Bio

My name is Matt. I'm a creative problem solver with a master's degree in mechanical engineering. I enjoy creating new designs in SolidWorks, building prototypes, and iterating upon those designs. Building things has been my primary interest ever since the age of 5 when I received my first Lego set. I began to refine my goals at 14, I joined my high school's FRC robotics team. After 4 years of design and fabrication, I knew exactly how I wanted to spend my career.

Education

I received my BSME and MSME from Northeastern with their PlusOne program. As part of the program, I began taking graudate courses in 2021, which double-counted towards my undergraduate degree.Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering — Mechatronics Concentration — June 2023 — 3.83 GPA
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering — December 2022 — 3.54 GPARelevant courses: Mechatronic systems, where I designed and modeled a closed-loop PID controller for a DC motor using Simscape and Simulink's Arduino support module; Robot mechanics and control, where I learned about manipulator kinematics, Jacobians, and how to design closed-loop controllers for manipulators; Robot sensing and navigation, where I wrote and implemented GPU and IMU drivers with Python and ros; and Finite element method, where I learned the fundamentals behind FEA and how to perform analysis using APDL and handmade MATLAB scripts.

My Hobbies

I love to try new recipes in the kitchen. Cooking is dependant on scientific phenomena, like the Maillard reaction that causes browned meat to taste good, or the chemical compounds that give fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices their distinctive tastes. I like cooking because even newer cooks, like myself, can experiment with flavors and iterate on their favorite recipes.My favorite thing to collect is music. Cassette tapes are my favorite music format, because of the click-clack and overall feel of loading a tape into a deck. I like vinyl records as well, especially because of the art.For a tired engineer like myself, cats are the best kind of pet. Bean (not pictured) has been with my girlfriend's family for around 10 years, and has lived with us since we moved to Jamaica Plain in 2022. Slug and Steve (pictured below) are new additions to the family, and were adopted in October 2023 after we moved to Natick.I am also an avid video gamer. I don't always have time to play nowadays, but I enjoy single-player games and rogue-likes/-lites when I have time.

Gallery

Design

Between my work experience and co-ops, I have design experience in the following areas:

I have used CAD programs since high school when I started out with Inventor, so I feel confident attacking different kinds of problems in SolidWorks. The drawing review process at Desktop Metal was very personal, so I learned about drawing standards and review methods from the most experienced engineers.When making a design, I am constantly thinking about how the machinist will fabricate the part, what processes and tools they will use, and how it will be assembled after being finished. I designed a couple sheet metal parts and a weldment at Desktop Metal, and know the basics of implementing a cutlist on a drawing.For GD&T: I learned about using true-position on drawings and virtual condition to see if tolerances are large enough. I also have familiarity with concentricity, parallelism, and surface envelope tolerances. I have a little exposure with tolerance loops and stackups (not strictly GD&T) but I need a little experience implementing them before I am confident.

Fabrication

I have used the following manufacturing methods at my co-ops or on my FRC team in high school

Software

I have school experience in all of the following software:

I feel very confident attacking problems in MATLAB and Simulink. As part of my curriculum, I have solved problems in topics ranging from finite element method to control theory using these programs.My exposure to Python, ROS, Linux, bash shell, and git CLI come from my robot sensing & navigation course. In this course, I learned how to implement sensor drivers using Python and ROS. I collected datasets in rosbags and performed analysis using Python and MATLAB.

Analysis

PLM

Other Skills

I consider myself a fast learner, and I enjoy adding new skills to my repertoir. I can manage my time well across multiple projects at once. The most satisfying reward for me is a job well done. I mesh well with my coworkers. While I always try to advance a project as far as I can by myself, I am comfortable asking for guidance when needed.

Topics I am Interested In/Want to Learn More About

Capstone

My capstone team designed an attachment for a 3D printer that enabled targeted, in-situ annealing on semi-crystalline polymer parts. While annealing of 3D prints can be done in an oven, our solution was intended to minimally increase production time while maximizing the properties of parts in specific, failure-prone areas.

The motivations behind annealing plastics differ from metals. Annealing a material like steel tends to relieve internal stresses and make the material more flexible. Annealing semi-crystalline polymer parts causes crystallization (e.g., extension of polymer chains), which results in a stiffer and stronger material.Our heating attachment consists of the heater assembly, an Arduino-based control circut, and DC power source. We fitted it onto a Prusa i3 MK3S+. The brass block is heated with the cartridge heater, and is held very close to the part. Heat is transmitted via conduction through the small air gap, free convection, and radiation.I designed a bracket that is mounted on the Prusa's hotened. I also wrote the Arduino code for the control circuit. The script acts like an open-loop controller. It opens a relay if the heater temperature is lower than a target, and closes the relay if the temperature is too high. The control circuit is connected to the hotend fan header on the printer's control board. We modified the gcode files to pulse the fan at the beginning and end of heating phases, and the Arduino waits for these pulses before starting to control the temperature.We added heating passes to the gcode after every couple layers. The 'pass' involves the heater moving to a fixed location to anneal a weak point on a part. We designed dogbone tensile bars with an intended failure point at the middle. The intent was to compare performance of test articles with targeted annealing at the failure point against untreated articles.

In order to determine the annealing temperature, we used DSC to find the glass transition and melting temperatures of PLA. We settled on an intended surface temperature of 100°C. We determined how long to hold the part at temperature by modeling the part as a semi-infinite surface (e.g. temperature is a function of Z only) and calculating the temperature as a function of time in MATLAB. We used a hold time of about 5 minutes and annealed 2 layers at a time.We spent a lot of time brainstorming, and some of our other concepts can be seen in the report linked below. In the end, we saw a 12% increase in ultimate tensile strength for the annealed parts. I also delivered an exceptional speech during our pitch on capstone day. A significant downside of our product is that it adds a significant amount of time to printing.

If I could redo this project, I would start by changing the heating element. A brass block heats well through conduction, but we had to transmit energy through an air gap into the part. I think a convection-based concept (e.g., hot air) or something like a burning laser would be a far more effective energy delivery method. I would also try to implement a closed-loop controller with an IR thermometer that could directly measure the surface temperature of the part. Since we relied on an open-loop controller with a thermocouple embedded in the heating block, we were working blind for pretty much the whole project. Overall, I still consider this capstone project a relative success in achieving our goal of making a targeted, in-situ annealing attachment for a 3D printer.

• Read the Report
• Our Poster

Please feel free to contact any of my co-workers at Desktop Metal to learn more about how I work. The co-workers with whom I interacted with the most are listed here (with permission).