David Sharp

Resume

About Me

I am an engineer with a passion for aerospace. I have experience working on spaceflight hardware, and working in flexible and demanding environments. I have strong foundations in systems engineering, operations engineering, robotics, material mechanics, computer aided design, and programming.


Work Experience

SpaceX

Launch Engineer - Dragon Ground Ops

May 2023 - Present
  • Hands-on experience with Dragon systems
  • Urgently resolved issues to unblock work and meet schedule to launch
  • Owned GSE and support tooling, improving health of the tooling fleet
  • Characterized transport loading to redefine design loads for road transport

Associate Launch Engineer

September 2022 - December 2022
  • Hands-on experience with Falcon systems
  • Implemented off-nominal planning for issues encountered during flight and recovery of fairing system
  • Streamlined standard rework operations to greatly reduce engineering and technician hours
  • Designed impact test stand to characterize composite impacts
  • Worked extensively with Siemens NX CAD and Teamcenter

Tendeg, LLC

Aerospace Engineering Intern

June 2020 - September 2020, June 2021 - August 2021, May 2022 - August 2022
  • Hands on experience with spaceflight hardware
  • Contributed to assembly and manufacturing of deployable satellite antenna currently on orbit
  • Assited with design and development of JPL starshade prototype
  • Conducted product quality inspections, defined procedures, and wrote reports according to AS9100 standards
  • Performed work for federal and private contracts including work with sensitive information

Neubo Inc

Mechanical Engineer

December 2021 - Present
  • Co-founding member of robotics startup Neubo Inc.
  • Designing compact pneumatic robotics systems to be implemented in educational toys
  • Completed NSF I-Corps
  • Helped secure $50,000+ in funding

University of Michigan

Graduate Student Instructor

January 2022 - April 2022
  • GSI for SPACE 584: Space Mission Design class
  • Assisted student teams in launching high altitude balloons
  • Taught students technical skills such as communication protocols, PCB design and assembly, and general fabrication
  • Implemented backup APRS tracking to recover 4/4 lanuches

Education

University of Michigan: Ann Arbor

  • M.S.E. in Aerospace: Space Systems Engineering 2023
  • GPA: 3.725

University of California: San Diego

  • B.S. in Aerospace Engineering 2021
  • GPA: 3.702

Research

Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab

October 2017 - June 2021
  • Designed and fabricated electronics free robots using pneumatic logic circuits
  • Prototyped a shape-changing soft robot to better navigate complex environments
  • Considered the unique properties of methods of fabrication to push the limits of a design
  • Implemented experimental techniques to assess materials and designs against various metrics

Shocks and Impacts Laboratory

February 2019 - September 2020
  • Performed experiments designed to analyze fracture mechanics in acrylic and composites
  • Converted ultra-high-speed imaging data into numerical stress/strain data
  • Designed and improved equipment for experimental analysis

Publications

Electronics-Free Pneumatic Circuits for Controlling Soft Legged Robots, Science Robotics February 2021 (Cover Feature)

Dylan Drotman, Saurabh Jadhav, David Sharp, Christian Chan, Michael T. Tolley

Mode-II Fracture Response of PMMA Under Dynamics Loading Conditions, Journal of Dynamic Behavior of Materials October 2021

R. Chaves Morales, J. Baek, D. Sharp, A. Aderounmu, C. An, J.S. Chen, V. Eliasson

Rapid Fabrication of Soft, Pneumatically Actuated Limbs and Joints for a Quadruped Robot, S. California Robotics Symposium 2019

Dylan Drotman, David Sharp, Michael Ishida, Saurabh Jadhav, Philip deZonia, Mahmood Karimi, Michael T. Tolley

Digital Image Correlation Analysis of Mode-II Dynamic Fracture Mechanics in Poly(methyl methacrylate), Society for Experimental Mechanics 2020

David Sharp, Azeez Aderounmu, Rodrigo Chavez, Veronica Eliasson

Technical Projects

Electronics Free Soft Robot

February 2021
  • Designed and fabricated electronics-free soft robot with obstacle sensor and adaptable gait
  • Implemented pneumatic physical logic circuits to run the soft robot entirely with pressurized air
  • Applied skills in CAD, additive manufacturing, and designing custom fabrication methods
  • Provisional patent for electronics free circuits

Shape Changing Robot

April 2019
  • Developed a set of soft rotary joints to provide a quadruped robot an additional point of articulation and an increase in range of motion of up to 30 degrees for each appendage

Zephyr Emergency Ventilator

July 2020
  • Prototyped system for low-cost emergency ventilation unit intended for rapid pandemic response
  • Finalist in international Give a Breath Challenge

Horizon Atmospheric Balloon Launch

June 2020
  • Payload successfully carried out data collection and imaging beyond 25 km and -50°C temperatures
  • Applied skills in project management, programming, and strict adherence to critical requirements

Proteus Flood Monitoring Network

June 2020
  • Worked with CCCIA and City of Imperial Beach to design prototype unit for flood monitoring network
  • Prototype unit used LiDAR sensors and LoRa enabled microcontrollers to create a wide area network

Space Implementation of Graphene Hyperspectral Technology (SIGHT) CubeSat Desgin

April 2022
  • Student team project sponsored by Blue Halo to design technology demonstration mission
  • Designed a technology demonstration mission for graphene camera currently in development

Awards and Certifications

SOLIDWORKS CSWA Certification

  • Basic SOLIDWORKS proficiency

NSF I-Corps Certification

  • Completed 2021 NSF I-Corps NYCRIN program

Give a Breath Challenge Finalist

  • Design among top three teams in international emergency ventilator competition

Jacobs Scholar

  • One of eight recipients of the Jacobs School Scholarship among the UCSD Class of 2021 which consists of a full ride scholarship to study engineering, networking opportunities and scholarship benefits

Regents Scholar

  • Honor student for UCSD Class of 2021 with research opportunities

Skills

Hardware and Mechanical Design

  • Computer Aided Design (SOLIDWORKS/AutoCAD/NX)
  • Additive Manufacturing
  • Manual Machining

Programming

  • Matlab, Java, Python, Javascript
  • Arduino, Raspberry Pi and other Microcontrollers
  • Website Development and Hosting

Photography and Image Processing

  • Portraits, Landscapes, Action Photography
  • Ultra High Speed Photography
  • Digital Image Correlation

Software Proficiency

  • Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Microsoft Office
  • Google Suite

General Skills

  • Communication and Interpersonal Skills
  • Supporting and Leading Teams
  • Technical Writing and Presentations
  • Time, Constraint and Resource Management
  • Self Directed Learning and Working

Languages

  • English: Native Speaker
  • Spanish: Proficient

Contact

David Sharp