Kelson M. Sutherland

 

Employment

 

Redbud Labs advanced microfluidics technology.                 July 2021 – Present

Senior Design Engineer

·         New product development of a microfluidics based, benchtop, nucleic acid extraction platform named NAxtract. This included research and development of the machine as well as the microfluidic consumable.

·         Led the mechanical design for the NAxtract system and manufacturing equipment used in the production of the microfluidic consumables.

·         Introduced and implemented standards for engineering practices such as drawing requirements, revision management, assembly practices, and product lifecycle management.

·         Secured relationships with contract manufacturers to scale up the production of NAxtract machines. Transferred the design and assembly information to manufacturing.

·         Hired and led a team of interns to support the engineering department.

Schmalz USA Inc.       January 2020 – July 2021         

Mechanical Design Engineer

·         Invented a novel valve for high cycle rate package sorting which became the first pattent applied for by Schmalz USA. 

·         Designed custom vacuum gripping systems for automated material handling.

·         Tested individual components and complete systems to ensure reliability and to build up the design groups knowledge of its products.

·         Improved the design, manufacturing, and assembly processes to advance the quality and pace of our projects.

Electroimpact Inc.      June of 2014 – September 2019

Mechanical Design Engineering

·         Lead a team of 6 engineers to design, test, and deliver a new generation of fiber placement end effector with a smaller form factor, specialized heating equipment, and increased process reliability.

·         Designed material storage and accurate feed system for SCRAM, a novel 6-axis, continuous-fiber thermoplastic, robotic 3D printing system.

·         Analyzed existing system designs for common failure modes and made revisions to prevent failure.

·         Traveled to customer factories to install, support, and upgrade equipment.

Controls Engineering

·         I/O Setup and commissioning of Siemens CNC and PLC using SUMERIK Operate and TIA Portal.

·         Worked directly with customers to design experiments using robotic systems with integrated measurement equipment.

·         Wrote CNC macros for automatic tool calibration and operation and generated CNC programs for carbon fiber layups of aircraft parts.

·         Debugged end-effector and HMI operation.   

Los Alamos National Laboratory W-16        May of 2011 – January of 2014 

Engineering Intern

·         Created a Labview HMI to control a Mark-10 tensile tester.

·         Designed pneumatic and hydraulic assemblies using ProE (Creo 2).

·         Created ProE training tutorials for creating 3D models which incorporate drawing information.

·         Assembled and tested hardware.

·         Received “Spot Award” for working beyond expectations.

 

­­Education

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, with Honors

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT), Socorro, New Mexico.

·         Passed the Fundamentals of Engineering exam 2013 (ID: 14-667-52)

·         Capstone Project: 2012-2014 NMT SAE Baja Team, (team lead for 2013-2014)

·         Honor roll student and recipient of NMT copper scholarship for 2010-2014