Ernesto Suarez Email & Phone Number

Tracy, California, United States

Alhambra, California, United States

· Collaborated with an internal team to design and fabricate Heliogen’s first Autonomous Cleaning Vehicle (ACV) in-house while subject to budgetary and aggressive schedule constraints.· Responsible for the design of the cleaning end effector, actuation system, and auxiliary equipment on-board (i.e., pneumatics, water, sensor mounts, and battery cages).· Developed a cleaning model via MATLAB outlining the vehicle’s requirements and capabilities which was used cross-functionally between different teams of the company.· Led a series of testing campaigns in our Lancaster test-site for the ACV validating drive performance, thermal cooling, cleaning performance and autonomy functionality.· Created a timing plan and detailed operating instructions for a smooth handover of the ACV to our operations team in Lancaster.· Generated and analyzed data for a trade study between our in-house designed 1-axis and 2-axis solar trackers to aid in future field layout decisions.· Designed a hydraulic installation tool for our Gen 5 Heliostat significantly reducing personnel and installation time.· Assembled and validated the performance of the hydraulic installation tool in-field with a few test units in Lancaster.· Redesigned and fabricated a Circumsolar Camera Tracker responsible for recording the data needed to measure the efficiency of the solar field.

San Diego, California, United States

· Proposed our team’s project to create an affordable, passive, multi-stage, solar desalination still in front of a panel of 8.· Assessed over 20 research papers discussing current methods of water desalination and presented new findings and experiments bi-weekly to the team to accelerate the design process.· Envisioned the project through SolidWorks and then facilitated the prototyping process for the team with a 3D printer.· Optimized the location for the thermal sensors and load cells so that the data acquisition team could easily retrieve temperature readings between stages and mass estimates of water produced.

La Jolla, California

Rocket Propulsion Laboratory is an engineering student organization at UC San Diego aimed at providing a platform for students with a passion for aerospace design to gain valuable experience in design, manufacturing, and documentation at an industry level.I am a part of the Parallel Development Program which is aimed at designing, manufacturing, and assembling our first liquid bi-propellant rocket, Phoenix, to compete in the FAR MARS competition in May of 2021. I am the Sub-team Lead Systems Engineer, and I am responsible for overseeing the design process of a safe and efficient transport of cryogenic fluids to our engine.

San Diego, California