I have focused my education and work towards understanding the fundamentals of how excellent products are conceived, designed, and implemented on mass scale. I am fascinated by the paradigm-shifting potential of goods that seamlessly integrate a broad understanding of mechanical engineering principles, aesthetic appeal, sustainability, and human compatibility.
I have spent the past 4+ years working as a mechanical engineer for Beyond Meat in El Segundo, CA. I began my journey as the only mechanical engineer in R&D, designing, commissioning, and making modular die assemblies for extrusion development, while also spending time in development and scale up for downstream processes. As we grew, I procured and was responsible for a prototype manufacturing lab within the company, programming and operating a 5 axis CNC machine, manual lathe, welder, and other metalworking equipment, and eventually managing a machinist. I have since shifted my focus exclusively on extrusion scale up for new products, but can still be found running the machine when the prototyping timeline is shorter than most job shops can manage. I am proud to say that every product that Beyond Meat has introduced since the Burger 2.0 starts with textured protein that has passed through extrusion dies I designed (and, mostly) actually programmed and cut from stainless steel.
Beyond Meat's plant-based vision of the future of protein is one that I feel closely matches my product design philosophy, as its wide reaching sustainability implications (environmental, social / health, and economic) are exactly the type of pragmatic futurism the modern world direly lacks.
In 2016-17, I studied product design in the Master of Engineering (M.Eng) program at U.C. Berkeley, in my hometown. I focused on learning about life cycle assessment, material selection, fracture mechanics, design for manufacturing, and organizational management, among other topics.
From 2012-2016, I studied mechanical engineering at Stanford, where I also spent two years developing and testing materials for biocompatible bone implants at a lab in the department of orthopaedic surgery. I also focused my studies on design for manufacturing, controls, and vehicle dynamics.
From 2008-2012, I attended Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco, CA, where, upon being exposed to rigorous academics and a shop program which included metal, wood, and electronics shops, I was convinced that engineering was my calling. The shops brought something to life in me, and I’ve been at it since. It's been fun :)
