CAD: Solidworks, Autodesk, some Catia
- I became useful with CAD using Autodesk Fusion 360 at my internships at Arevo. I’ve also used this software for some course projects involving CAD and personal projects. I was first introduced to CAD with Solidworks for a course project sophomore year at Cornell, but I really didn’t get much out of it. I used some Solidworks at Arris for small tasks, but I really learned to use it at Mainspring, designing ring installation equipment and even the rings themselves. I did a LinkedIn learning course with CATIA after college, but it was brief.
FEA: ANSYS, some Autodesk Fusion
- I took an FEA class my senior year at Cornell, where approximately half the class focused on learning the Finite Element Method and the other half focused on doing actual simulations. ANSYS was created by a Cornell grad, so Cornell has a fixation of using it pretty exclusively. We did structural and thermal modeling. At my second summer internship at Arevo, we needed to do some FEA for our bike project, and all we had access to was the built in Fusion 360 package, which wasn’t the most advanced.
CFD: ANSYS Fluent
- After leaving my job at Mainspring to deal with Lyme disease, I decided to take some online classes. I found a CFD course through eCornell with one of the professors involved with the FEA course I took senior year at Cornell and decided to do it. Again, Cornell only uses ANSYS, and that’s what we used in the course, even though in my opinion it is not very practical. To be honest, I didn’t get much out of it, but it was a good use of time while I was figuring out treatment.
GD&T
- I made my first engineering drawing at my first internship at Arevo after my sophomore year. I had no idea what I was doing then. The machinist I was working was pretty annoyed – I didn’t even include tolerances on the first drawing I sent him. At the time, I had no guidance for making the drawings I needed to create, but luckily the machinist helped me figure out what exactly needed to be machined. Fast forward to 2022 at Mainspring, making drawings was a big part of the job. I had no formal GD&T training at the time, but I learned on the job. I’d make drawings for parts we needed to make, have my manager or another more experienced engineer review them, and then edit them and repeat the process until the drawing was sufficient to send off to the machine shop. I didn’t understand it very well by the time I had to leave the job, but I decided I very much wanted to learn it by the book. I started the GD&T Fundamentals course offered by GD&T Basics, the site my manager at Mainspring told me to consult for how to use GD&T symbols, when I was taking online classes in 2023. I took a break for a year, and then started over, finished the instruction, and passed the final exam in the fall of 2024. It’s an empowering feeling knowing I have the skillset to get parts I designed machined.
Prototyping: 3D Printing, Basic Machining
- I’d consider myself to be pretty handy, and I’d say I’m relatively good at building things. I’ve built my bikes from the frame up, including a disc brake build. I’m good with hand tools and know my way around a saw. I was the house manager for my fraternity in college, so let’s just say I knew the Home Depot in Ithaca, NY well. From an engineering perspective, I enjoy getting away from my computer and being on the shop floor. I have a lot of experience 3D printing. Arevo, where I interned in college, was a 3D printing start up, and in addition to having printed on the company machines from chopped carbon fiber, I basically had a personal Ultimaker for the first summer. I did some 3D printing in college as well at the Rapid Prototyping lab. I did some printing here and there at Arris, and I was regularly using the Ultimaker at Mainspring to print different ring installation tools. I purchased a Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro in 2024 to pursue some personal projects. From a machining perspective, I learned to use the mill and lathe in college, but it’s been a while. I am confident using any other shop tool otherwise.
Programming: Matlab, some other experience
- I took AP Computer Science sophomore year of high school and learned some Java and object-oriented programming. At Cornell, I took Intro to Programming using Matlab as a freshman and used Matlab throughout my time as an undergrad in coursework. I programmed an Arduino for an internship project, and I programmed another Arduino, this time in C, for the robot competition for a mechatronics class.
Bike Repair
- I love working on bikes, and I’d say I’ve done most jobs at this point. As touched earlier, I built my Specialized Tarmac and Specialized Crux from the frame up. My most advanced skill at this point has been setting up and bleeding hydraulic disc brakes. I took a Park Tool School clinic at a local bike shop in 2023, but it was very basic for the most part.