Ethan Parker Email and Phone Number

Working in the Automated Manufacturing Systems laboratory to develop automated fabrication, assembly, and quality monitoring automation cells.

-Designed, assembled and installed two new end-of-arm-tool designs for part-picking with SCARA-type robots-Optimized positioning for pick-and-place SCARA-type robot programs-Modeled and estimated material and fastening requirements for protective cell guarding-Machined and assembled extruded aluminum and poly-carbonate automation cell guarding-Modeled several designs for bag-holding/loading translating table drawers-Analyzed cell error logs and created Pareto charts to drive issue resolution-Developed process windows for five new operator machines and qualified them for production-Created preventative maintenance instructions and schedules for incoming automation equipment-Created automation cell setup sheets, which covered process verification instructions and fault recovery instructions-Created operator standard work instructions for incoming automation cells and auxiliary equipment

Research and Development competition project with an emphasis on metal additive manufacturing (AM) qualification.-Developed and trialed tests to characterize the material properties and responses of metal AM parts. Examples include 3 and 4-point bend tests, frequency analysis tests, electrical resistance tests, compression tests, X-ray and CT scans, and print resolution quality tests-Researched different metal AM processes and their effects on part performance, which drove expectations for metal AM material properties and responses-Modeled effects of porosity in parts due to the metal AM process-Utilized three topology optimizing packages and three finite element analysis packages in parallel to confidently develop a mass-reduced metal AM part. Also worked problems by hand and conducted mesh convergence studies for more confidence in FEA results.

-Maintained and managed the enterprise's high-level metrics (budgets, timelines, analyses) and presented them to stakeholders-Coordinated & communicated timelines and tasks to sub-team leaders-Managed 100+ student enterprise developing two nano-satellite contracts for AFRL and NASA-Organized and presented all-hands meetings for the whole enterprise

Scrap Reduction Projects: -Collected and analyzed four years of historical scrap data to generate long-term trend reports and drive issue resolution and highlight products that could pose issues -Analyzed and implemented multiple strategies for scrap reduction, such as shift optimization, floor space allocation for racking, Kanban analysis, and racking capabilities -Created and presented daily and weekly Injection Molding Hall scrap reports -Coded, debugged, and wrote documentation for an Excel VBA script that brought the scrap report creation time from up to one hour down to around three minutesProject Manager for Motan Reliability Project and Co-PM for Injection Molding Machine Reliability & Replacement Project: -Worked with manufacturing co-op to optimize the current and future press & automation location placements in the constrained floor space -Coordinated with contractors to source quotes, refine T&C’s, and schedule equipment delivery and run-off inspections -Managed $2.75M in capital expenditures between both projects -Assisted in providing project updates to plant leadership on status of the project at each project development gate -Created Lock-Out-Tag-Out maintenance/inspection procedures and schematics -Ordered auxiliary cell equipment (TCU’s, Regrinder, Plasma Treatment) -Created standard work instructions for the cell -Ran parts through the entire plant process to inspect finish quality -Assisted in completing significant-production-runs -Assisted in ensuring cell was up to code and was ready for safety, quality, and engineering signoff

Created & analyzed mission operations simulations (in-orbit) for the enterprise's AFRL-contracted Auris spacecraft and NASA-contracted Stratus spacecraft, using Systems Tool Kit (STK). Many orbital parameters were tested to optimize for different scenarios, such as time over ground stations and sunlight time.