An overview of my most significant projects to date.

1. Max Ferguson
Mechanical Engineering Portfolio
Seattle, WA
mtfergus@gmail.com
323-672-0046

2. ABOUT ME
I studied philosophy once upon a time, and I used to work at a nonprofit volunteer
center. Now I’m a senior in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington,
graduating June 2021.
I’m particularly passionate about space exploration and renewable energy, and my
core competencies are in high-performance structure design and analysis, additive
manufacturing and machine design. I have considerable hands-on prototyping
experience.
I interned at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for almost a year in the Advanced
Deployable Structures group, as well as for a summer at a small aerospace company
in Colorado called Tendeg, who specialize in smallsat antennas. I’m currently the
Lead Drivetrain Engineer on the UW Formula SAE team.
I like to fish and climb rocks, and I’m incredibly excited to help design the next
generation of the nearly impossible. 2

3. IN-WHEEL GEARBOX FOR ELECTRIC RACE CAR
3
Design and prototype a hub-integrated speed
reducer for a 4wd electric Formula SAE racecar.
Using 4 motors at the wheels allows:
● Greater overall torque throughput to road
● 4 wheel torque vectoring
● Perfect weight distribution and lower CG
As Drivetrain Team Lead, I:
● Manage the entire project from initial
concept through manufacturing and testing
● Wrote a vehicle simulator in MATLAB to determine target gear
ratio
● Wrote a MATLAB program to calculate bearing life based on
load spectra from actual drive/simulator data
● Modeled key components such as the upright, cooling jacket
and motor adapter plate in Solidworks, manage full assembly
● Performed FEA on the full assembly, individual components
and interfaces in ANSYS
● Will machine/fabricate parts including adapter plate, cooling
jacket, and gear blanks
● Coordinate with sponsors for heat treat, EDM, machining, and
stock parts supply
● Developed a spreadsheet-based tool for implementing AGMA
gear calculations
● Designed the gearset in KISSsoft with my team’s help
Design and validation were completed at the end
of 2020; manufacturing and testing to follow.
GOAL
ROLE
RESULTS
DESIGN
Compound Planetary
Gearset
Ratio: 13.5:1
Simulator
Outputs
UPRIGHT
COOLING
JACKET
MOTOR
CARRIER/HUB
KISSsoft
System
Design

4. IN-WHEEL GEARBOX FOR ELECTRIC RACE CAR
4
My team and I performed stress and deflection
analyses on the full assembly and components in
ANSYS Static Structural. The bulk of the design is
stiffness-driven.
FEA
CONTACT
ANALYSIS
BEARINGS
VALIDATION & TESTING
SHAFTS
We used KISSsoft to examine the effects of planet gear
deflections obtained from ANSYS on the gear meshes. As a result,
I decided to significantly redesign the gearset and surrounding
assembly to accommodate larger, stiffer planet axles.
I built a sim in KISSsoft specifically to
examine planet axle deflections, as a
check on ANSYS results.
I wrote a MATLAB program to calculate bearing life using
actual drive and simulator data as load spectra, determined
equivalent bearing stiffnesses to input into our FEA model,
and calculated the necessary preload for the wheel bearings.
NEXT
STEPS
During Winter quarter we will manufacture the
prototype. Some machining and fabrication we do in
house, and we coordinate with sponsors for the rest. We
are developing an inertial dynamometer in tandem, which
come Spring will be used to bench test the gearbox and
verify that we hit our system life target of 80 hours.
BOLTED
JOINTS
Analysed bolted connections to
determine necessary preload, fastener
size and distribution.

5. UW Formula SAE: Other Projects
5
Thin sheet and tubing
Shop Skills
Metal Fabrication & TIG Welding
Aluminum (e.g. gas tank)
Roll Hoop: start-to-finish fabrication
3-axis CNC CAM and machining
(e.g. suspension brackets)
CNC Gantry Router CAM and
machining (e.g. nose cone mold)
Composites Design,
Manufacturing and Testing
(e.g. CFRP bulkhead sample
and crash structure)

6. STARSHADE: Materials Testing Program
6
Starshade is large deployable
spacecraft that acts as a precise
shade for a space telescope, allowing direct atmospheric
spectroscopy of potentially habitable exoplanets with
existing telescope technology. I was tasked with
coordinating a materials testing program on a structural
aerospace adhesive, and with producing all necessary
samples. The data was intended for accurate system-level
FEA.
I selected appropriate ASTM
standards, coordinated with
vendors and testing labs on and off site, designed injection
molds to produce precise sample geometries, fabricated the
molds and produced the samples. Tests included DMA,
shear, tensile, peel and differential scanning calorimetry. I
also designed a peel testing apparatus driven by a stepper
and an Arduino to replicate the ASTM roller peel procedure,
made it, and produced and tested samples. I investigated the
void content of cured epoxy and developed mixing methods
for void reduction.
All samples were created and
successfully tested providing the
necessary data, using the molds I designed and the
contracts I arranged with test facilities. My molds designs
are still in use in multiple labs at JPL, including Materials
and Processes.
GOAL
ROLE
RESULTS
NASA-JPL
Peel Testing Apparatus
and Samples
In-Syringe
Epoxy
Mixer
DMA and V-
notch Shear
Sample Molds
Starshade Artist Renders [JPL]

