Google[X], the moonshot factory as a robotics intern and was a robotics research assistant in the CMU Robomechanics lab for 4 years. More details about these experiences and more are below.
Project Summaries Below
Or, check out my background and connect with me by clicking on my line sketch portrait:
AUTONOMOUS AQUATIC DEBRIS CLEANUP
The world’s aquatic ecosystems are increasingly becoming dumping ground for countries to leave waste, much of which damages the environment. This project explores electromechanical aquatic cleanup processes and aims to design a low-cost system to remove trash from the water’s surface.
ROBOMECHANICS LAB
Many robotic platforms are capable of either robust dynamic locomotion or high slope angle mobility, but to date there are few that achieve both. This work aims to marry the dynamic ground locomotion of RHex, a cockroach-inspired hexapod, with the wall climbing capability of microspine robots such as RiSE, in a single, robust platform. A hexapod robot can accomplish both of these by using the same structure for energy storage in the leg as translation of the microspines. This work builds on an initial concept for such a robot, T-RHex, and improves on the design through systematic material and geometry selection.
SPACE ROBOTICS - CMU MOONRANGER
On the structures engineering team, I was responsible for systematic redesign of the MoonRanger Wheel Module in order to optimize the system’s stiffness to mass ratio and evaluate modes under harmonic load. This ensures that the wheel module survives the high loading and vibrations that will be applied to it as it begins its travel to the moon. These goals were accomplished via wheel module component redesign, and Solidworks static and frequency studies were utilized to validate design changes.
SPECIAL TOPICS IN DIY DESIGN & FABRICATION
The traditional principles of mass production are being challenged by concepts of highly customized and personalized goods. Over the course of this senior -level class, I designed customized and personalized products and built them using various DIY fabrication methods, including, 3D printing, laser cutting, molding, model making, etc. Click on the photo to see more details about these projects!
BLACKSMITHING
During lockdown due to COVID-19, a friend and I decided to gather the materials for and set up a functioning forge in a local workshop. We did extensive research on metalwork and played with damascus steel blacksmithing techniques as well as knife shaping. We would practice new blacksmithing techniques in between virtual classes and produced two damascus steel billets as well as a completed knife by the end of the semester.
"BAYMAX" EDUCATIONAL ROBOT FOR KIDS
In a sophomore course called Rapid Prototype Design, my team decided to make a real life Baymax - a toy that responds to being hit or thrown by lighting up red and yelling “OW!” This serves as an educational toy to teach young children about empathy and treating others well.
MUSIC MAGIC USING PITCH DETECTION
Visual aid has been proven to help students learn. This project utilizes color association science to create an educational online platform for students to learn music. The pitchDetect software package detects notes that are played or sang into a computer’s microphone and associates them with a sliding scale of color that is repeated throughout the learning process.
IMPACT-A-THON LEGOLIGHT
Impact-a-thon prompt 2019: Seek solutions to the problem of how to provide inexpensive, reliable lighting in under-resourced areas such as refugee camps/settlements or certain parts of urban areas.
The best light to design is as cost-efficient and long lasting as possible. In order to maximize success, our engineering team made sure that our design that emphasized low cost shipping, easy setup, and reliability. We designed a laser cut enclosure that snap fits together after distribution. The electronics, in their own safe packaging, nest inside the enclosure and are protected from the elements.
