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Resume

Professional skillset

Mechanical: structural mechanics principles, static and dynamic FEA, CAE (Solidworks), PLM/PDM (Teamcenter)

Electrical: PCB design and build, power distribution

Hands-on: aluminum machining, soldering, cable making, hardware integration

Programming: Matlab, C, C++, Python

Management: Jira, Agile and Waterfall planning, Design Reviews (SRR to ORR), Program Budget, Schedule and Resource tracking

System Engineering: Requirements, Risk, Engineering budgets, System diagrams, ConOps, BOM, etc.

Innovator:

  • Robotic platform with dual track (US20230321813A1), US Patent, 2023

  • Systems and methods for performing shape estimation using sun sensors in large-scale space-based solar power stations (US10454565B2), US Patent, 2019

Key Knowledge

Battery-powered systems

Electric Mobility

Vision-based hardware

Industrial robotics hardware selection

Ingress protected enclosure

Engineering quality processes and documentation (ISO 9001)

System safety (ISO 13849)

Extreme environmental specifications
(MIL-STD-810)

Experience

2021 - Present

Head of Mechatronics

OffWorld, Inc

Pasadena, CA

  • Managed a multi-disciplinary team of 10+ mechanical, electrical, electronics, thermal, and firmware engineers across multiple projects in mobile terrestrial robotics, high energy mining systems, novel concepts for space applications.

  • Lead designer and Program Manager of Surveyor, a rugged mobile robot with a universal instrument payload bay capable of traversing extreme terrain and flip over thanks to a patented dual tension suspension mobility design.

  • Responsible for prototyping, customer field demonstration and productization of Surveyor, leading over 20+ engineers in a multidisciplinary effort including mechatronics (mechanical, thermal, electrical, simulation), software (controls, AI, middleware, API), UX/UI, and testing (breadboard, bench, lab, rock yard and customer field site).

  • Led the Computer Vision component selection and integration within the robot assembly for optimized performance, field of view and flip-over iso-metric performance.

  • Led months-long testing campaign in a customer open-pit production mine meeting all Customer defined KPIs.

  • Implemented multiple quality control systems and processes to streamline engineering for my organization and OffWorld in general, including those necessary to successfully obtain ISO 9001 certification.

  • Instrumental in securing multi-million customer development contracts for various projects at OffWorld, including Surveyor.

2020 - 2021

Mechatronics Lead Engineer

OffWorld, Inc

Pasadena, CA

  • Led the mechanical integration of Excavator a prototype mobile mining robot with two mining robotic tools fitted in robotic arms.

  • Assisted in deploying Excavator at a customer mine site overseas, overseeing post-shipment integration and field deployment, and assisting field site engineering training.

  • Initiated the concept of a modular robotic architecture aimed for rapidly designing and building different robot species within the OffWorld ecosystem.

2015 - 2020

Researcher

Space Structure Lab, Caltech

Designed and built a network of distributed sun sensors to reconstruct the shape of a large satellite (> 10 m) with millimeter accuracy. Part of the Space Solar Power Project.

Pasadena, CA

2014 - 2019

Avionics Lead Engineer

Space Structure Lab, Caltech

Pasadena, CA

Led electronics and software teams for the Autonomous Assembly of a Reconfigurable Space Telescope mission (AAReST), including electronic boards (HV circuits, CPU motherboard, etc.), tested and validated for space (TVAC testing).

Education

2015 - 2019

California Institute of Technology

PhD in Aerosapce Engineering

Pasadena, CA

I received my PhD in Aerospace from the California Institute of Technology in 2019. My thesis was titled Surface Reconstruction from Distributed Angle Measurements and I was advised my Prof. Sergio Pellegrino. During my tenure, I was teaching assistant for the Structural Mechanics and Space Engineering classes.

I received the Donald Coles Prize for the best design of an experiment, the Hans G. Hornung Prize for for the best oral PhD defense presentation, and the Ernest E. Sechler Memorial Award in Aeronautics for my contributions to the Aerospace Departement teaching and research effort.

2013 - 2014

California Institute of Technology

Master of Science in Space Engineering

Pasadena, CA

I graduated with a dual Master's from Caltech in Space Engineering and from Ecole Polytechnique in France in Solid Mechanics. I received classes in Mechanical/Structural Engineering, Fluid Mechanics, Space Engineering, Composite Structures, and Applied Mathematics

2010 - 2014

Ecole Polytechninque

Diplôme d'Ingénieur (Master's Degree Equivalent), Mechanical Eng.

Palaiseau, France

I was admitted to Ecole Polytechnique, a top engineering school in France, where I received by Diplôme d'Ingénieur (combination of Bachelor and Master's) after completing the 4 years of engineering education which included my Master's at Caltech. 

© 2024 by Thibaud Talon.
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