George Baier

Email: 
gbaier@umail.ucsb.edu
Year: 
2017
Department / Program: 
Mechanical Engineering

Bio

George Baier is a UCSB student studying to receive a BS in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Art and Technology. George’s passion for design stemmed from an early obsession with Lego and woodworking. After enjoying high school physics classes, mechanical engineering seemed a natural fit, allowing him to practically apply theory to real problems. Earning a partial scholarship to compete in two NCAA Division I sports (cross country and track and field), George chose UCSB to further his education in a strong Mechanical Engineering program and to hone his athletic prowess.

Over the summer of 2015, George interned at Studio RED, a product design company in Menlo Park, California. There, George coordinated design requirements imposed by a client, a designer, and a senior engineer into a product model. Using a senior engineer’s CAD models and boxes of components, he also assembled multiple prototypes noting possible alterations and improvements for the final designs.

In the summer of 2016, George interned at Nova Torque, a high efficiency permanent magnet motor startup based in Fremont, California. He spent a good deal of time doing experiments, both of his own design and following assigned procedures, gaining valuable knowledge of laboratory instruments and techniques. George also used SolidWorks to design a jig for drilling location holes on motor hubs, and to modify an existing endplate to accommodate an extra o-ring in a bearing mount.

He is well-versed in MATLAB  having used it since his first year of college to learn the basics of programming. He has since used it to implement numerical integration methods, model the advection and diffusion of an oil spill, solve vibration problems with multiple degrees of freedom, and to analyze thermodynamics problems. George can also comfortably write code in Python, Arduino, and JavaScript.

George adopted 3D printing as a hobby over the summer of 2016, putting together his own printer from a kit. He learned much while troubleshooting, and enjoyed tweaking the settings to adjust print quality and speed.  This hobby provided the foundation for his interest in working with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for his Capstone Project, which aims to improve the powder bed fusion printing process.

George knows how to lead by example, drawing on his experience as an Eagle Scout and as a team captain.  His ability to balance an engineering major with training and competing in two sports (essentially year round) demonstrates his discipline, motivation and efficient time-management. George communicates clearly and sees every task through to its completion.