If you give an engineer a broken robot

Antonio Montanez, a fourth-year aerospace engineering major, walked into Ohio State’s Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME) with limited practical engineering experience. After graduation, he’ll walk out with enhanced problem-solving skills, 3D printing expertise, a portfolio of completed projects, and a collection of engineers available for continued mentorship.  

“A lot of companies want to see your skillset,” Montanez said. “They want to see the practical experience you have. But it’s hard to gain practical experience in school, especially with aerospace engineering, which is very theoretical.

“That’s why working in a place like CDME is fantastic. You get so many more opportunities to work with different people and projects that may not directly impact your future career but are good things to have under your belt.”

On his first day at CDME, Montanez was handed a broken robot and tasked with fixing it. Rather than letting a lack of experience drag him down, his team went straight to the drawing board. The group was given the freedom by his mentor Dr. Edward D. Herderick, a principal engineer at CDME, to problem solve on their own. 

After several days of dissecting diagrams, translating schematics of the wiring, and researching robotics, the team accomplished their goal. The robot was fixed — without the additional cost of ordering new parts. 

“We had to go and research everything, so it was a lot of work at first,” Montanez said. “But in the end, we decided, let’s take this thing apart and see if we can fix it. And we ended up doing it, actually.”

Once the robot was up and running, the challenge became learning how to use it. However, after collaborating with CDME engineers, Montanez found that operating robots is more straightforward than it may appear. 

“Now, when I see all these different industries using different robots for moving pieces or doing different tasks, I understand the context,” Montanez shared. “Once you learn the process, it’s usually pretty simple.”

Montanez decided to apply for a position at CDME to expand his knowledge and open his eyes to what’s possible in aerospace engineering. 

“Aerospace has so many different parts,” Montanez said. “Today, people are trying to create additively manufactured parts for rockets. If you look at the space station, there are robots there that they’re trying to use instead of having people do spacewalks. It’s fun to gain this experience right now and leverage that to my benefit to get a job.”

Montanez points out the cross between aerospace and additive manufacturing, in particular, is becoming more frequent. In working on Dr. Herderick’s team at CDME, he has access to not only the center’s extensive knowledge base but also the equipment housed in the Additive Manufacturing Lab.

“I’ve been doing student projects for the past four years of college, so I know what it’s like to work with other students,” Montanez said. “But at CDME, I work with other engineers and technicians working in the shop. It’s great because I’ve gotten to know many of them really well.

“It’s one thing to go and design things, which a lot of engineers do. Here they design stuff, but they can actually make it, too.”

His passion for aerospace engineering began after a weekend of binging astronomy shows. It captivated him, so much so that he established the Astronomy Club at Cardinal Mooney High School and then secured funding from the school district to purchase a telescope. 

In some cases, a Netflix binge can be productive. 

Working at CDME has offered Montanez a more hands-on learning experience than a traditional classroom. He can now operate machinery, such as a CNC mill and an Omax Global Max 1530 Water Jet. Having the skills to design a project and then use a machine to complete it fills any disconnect that may emerge between engineers and shop technicians. 

Currently, Montanez is working on his Capstone Project. When brainstorming his project, he knew he wanted to build something tangible. This led him to design and produce new rocket engine nozzles, improving upon past versions introduced by discontinued NASA programs. 

With the project, Montanez combines academics with practical applications. He’s creating nozzles using additive manufacturing techniques and prototyping them at CDME. 

“A good nozzle, metal printed, would cost thousands of dollars,” Montanez shared. “CDME has partnerships with innovative companies, like Proto Precision Additive, that may be interested in advancing the capabilities of that.”

Moving forward, Montanez hopes to land a job in an industry where he can be part of a team that advances space travel. 

“I want to do something on the cutting edge of space, where we are making new innovations in the space industry. Specifically, taking people back to the moon or reaching Mars for the first time.”

by Jess Badinghaus, CDME student marketing content writer