7. STARSHADE: Scatterometer Hardware/Assembly Design
7
I was tasked with designing
mounting hardware for a
complex robotic test platform, whose purpose is
to measure scattered light from precision-
manufactured optical edge coupons.
I designed the entire
mounting system for all
instruments pictured, as well as the sample
mounting system and several components of each
assembly, based on a rough sketch I was given on
a Powerpoint slide. This required determining all
the necessary dimensions and tolerances based on
the optical requirements of the system. I also
specified optical posts, stages, and other off-the
shelf components as necessary.
The components and
mounting system I designed
functioned exactly as intended. The system was
used to meet NASA technology milestones for the
Starshade project, and was published in conference
proceedings referenced on my resume.
GOAL
ROLE
RESULTS
NASA-JPL
Indicated components in
assembly designed by author
3D Printed Prototypes

8. Environmental Test Rig Design
8
The rig is basically a 4-point
bending apparatus, but with
samples set at an angle to induce simultaneous torsion.
The samples in question are precision-bonded laminates
of CFRP and metallic glass foil. Requirements included:
● low cost
● low manufacturing lead time
● high and low temp stability corrosion
resistance
● dimensional accuracy
● ease of use
● ability to fit in thermal chamber
● adjustable for varied sample thickness
I designed, modeled, and
produced full engineering
drawings of the entire assembly, including a tolerance
stack verifying that the assembly would maintain the
desired bend radius, within tolerance, under a wide
range of thermal conditions and reaction loads.
The final design satisfied all
requirements. Two were
produced, and are currently in use in service of a large
technology development project under contract from
NASA.
GOAL
ROLE
RESULTS
TENDEG, LLC
● 303 Stainless
● Simple machine setups and
operations
● Target radius to within 1%
over 300C and range of
sample sizes
● Modular
● Simple user adjustability
● User-friendly mass and size
● High sample capacity

9. Toyota V6 Complete Engine Rebuild
9
I bought a 1991 Toyota truck that
proved to have 2 blown head
gaskets, along with a host
of other Issues. I decided to completely rebuild the
engine based on evidence of internal cylinder damage.
This wasn’t a cost-effective solution, but it kept a truck
out of the crusher, and i learned how to rebuild an
engine.
I did all the work myself in my
driveway, with the exception of the
necessary machining, which
I paid a machinist for. I used a laser scanner to double
check that the cylinder head mating surfaces were
within their flatness tolerance. I’ve also ended up:
● Installing headers
● Replacing front and rear differentials
● Replacing the oil pump
● Replacing suspension components and
lowering the truck back to stock height
I I had to redo one of the heads
because I apparently forgot to fully
tighten a head bolt...but
since then the truck has run flawlessly for roughly
20,000 miles, including 3 cross-country trips, numerous
mountain passes and a bunch of off-roading.
GOAL
ROLE
RESULTS
Top of Hagerman
Pass 4x4 Trail
11,925 ft
Laser Scan of Cylinder Head Mating Surface

10. Mazda Rotary Engine CAD Model
10
This was my final project for an
Intro to CAD class. The
assignment was to design an assembly with a
certain minimum number of parts. I chose to reverse-
engineer, as accurately as possible, a model of a rotary
engine, based partly on old parts found in the school’s
automotive shop.
I accurately modeled an entire
single-rotor module, using
measurements from available
parts. In order to have the reference parts available
while modeling, I used transfer paper to make carbon
copies. I also referred to Rotary Engine by Kenichi
Yamamoto for the equation of the epitrochoid curve
that governs the shape of the inner surface of the
housing.
Afterward, I reconfigured the model, including
the gears, to make a working 3D printed model of the
engine.
An accurate CAD model, and a 3D
printed scale model that turns and
precesses like it should!
GOAL
ROLE
RESULTS
Carbon Copies CAD Render
3D Printed Model
Source Parts

11. Construction: Design/Build
11
In my past life as a nonprofit professional, I designed
dozens of minor construction projects for groups of
volunteers. This was the largest; I designed this
shelter and managed a group of volunteers to build the
structure. A couple friends and I went back later and
finished it out. It’s still there!
Outdoor Lounge @
Hollywood American
Legion
Tiny House
I completely redrew the blueprints for my mom’s tiny
house to fit a slightly larger trailer, rearrange windows
and interior space, and to take advantage of green
framing practices. I helped her build it, too, but she did
most of the work herself!