Howdy, this is artur.as!
This website chronicles my engineering experiences from various jobs, university activities, and personal projects. I became an engineer to solve problems; thus far I have worked on aircraft, rockets, home furnishings, machine tools, and robots!
Amazon Robotics
Manufacturing & Test Support Engineer
February 2021 - Present
Presently working in the manufacturing facilities which build & test robots that move product in Amazon fulfillment centers.
The spice must flow!
Kitty Hawk Project Heaviside
Mechanical Engineering Intern
January 2020 - July 2020
Project Heaviside is a quiet electric VTOL aircraft which Kitty Hawk is developing in its quest to revolutionize transportation
I redesigned the propeller hub to meet higher load & reliability requirements. My design eliminated excess parts, simplified the assembly process, and refined the primary load path to minimize mass. Despite disruption by a pandemic, I was able to assemble and test a functional prototype. Seeing my work survive spinning at blistering fast speeds was INCREDIBLY gratifying!!!
Segal Prototyping And Fabrication Lab
Prototyping Specialist
September 2016 - June 2019
This lab is where Northwestern engineers turn ideas into hardware
Working there was a direct line into the many fascinating engineering projects which happened on campus. I helped others brainstorm ways to overcome their challenges and build clever mechanisms. The machine shop environment taught me a ton about managing chaos, fixing mistakes, and communicating ideas to people from different backgrounds. Plus learning to operate sophisticated machine tools has been very handy for my own engineering work.
Whirlpool Advanced Development
Structures Engineering Intern
June 2018 - August 2018
Within Advanced Development, I strategized attachment technologies for use in a new refrigerator product architecture.
This job was my first foray into the corporate world, teaching me how to get things done within larger organizations and allowed me to apply many concepts from my engineering education to real products.
The following projects involved substantial work and have left a significant impression on my engineering mindset. Click on any photo below to learn more about my technical contributions and key takeaways from a project!
January 2019 - June 2019
Leading 5 engineers in to create this 6 degree of freedom (DOF) motion platform for Northwestern's Neuroscience and Robotics (NxR) Lab
January 2019 - April 2019
Implementing autonomous quadrotor flight control for Northwestern's graduate level course "Quadrotor Design and Control."
September 2018 - April 2019
Leading the payload mechanical design team for Northwestern's rocketry club (NUSTARS) to create an orientation and deployment mechanism for a UAV. This assembly was inside the competition rocket, which flew up 3919 feet. The UAV was released when the rocket landed.
April 2018 - June 2018
June 2018
Making a robot rover for "Advanced Mechatronics" a course that integrated skills in PCB design, micro-controller programming, and rapid prototyping.
CNC machining a spinner toy in a Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) course. It was designed for efficient manufacture with available tooling.
May 2018 - June 2018
February 2017 - April 2017
Designing and analyzing stresses in a gearbox built for a 1 billion cycle lifetime in the course "Design of Machine Elements."
Improving spice organization in my small kitchen by building a rotating spice rack. A fun personal project and how I taught myself CAD design.
The following gallery shows projects which were smaller in scope, but nonetheless rewarding! Clicking on the gallery will show titles and descriptions in a full screen view.
I became an engineer to solve meaningful problems which enrich human life. I graduated with my BS in mechanical engineering from Northwestern in 2019. The classes were cool, but I definitely learned more from collaborating with wonderful people to succeed in the above projects (and fail in a few which I have omitted).
I was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. When I was a toddler, my family moved to the United States. Every year or two, we returned to Lithuania to visit family. Those journeys exposed my young mind to the wonder of flight. I was fascinated by the various airplanes that carried us. How could such massive objects fly? I would read aviation magazines in airport bookstores during layovers to learn about planes, their different varieties, and what made each special. Those magazines showed me how passenger aircraft, crop-dusters, cargo planes, and military jets were all specialized to serve specific functions. This was my first exposure to the power of effective engineering; the power to solve a variety of meaningful problems by understanding and manipulating the physical world.
There were countless other experiences that pushed me to become an engineer, but at its core is my desire to use modern tools to push technological boundaries and solve problems. All the episodes of Mythbusters and How Its Made I watched a kid also helped =)
Beyond engineering, I am also passionate about cooking, cycling, yoga, trail running, digital photography, oil painting, traveling, and helping others!
Visit my profile on
A (currently obsolete) resume can be viewed here:
If you are interested in learning more about my projects or would like to work together, I can be reached at arturasmalina@gmail.com, or through the message box below.
