Eric Jiang

Mechanical/Structures Engineer

Rocket Propulsion Laboratory • San Diego, CA

• •Performed first-principles analysis of a test-stand assembly under a 2 kN design load, evaluating bolt shear and bracket bearing failure and identifying bracket bearing as the governing failure mode with a -0.36 MoS.
• •Built a parameterized Google Sheets model to evaluate load, geometry, and material changes; redesigned the strut in SolidWorks to improve the load transfer into the bulkhead and presented findings to the Hermes team.

• •Owned fin can and nose cone design for a 4-person G-class solid-motor rocket, using OpenRocket mass-property modeling to achieve a 1.38-caliber stability margin, 27.5 oz launch mass, and 2,846 ft simulated apogee.
• •Designed NACA 0012 airfoil fins and parabolic nose cone in SolidWorks; used Flow Simulation and FEA to identify high-drag and high-stress regions and iterate geometry, infill, friction-fit tolerances, and structural fillets.
• •Led FDM manufacturing and assembly with Bambu P1S, PLA, calipers, drill press, band saw, heat-set inserts, and epoxy bonding; completed 4 print iterations to validate fit, mass, and launch-ready tolerances.
• •Validated launch-day CG within 0.5 cm of OpenRocket prediction, enabling stable vertical flight from ignition and successful parachute deployment near projected apogee.

Handshake AI • Remote

• •Annotate and review multimodal training data for LLMs; promoted to reviewer within one week and maintain a 95% quality rating, ranking 22nd of 593 reviewers (top 4%).

Trebuchet

Routing Machine, Fusion 360, Table Saw, Miter Saw

• •Designed, modeled, and built a 7-ft trebuchet in Fusion 360, machining swing-arm and structural components to maximize torque, durability, and launch distance.
• •Executed 50+ launch tests, tuning arm angle and counterweight based on performance data to achieve a 224-ft launch, rank 1st out of 15 teams, and beat the previous record by 30+ ft.