# aathavan senthilkumar

> mechanical eng. m.s. @ uc berkeley | prev. @ spacex, firefly, stoke | space, robotics, & design

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/aathavan

hey! i'm a m.s. mechanical engineer at uc berkeley 🐻   

prev. manufacturing @ stoke space, build reliability @ spacex, mech design @ firefly aerospace 🚀

i’m passionate about space, robotics, nuclear energy, deep tech ventures, and more!

check out my work at aathavan.xyz👇🏾

writing about hard tech and first principles @ alchemy (adalchemy.substack.com) 🧪

also a big sci-fi reader (asimov!!) and an artist (sketching & painting!!)

want to talk about startups, space, design, art, film, or any creative venture? shoot over a message 📩aathavansk [at] berkeley [dot] edu

## Work Experience
### robotics design engineer @ Almond
Jan 2026 – Present | San Francisco, CA
touching metal

### graduate robotics researcher @ UC Berkeley College of Engineering
Jan 2025 – Present | Berkeley, California, United States
designing bio-inspired gliding robots with shape memory alloys @ morphing matter lab [pi: lining yao]

### senior advisor @ NewSpace @ Berkeley
Jan 2024 – Present | Berkeley, California, United States
bringing space a little closer to berkeley [prev. biz dev lead '24]

### manafacturing engineer @ Stoke Space
Jan 2025 – Jan 2025 | Kent, Washington, United States
making reusable rockets and contraptions

### mechanical design engineer @ UC Berkeley Solar Vehicle Team, CalSol
Jan 2023 – Jan 2024
protecting our driver and car with style

### projects & sourcing @ Berkeley Venture Capital
Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | Berkeley, California, United States
first principles of vc

### build reliability engineer @ SpaceX
Jan 2024 – Jan 2024 | Hawthorne, California, United States
building fire-breathing falcons faster, safer, and better

### newspace fellow @ VAST
Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | Long Beach, California, United States
making science experiments in space reality [biz dev w/ newspace@berkeley]

### product design & manafacturing engineer @ UC Berkeley Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | Berkeley, California, United States
cleaning water @ the pickering lab

### mechanical design engineer @ Firefly Aerospace
Jan 2023 – Jan 2023 | Cedar Park, Texas, United States
designing structures to fly into space

### propulsion engineer @ Space Technologies and Rocketry (STAR)
Jan 2022 – Jan 2023
making ethalox rocket engines go boom

### mechanical design engineer @ Space Technologies At California (STAC)
Jan 2021 – Jan 2023
flying balloons, floating dragons, its a nasa thing ;)

### co-founder & director of operations @ Students Next Door
Jan 2020 – Jan 2023 | Fremont, California, United States
mentoring and empowering communities

### vp marketing & communications @ Blackwell Hall Association Executive Committee
Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | Berkeley, California, United States
making sure everyone is having a blast

### graphic design lead @ #ICANHELP
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | Fremont, California, United States
deleting negativity one .psd at a time

### co-president @ Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program
Jan 2016 – Jan 2021
taking things from concepts to tangible hardware, all while winning awards [jfk chapter]


## Education
### Master of Science - MS in Mechanical Engineering
UC Berkeley College of Engineering

### Bachelor of Science - BS in Mechanical Engineering
University of California, Berkeley


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/aathavansk
- Website: https://aathavan.xyz

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Source: https://flows.cv/aathavan
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/aathavan/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-05