About Me

My name is Patrick Wilson, and I am a master of engineering student at Duke University studying mechanical engineering. I am interning this summer at NASA Langley Research Center, serving as Team Lead for the NASA Aero Academy under the Aeronautics Directorate.

But wait, there's more.

Outside of academics and work, I'm fascinated with space exploration, and love many science fiction books, movies, and TV shows. Some of my favorites include Ender's Game (and the First Formic War trilogy), most of the Star Wars movies, and Star Trek Deep Space 9. I play tenor saxophone, and used to play in the Duke University Marching Band. I also enjoy watching sports, especially college football and basketball, as well as playing video games like Rocket League.

I am seeking a full time engineering position starting January 2023, and I am excited to get to work. Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoy this look into a selection of technical projects I have completed to date.

Technical Skills

CAD Modelling	Hardware	Software
SolidWorks	3D Printing	Python
Autodesk Inventor	Tensile Testing	MATLAB
Autodesk Fusion 360	Carbon Fiber Layup	Maple
Onshape	Fiberglass Layup	OpenRocket
Sketchup	Machine Shop CNC Mill and Lathe	ArduPilot
FreeCAD	Laser Cutting and Engraving	Flutter

Download My Resume

Engineering Experience.

I lead a team of Academy interns addressing current wildfire needs using NASA technology, working towards reducing the over 6,000 structures destroyed in the US each year. I am Subject Matter Expert on mechanical engineering, serving as a resource for team members to consult on mechanical design. I plan agendas for daily meetings and lead the weekly presentations to our NASA advisory committee.

My team of engineering interns full stack developed a mobile app, utilizing Visual Studio Code, GitHub, Flutter, Dart, and MySQL. The app is an avenue to report fires, allowing users to submit photos and locations of active wildfires and directly adding that data to the common operating pictures used by incident command. The app is unique in harnessing many observations in near real-time to assist in monitoring what is happening and where people and infrastructure are at immediate risk. I wrote a portion of the group technical report published to the NASA Technical Reports Server detailing the app, development process, and proposed beta testing plan. I worked full-time in the summer and part-time in the fall.

We designed a low-cost locally produced silo bag to assist in the surgical treatment of babies born with Gastroschisis in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mortality from the condition often exceeds 90% in SSA while being less than 4% in high-income countries. Our bag costs less than $1 to produce compared to $240 for standard of care silos and can be sustainably manufactured in Uganda using locally available materials. We have conducted an in vivo study that found similar ease of use, absence of tissue injury, and acceptable microbiology profile similar to SOC silos. A clinical trial has IRB approval and begins in June 2022. I prototyped and designed our device in CAD, as well as kept contact with our many collaborators. I lead the durability testing, measuring ultimate tensile strength of our device using a Tinius Olsen 1000. Achievements: ▪ Published in the Journal of Surgical Research, Volume 255 ▪ Presented at American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2019 ▪ 2021 Bay Area Global Health Innovation Challenge Winners ▪ 2020 NIH DEBUT Challenge 3rd Place ▪ 2021 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Finalists ▪ Won 2020 Baquerizo Innovation Grant

I lead the design and build of the recovery system for the 30k foot rocket, and I am responsible for hosting team meetings, CAD design, and testing for safety and reliability. I spec’d parachutes, shock cord, quick links, and attachment bolts and performed descent rate and shock calculations to ensure a safe recovery. OpenRocket simulations were conducted to confirm the calculations.