JOHN UY

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineer

Guiding Humanity through the Stars!

About Me

Mechanical/Aerospace Engineer working in the Aerospace Industry with experience in Structures & Mechanisms, Mechanical Design, and Engineering Analyses. Looking forward to a long, successful career building spacecraft!

Professional Experience

Mechanical & Systems Engineer

Orbital Exploration Systems (ORBES) - Startup

Jun. 2025 – Aug. 2025 | Los Angeles, CA

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  • Responsible Engineer for mechanical design & primary/secondary structures of free-flying "ORB" drone product, including system architecture and materials selection across Avionics, ADCS, and Payload subsystems
  • Led all mechanical analyses (structural, thermal, vibration/modal) on drone vehicle using Simcenter 3D to ensure structural soundness under combined thermal & dynamic loading
  • Designed lightweight avionics PCB stack in Siemens NX with optimized orientation and mounting positions to simplify cable harness routing, improve accessibility for maintenance, and support user interfacing on vehicle
  • Created ABS secondary structure to reduce weight, enhance thermal circulation (maintaining vehicle temperatures below 40°C), and withstand applied loads with a 3x factor of safety

Mechanical Engineering Intern

Rocket Lab

Jan. 2025 – Mar. 2025 | Long Beach, CA

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  • Responsible Engineer for Mechanical Ground Support Equipment (MGSE) of a production level spacecraft
  • Owned end-to-end design, analysis, and procurement of entire weldment, supporting the integration of a production-level spacecraft, reducing assembly time by 15% and enabling repeatable alignment within ±0.5 mm
  • Developed tooling designs in Siemens NX CAD using DFA principles, and validated design performance through static structural analysis (Simcenter 3D Nastran), GD&T, tolerance stack-up, and bolted joint analysis
  • Wrote a 2-page qualification test plan (QTP) to proof-load MGSE structures at 3x operational loads (~1500 N), ensuring compliance with NASA-STD-5005 and enabling safe first-time use post-vendor delivery for technicians

Mechanical Engineering Intern

Collins Aerospace (RTX)

Jun. 2024 – Dec. 2024 | Anaheim, CA

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  • Worked on Pegasus Next Generation Helicopter Hoist by supporting mechanical design, applying finite element analysis on components in Ansys Mechanical, and fatigue crack growth analysis in NASGRO
  • Validated SolidWorks drawing revisions on main hoist production components using GD&T (ASME Y14.5)
  • Implemented Weight Calculator budget sheet to collect 1500 components into Excel for total mass validation
  • Worked extensively with Neoprene rubber hoist bumper to characterize mechanical properties such as spring stiffness under cyclical loading and creep stress using Larson DHT-2000 Spring Tester and Mitutoyo Height Gauge to measure dimensions after testing

Mechanical Hardware & Design Engineering Intern

Sierra Lobo, Inc. (SLI) - NASA JPL Contractor

Jun. 2023 – Aug. 2023 | Pasadena, CA

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  • Developed 25 fixture and mounting components through Solidworks to fasten optical lenses and electronic cables to run tests through ThorLabs instruments
  • Prepared Opto-Mechanical instrumentation and conducted calibration/alignment testing on optical equipment, 3D printing these components for flight instruments
  • Configured integrating spheres to evaluate different light sources, validating performance metrics and ensuring compliance with project specifications
  • Manufactured 3D printed Optical Spectrometer, utilizing a single-slit transmissive diffraction grating for spectral analysis from Visible to Near-Infrared wavelengths to test component compatibility with different light sources

Project Experience

Undergraduate Researcher

Computational Solid Mechanics Lab at UC Irvine

Sept. 2023 – Sept. 2024 | Irvine, CA

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  • Research focused on using geometric topologies to create deformable Deployable Tensegrity Structures (DTS)
  • Finding topology structures that meet performance and weight requirements, exploring usage of these structures in space environments
  • Supporting designs with Structural Analysis tools such as SolidWorks FEA and Abaqus, creating case studies for each unique topology design to evaluate response to various load paths
  • Completed design and analysis, moving structures onto manufacturing and test procedures using 3D printed components tested through a custom Experimental Testing machine developed in-house

Systems Engineer

UCI CubeSat

Sept. 2023 – Jun. 2024 | Irvine, CA

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  • UCI's nanosatellites club focused on developing a 2U CubeSat delivering a Variable Emittance Device (VED) to LEO and conducting experiments of this system in a space-vacuum environment
  • Ensured development of CubeSat subsystems through CONOPS documents, conducting Mission Reliability troubleshooting, applying Model-Based Systems Engineering, and Verification & Validation (V&V) integration
  • Supported team through use of Ansys STK and project proposal technical writing for NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative

Undergraduate Researcher

Analyzing the Performance of a 2022 Subaru CrossTrek

August 2022 - December 2022 | Walnut, CA

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  • ENGR7 project-based programming course using MATLAB to create predictive models of real-life scenarios
  • Collected data and analysis to create a predictor for vehicle performance through different phases of driving: Idling, Acceleration, Cruising, and Braking
  • Successfully modeled the performance of a 2022 Subaru CrossTrek, making predictions under different initial conditions possible
  • Used an OBD II reader to produce mathematical models of different variables including position, velocity, acceleration, RPM, and fuel consumption

Undergraduate Researcher

NASA L'SPACE Mission Concept Academy

January 2022 - April 2022

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  • 16-week virtual program providing mentees a chance to plan and develop their own Preliminary Design Report (the first step of the NASA Proposal Cycle)
  • Placed in Team 22 "Blue Rose" alongside 10 other college-level students to complete a 75-page NASA Preliminary Design Review
  • Created mission to locate presence of resources such as Hydrogen and Oxygen under Moon's Permanently Shadowed Regions while contributing to business and engineering sub-teams
  • Designed lunar rover "Moonlight" taking primary inspiration and systems analyses from the Perseverance and VIPER mission rovers

Resume

Download my resume here

Contact Information

Email

johnuy1224@gmail.com

LinkedIn

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GitHub

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