# James McKellan Churchley

> Mechanical Engineering Student at UCI  |  Chief Engineer at UCI Anteater Baja Racing | Engineering Intern at Fluidic Systems | Competitive Sports Supervisor at UCI Campus Recreation

Location: Palo Alto, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/jamesmckellanchurchley

Fourth year mechanical engineering major at University of California Irvine. Chief Engineer leading the UCI Baja SAE project team. Mechanical Engineering Intern at Fluidic Systems. Deans Honor List all quarters of enrollment. Competitive sports supervisor at UCI Recreation. Exchange student at Korea University fall 2024.

## Work Experience
### Chief Engineer @ UCI Anteater Baja Racing
Jan 2025 – Present | Irvine, California, United States
- Solely responsible for the 2026 race car overall system design and 2025 race car redesign, leading a cross functional team of 40 engineers and 5 sub-teams.
- Managed KENESTO cloud software library of 2000+ CAD parts and assemblies, newly implemented Microsoft teams project management system and newly implemented a team contract to ensure team productivity.
- Revolutionized the UCI Baja project to emphasize iterative test driven system design, vehicle tuning, and competition performance, founding a dedicated testing sub-team and more than quadrupling monthly testing hours with two cars and new data collecting circuits to validate design and redesign.

### Suspension and Steering Engineer @ UCI Anteater Baja Racing
Jan 2023 – Jan 2025 | Irvine, California, United States
- Used Solidworks to design, package, and verify a 60% Ackerman steering system reducing bump steer by 50%, turning radius by 21%, improving maneuverability performance from a DNF in the previous year to 17th out of 61 teams and overall performance from 56th out of 86 to 36th out of 61.
- Profiling, angle grinding, tapping, plasma cutting, manual milling and lathing and sheet bending to fabricate 24 control arms, 6 tie rods and toe links, 4 custom designed clevis joints, 32 custom delrin bushings, and steering mounting parts. Used a jig to prepare manufacturing. 
- Designed front upright machined with 5 axis CNC. Utilized CAD, FEA, DFM, and engineering drawings and worked with machining professionals. Weight reduction of 66% and packaged for 2” smaller diameter rim, eliminate welding point of failure from previous design: survived competition and further testing.

### Mechanical Engineering Intern @ Fluidic Systems
Jan 2025 – Present | Santa Ana, California, United States
- Tram, modify, operate, and design parts with Gcode to be manufactured on a 3 axis CNC milling machine, and PLA and SLA 3D printers for rapid prototyping, cutting costs by 75%+ and shortening lead times by 2-3 weeks.
- Conducted comprehensive failure analysis incorporating destructive testing, strain gauging, and static/fatigue FEA to verify a major component redesign, achieving a 20% increase in pressure capacity and 40% longer fatigue life.
- Product development of new multimaterial mix, metering, and microdispense system, launching Fluidic into new markets. Capable of ±0.005mL shot and 2000 psi pumping with a full CAD design and physical prototype. 
- Identified operational deficiencies and overhauled technical manuals for operation to improve ease of use and eliminate fastener maintenance. Utilized torque specification testing and pressure testing, via customer feedback.

### Competitive Sports Supervisor @ UCI Campus Recreation
Jan 2023 – Present | Irvine, California, United States


## Education
### Mechanical Engineering
UCI Samueli School of Engineering

### Exchange Program in Mechanical Engineering
Korea University

### Palo Alto Senior High School


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jamesmchurchley

---
Source: https://flows.cv/jamesmckellanchurchley
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/jamesmckellanchurchley/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-10