Mechanical Engineering

Robotics, fixtures, EOAT, and manufacturing automation before the models

The mechanical thread starts before the software thread: LEGO NXTLog, FIRST Robotics, CAD discipline, pneumatic tools, shop-floor fixtures, and medical-device manufacturing automation. It is the same pattern I use now: preserve the object, respect the constraint, build the interface, and test against the world.

Applied Medical engineering drawing for a stainless steel suction pen component.
Stainless suction-pen tip drawing from the Applied Medical manufacturing-tooling arc.
Pneumatic fixtures, drawings, calipers, and notes on a manufacturing workbench.
Fixtures, prototype hardware, drawings, notes, and calipers on the bench.
CAD view of a transparent suction pen assembly with tube, springs, and clamp hardware.
CAD assembly view from the suction-pen / fixture design work.
Manufacturing automation equipment wrapped on a flatbed truck.
Production automation equipment in transit, before the abstractions got clean.

Applied Medical: tooling, fixtures, automation

From 2013 to 2018 I worked in mechanical design and process engineering at Applied Medical, moving from intern to technician to engineer while studying physics. The work sat close to production: robotic tooling, pneumatic manipulators, fixtures, end-of-arm tooling, CAD, prototypes, test and qualification, and shop-floor troubleshooting.

SurfacesCAD, rapid prototypes, robotic EOAT, pneumatic manipulators, fixtures, qualification, operator-facing tooling.
ProcessesPolymer injection molding, extrusion, metal injection molding, subassembly, troubleshooting, and manufacturability tradeoffs.
Current bridgePhysical AI, CAD/DFM automation, inspection workflows, robotics, and geometry-native ML.

MIM variance project

The strongest early manufacturing signal is the metal-injection insert-molding variance project. The production fix used a 3D-printed orientation grid, fishing-line sorting geometry, and stainless suction-pen tips to reduce operating variance by roughly $100k/month.

I remember presenting this in a UCSD design class during my first quarter. The missing artifact is the original deck: photos, CAD screenshots, and the kind of unglamorous production evidence that makes the story stronger than a polished summary.

FIRST Robotics and LEGO roots

Before Applied Medical, FIRST Robotics taught design under time pressure. On FRC Teams 1425 and 3476, I co-led mechanical design work including intake, drive, and superstructure. The team won a Newton Division World Championship, IRI Championship, and Industrial Design Award; that work led directly to the Applied Medical internship.

The deeper signal is not nostalgia. It is the habit of turning ambiguous physical constraints into mechanisms, process, and teachable structure before the abstraction layer gets fancy.