Engineering depth, system-level ownership.

Technical scope

• Machine and mechanism architecture
• Robotics hardware and electromechanical integration
• Structures, materials, actuators, and sensors
• Prototyping, test strategy, and system validation
• Reliability, failure analysis, and risk reduction
• Design for manufacturing, assembly, and service
• Cross-disciplinary technical leadership
• Requirements, interfaces, and engineering decisions

Foundation

I got my BS in Mechanical Engineering at a school that really valued and promoted hands-on experience as a learning tool, which enabled me to get involved with a couple of professors that really propelled me in my understanding of materials, machines and manufacturing processes.

Thanks to these friendships and my innate curiosity, I graduated in 2006 with more than 1000 hours of shop and lab time under my belt. The skills and knowledge I developed and gathered during all those hours have served me well in several professional opportunities and have turned me into an avid maker.

I learned to think seriously about users when I designed my first backpack and developed that practice further during my Masters. That experience still informs my engineering: operators, technicians, assemblers, and maintainers are all part of the system.

How I lead

I make technical ownership explicit, expose risk early, and work to give each discipline enough context to make good local decisions. I value direct communication, rigorous design reviews, and evidence from analysis and real hardware.

I am most effective when a program needs both system-level direction and willingness to engage deeply with the details. Technical leadership is not separate from engineering work; it is how difficult engineering work becomes coherent across a team.

Outside work

I love to tinker and experiment with physical things by strapping them to Arduinos. Thanks to my professor Nick Durrant I learned to appreciate the beauty of the physicality of things and that things can be augmented by digital information and vice-versa. So, half of my apartment is filled with bits and pieces of ongoing projects, including a weighted backpack for long hiking training, a portable energy generator and a smart coffeemaker.

I recently found the hobby of Amateur Radio and I've been having a blast. It perfectly tickles my curiosity for tinkering and diving deep into complex technical topics.

I love baking bread and cooking my Mexican food, and if you’re around me for long enough you’ll get to try them both. I don’t follow sports, but I do love to hike, Parkour and martial arts. I love to be in the outdoors, and I need to be in motion.

I love reading cyberpunk and space novels. I got hooked when I read my first Asimov book and I found it visionary. I enjoy stories that are accurate and fantastic at the same time, and I love to see when some of those far-out ideas actually come to life some decades later (space travel, anyone?).

Engineering interests

I’m drawn to robots, machines, vehicles, tools, and manufacturing systems that extend what people can explore, build, and accomplish. I care especially about the transition from a compelling technical idea to hardware that performs reliably outside the lab.