Robert Palma is a mechanical engineering student at the University of Central Florida expected to graduate in December 2016. He has worked as a Structures Engineer at Blue Origin LLC where he designed and tested carbon fiber panels. He has also served in multiple leadership roles for UCF's Society of Automotive Engineers club, managing budgets, leading vehicle design teams, and mentoring over 40 students. His experience includes structural analysis, manufacturing, and hands-on fabrication skills.

1. ROBERT PALMA
(305) 498-9320 | robert.palma94@knights.ucf.edu |
Education
University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL Expected Graduation Date: December 2016
Major: Bachelors of Science Mechanical Engineering
 Dean’s List: Spring 2013, Spring 2016
 Florida Bright Futures Medallion Scholar
Professional Experience
Structures Engineer, Blue Origin LLC May 2016 - Present
 Designed Carbon Fiber Sandwich panel coupons for material strength testing using Creo 3.0, identifying material
properties for performance improvements in Orbital Rocket Payload Fairing
 Fabricated 5 sandwich panels using over 150ft of Uni Tape Prepreg, three core varieties and cured with oven-
vacuum bag technique
 Developed Test plan for over 50 test coupons in 8 destructive test methods including tension, compression, and
4 point bending using ADMET testing machine
 Implemented alternative manufacturing setup that led to 6x test coupon production rate
Chief Executive Officer, Society of Automotive Engineers, UCF Engineering Motorsports May 2015 - May 2016
 Managed fiscal year budget totaling $30,000 in support of vehicle fabrication and travel expenditures
 Board member of committee representing SAE integration with MAE Department Machine shop along with MAE
officials including Department Chair, Senior Design Program Manager and Coordinator and Machine Shop
Manager
 Founder and Spokesperson for 1st
UCF Engineering Motorsports Vehicle Unveil detailing vehicle design,
manufacturing technique and corporate sponsorship
 Largest new member class in club history growing from 12 to 40 members, highest new member retention rate
due to active New Member program management and planned activities
Chief Design Engineer, Society of Automotive Engineers, UCF Engineering Motorsports May 2015 - May 2016
 Lead and Managed a team of over 40+ student engineers to place 30th
of 120 in international Formula SAE
Michigan competition, awarded most competition points in 16 year club history, raising world ranking by 61
positions landing 106th of 528 teams globally.
 Lead the Mechanical Design, Vehicle Component packaging and Manufacturing of a Formula SAE vehicle to
meet Design goals including optimizing performance, cost, weight and manufacturability. .
 Lead Design Engineer responsible for overall vehicle design and assembly of the car in SolidWorks, placing 13th
in Design Event at Formula SAE Michigan
 Lead Simulation Engineer performing and teaching Finite Element Analysis on Vehicle Components to team
Members
 Developed testing regime optimizing vehicle and driver performance through track and vehicle setup and driver
training
Drivetrain Team Leader, Society of Automotive Engineers, UCF Engineering Motorsports June 2012 - May 2016
 Lead a small team of four members in the Design and Manufacturing of the Drivetrain System to complete the
goals set for the system and overall vehicle dynamics.
 Designing and Simulated various components of the Drive Train system using Finite Element Analysis using
SolidWorks.
 Created the 2D drawings in SolidWorks and Machined multiple components of the Drivetrain system out of 6061
T6 Aluminum using 3 axis Mill and Lathe.
 Performed Lap Simulation using Optimum Lap to optimize Final gear ratio and validated with real world testing.
 Currently developing Lap simulator for the Acceleration event applying Numerical Methods and Vehicle
Dynamics using MathCAD.

2. ROBERT PALMA
(305) 498-9320 | robert.palma94@knights.ucf.edu |
Introduction to Engineering TA, University of Central Florida August 2015-May 2016
 Mentor and educate two classes of 40 first year engineering students in Microsoft Excel and Matlab
 Provided mentorship and introduced first year engineering students to UCF's Engineering program.
 Educate them on how to program using PBASIC and construct a robot to perform variety of different tasks using
an array of sensors.
SolidWorks Training Director, University of Central Florida August 2014- June 2015
 Directed and Founded UCF SAE SolidWorks Training Workshop to improve design capabilities of entire team
Taught members how to operate SolidWorks 2014 and instruct the basic principles of Parametric Computer Aided
Design such as Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing.
 Prepared team members to pass the CSWA certification exam and 80% of team members passed and are now
CSWA certified in SolidWorks.
Team Member, Society of Automotive Engineers June 2012-Present
 Fabricated Aluminum sheet oil pan and intake plenum for 06' Suzuki 600CC GSX-R
 Built a student formula car with a team of twenty members for past three years
 Designed and assembled Carbon Fiber dash
 Mechanical wrenching and Basic Fabrication skills using an assortment of hand and power tools to manufacture
components of the Formula car
Design Engineer, Wagner Industries 2015-May 2016
 One of the Founding members of Wagner Industries. Commercial start-up specializing in dedicated launches of
small scale satellites
 Competing in the NASA Centennial CubeQuest Challenge.
 Design components of the Rockets in Catia V5 that are going to be used to launch a CubeSAT into space for the
NASA Centennial CubeQuest Challenge.
Course Work
 Engineering Leadership
 Vibrations & Controls
 Heat Transfer
 CAD/CAM
 Principles of Electrical Engineering
Computer Skills:
 CAD: SolidWorks, Siemens NX, Creo 3.0
 Matlab, LabVIEW, MathCAD
 Microsoft Office
 Optimum Lap
 Data Acquisition