# Alexander Wood-Thomas > Robot builder Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/alexanderwoodthomas Spending more time in the mountains here in Anchorage. Not looking for full-time engineering work. ## Work Experience ### Mechanical Engineer and Robot Builder @ Neuralink Jan 2018 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Doing what I love: building robots. Working on micron precision mechanical systems, with some electronics and software along the way. ### Machinist and Supervisor @ Cornell University Jan 2014 – Jan 2018 | Ithaca, NY I was the lead student machinist for Cornell's Emerson machine shop. I trained new users and employees, programmed machines, set up production runs for classes, and assisted professors and research groups with design and manufacturing. Together with academic work and personal shop use, I clocked roughly 900 hours of programming and operating to put a variety of CNC and manual machinery to work. I gained a love for turning a block of metal into something useful. ### Team Lead @ Cornell Baja Racing Jan 2014 – Jan 2018 | Ithaca, New York Area I was a team lead for Cornell's Baja SAE project team. Each year we design, build, and race an off-road vehicle for the Baja SAE competition. In 2018, we were awarded the 2nd place Mike Schmidt Memorial Award for overall competition performance out of over 150 teams worldwide. Leading the 45-person team required organizing six subteams and driving major design decisions. With my 2 co-leads, I managed system integration for the full vehicle and reviewed designs and drawings for every subsystem. My design work focused on the drivetrain subteam. My work culminated with leading the design and analysis of our custom continuously variable transmission (CVT). My Masters of Engineering project focused on novel shift mechanisms for the CVT in addition to simulation tools for better predicting system performance. ### Mechanical Engineering Intern, Space Robotics @ U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Washington, District Of Columbia I supported the DARPA Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program. I worked primarily independently as a mechanical designer for the main robotic tool prototype. This tool will be used to grapple a variety of satellite payload rings to capture, dock with, and manipulate school bus sized satellites. As of August 2021, the tool is in flight readiness testing. It was iterated on after I left, but the design is largely the same. We’ll see once it gets to space! ### Product Design Intern @ Apple Jan 2016 – Jan 2016 | Sunnyvale, CA I worked on the concept and architectural phases of new product development, and worked closely with engineers from multiple disciplines such as electrical, thermal, and systems engineering to define the direction of the program. TL;DR: I was the integration engineer for a cool new prototype. I established a foundation for team communication through a combination of weekly updates, CAD tetris, and bill of materials tracking. I also took on independent design projects that involved some hardware design and vibration testing. ### Mechanical Engineering Intern and Software Developer @ Orbital ATK Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 | Sterling, VA I supported the structures team for Cygnus, one of the ISS Commercial Resupply Services spacecraft, in mechanical engineering and software related projects. My early work included researching and presenting ways to create standardized accommodations for secondary payloads for future versions of the spacecraft. In addition to the structures team, I worked with the Knowledge Management (KM) team to develop software both for KM and for the Cygnus engineering team. I went through full stack development to independently design and implement front and back-ends of web-based tools using JavaScript and Python. ### Robotics Counselor @ TIC Summer Camp Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 | McLean, VA At TIC I taught elementary and middle school students robotics using the Lego NXT and VEX Robotics platforms. ### Mechatronics Lab Intern and Machinist @ George Washington University Jan 2013 – Jan 2013 | Washington, DC At GW's mechatronics lab, I learned MATLAB with a focus on inverse and forward kinematics, as well as ballistics modeling with differential equations. I did some brief work supporting research for kinematics continuum robots before the managing postdoc left the lab. Most of my time was spent working in the machine shop. There I aided graduate students in the design and fabrication of parts needed for research. Build list included: brass Faraday cage, mid-pressure flow control manifold, body for a satellite plasma thruster, and other parts. ### Web Developer @ The International Council on Clean Transportation Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | Washington, DC I worked with the ICCT communications director to independently develop interactive web applications, maps, and charts using JavaScript, HTML, and Google APIs. My work investigated new technologies for visualization and demonstrated different ways to display international transportation data for use by members, the ICCT website, and blog. ## Education ### Masters of Engineering + BS in Mechanical Engineering M.Eng, CS Minor Cornell University ### High School in Automation and Robotics Research Thomas Jefferson High School For Science and Technology ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/alexander-wood-thomas-51725a80 --- Source: https://flows.cv/alexanderwoodthomas JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/alexanderwoodthomas/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13