Matthew Swift Email & Phone Number

Long Beach, California, United States

3D printing rockets!

Hawthorne, California And Brownsville, Texas

• Engineer-in-charge of steady-state production at 4 Starship Nosecone work centers
• established internal ERP-system training program for technicians (200 people across 8 sessions and 5 departments) with long-term self sufficiency
• vetted polishing process with inspection to make entire rocket appropriately shiny by testing 4 polishing vendors, 3 internal shops, & 5 equipment vendors
• created over 50 crane critical lift plans (9k - 120k lbs, up to 200ft); generated generic lift template
• pushed-to-creation 2 widely-used features in internal ERP system (simplified “tech view” and weld symbol inserter)
• created & qualified procedure for adhesively bonding thermal tiles to Nosecone and personally trained 40 technicians

Hawthorne, California And Brownsville, Texas

• Set up primary structure prototypes then production line for the first-ever Mk3-version Starship Nosecones (9m diameter x 25m tall)
• troubleshot the stainless steel Nosecone panel fitting & welding & inspection processes across 9 unique joint geometries
• communicated design needs for 16 pieces of tooling then procured parts for and built them
• served as one of three 24/7 build-support engineers
• set up the inventory/consumables/work-instructions/progress-tracking system in new production building
• resolved interdepartmental/organizational conflicts between groups responsible for building Nosecones

Hawthorne, CA

• Managed manufacturing process & continual improvements of Falcon 9 carbon fiber Landing Legs across 6 build specs, working closely with external vendor
• reduced refurbishment needs on layup tooling from every 5 uses to every 30 uses with new demolding process
• developed then qualified spec detailing plasma treatment process for structural bonding with surface energy measurements
• improved carbon fiber “insulation petal” cycle time (40 to 20hrs) and quality (60% to 20% scrap/rework rate) with better tooling
• cut costs by 55% on landing footpads by identifying & testing new material
• ran 4 qualification campaigns and configuration management for new hardware (footpad, kicker catch, insulation petal, A-Arm layup)

Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Under Prof. Michael Bartlett, developing tunable and reusable soft adhesives by controlling interfacial stiffness, creating test fixtures to study unusual adhesive behavior, deriving underlying principles that govern adhesive behavior and compare theories against empirical data, generating prototypes

Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Oversaw the construction of 27 molds with 37 carbon fiber parts for the solar car, troubleshot new team method of resin infusion with minimal equipment in 3 months, led off-site manufacturing teams of up to 18 people, communicating to design team all manufacturing limitations, developed 20 technical contacts.Previous Position:Research & Development.

Hampton, VA

Conducted exploratory research on reversibly assembling microparticles for a previously unexplored in-space manufacturing scheme, analyzed feasibility of systems and worthiness of future pursuit, troubleshot chemical/polymer synthesis of microparticles and coatings, characterized material properties and particle parameters, established processing-property.

Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Under Prof. Thomas McGee, organized, conducted, and troubleshot experiments relating to bioactive ceramic orthopedic implants, researched competitor products and ran 3 comparison studies, ran statistical study linking processing to fracture behavior, prepared material for live rat study and instructed surgeon on handling behavior, conducted 2 experiments.

Appleton, Wisconsin

Designed and executed experiments to develop next stage of coatings of microencapsulated phase change materials, led project group to drive product improvements, independently pursued 15 open-ended projects, established 8 standards and procedures for quantitative data collection, generated 120+ prototypes and 3 concise presentations to illustrate issues.

Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Developed and executed 16-week lesson plan for a 10-student freshmen introductory class about personal growth and developing college skills, discovered importance of personally relating to people in addition to providing classroom content and knowledge

Cortlandt Manor, New York

Taught five different students in the subjects of integrated algebra, geometry, algebra II, trigonometry, chemistry, and SAT skills

Yorktown Heights, New York

Materials Engineering And Mathematics, Materials Science And Engineering; Mathematics, 3.98

Activities and Societies: Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honor Society) PrISUm Solar Car Team (Composites Manager, R&D Manager) Engineering.

High School Diploma, Honors/Regents High School/Secondary Diploma Program, 4.0

Activities and Societies: Varsity Cross Country (Team Captain) Varsity Track (Team Captain) Destination Imagination National Honor Society.