David B
- Research Program Mentor

MSE candidate at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Expertise

Product Design, Robotics, CAD part and assembly design, Combining art and engineering

Bio

Hi! I'm David. I am a recent graduate from the University of Michigan with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and a minor in Art (Product Design focus). I can attribute the majority of my expertise to my experience on the Michigan Mars Rover team, one of the largest student project teams at Michigan. As both a technical lead and as the President of the team, I have spent the past few years designing, prototyping, and machining parts for our rovers, and learning about how mechanical design integrates with electrical components and software control. I have many developing passions and interests, including space exploration, robotics, rapid prototyping, and combining artistic product design with practical engineering expertise. This Fall I will begin a 1-year Masters program at Michigan in Space Engineering.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Practical Product Design:

Take a common household tool and redesign it from scratch, combining functionality with manufacturability and aesthetic appeal. You will learn the general design process, from brainstorming to prototyping to hopefully a one-of finished product. Or design a tool that doesn't already exist!

Mini RC Rover / Rock Crawler:

Design and build a mini remote-controlled vehicle that can handle different terrain. Depending on your manufacturing capabilities and basic control knowledge, we can focus on designing a mini chassis and suspensions system, or focus on integrating simple parts with the electronic components (probably Arduino). Or we can just model a more complex vehicle entirely in CAD!

Coding skills

C++, Matlab

Teaching experience

A couple of years ago, I was an SAT teacher for The Princeton Review for a little more than a summer. I taught SAT Math and English to many small and medium sized classes of high school students. As a sub team lead on the Michigan Mars Rover team, I had to teach many new underclassmen members how to CAD and machine basic parts. And since high school, I have privately tutored younger students, mainly in math.

Credentials

Work experience

BAE Systems (2020 - Current)

Mechanical Engineering Intern

WB Engineers + Consultants (2019 - 2019)

Mechanical Engineering Intern

Education

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

BSE Bachelor of Science in Engineering (2020)

Mechanical Engineering