Rodrigo García Abal

🚀 Aerospace & Mechanical Engineer

Awards & Recognitions

1st Place Design Competition

Georgia Institute of Technology

At a Mechanical Engineering design competition, we designed and built a device that can harness waste heat to generate pumping action in a non-polluting, clean and renewable way; earning us the 1st prize ($1000) and the pride of "building a better world".


ASME & SEDS ITBA Founder

Buenos Aires Institute of Technology

Throughout my mechanical engineering degree at my alma matter, I founded and led 2 student branches (ASME & ITBA), with more than 100+ enrollments, 10+ events and workshops and a 1st place in a US nano-sat competition.

MS Aerospace in < 1 year

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign I completed my Master's in Aerospace Engineering in less than 1 year, with courses in orbital mechanics, rocket propulsion and hypersonics.. and having worked on a project to build structures for the International Space Station (ISS).

Projects

Stirling-Flexible PDMS Engine

Georgia Institute of Technology

I solved manufacturing challenges for the design of a water-air thermal engine that operates on waste heat from the environment. My main contribution was to find a way to make the walls of the engine (made with the mold seen in the picture) thin enough to allow flexibility but thick enough to prevent leaks.

Composite Carbon Fibre I-Beam

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

In a team of 4, we designed and manufactured a 3 meter long bridge using principles of Composite Laminate Theory (CLT). For the manufacturing we used carbon fiber pre-pregs (as seen in the picture) and standard composite manufacturing methods such as hot press curing and vacuum assisted resin infusion.

Thermal Runaway Test

AMPD Energy (Hong Kong)

To validate an energy storage system (ESS 2.0), I had to design and fabricate components for the prototype that had to be tested under certain conditions, including mechanical (drop, impact) and environmental (water-ingress, fire). For the fire test, I had to recreate a thermal runaway of batteries, creating a 10 meter radius explosion.

Contact

Let's Talk

Feel free to schedule a 30-60 minute call with me to talk about the chance of us working together or anything related to rocket propulsion.