Erik Roby

Product development using Creo Elements/Direct.

Product development using NX 7.5, SolidWorks 2012, and Creo Parametric 1.0.

Designed parts and products for various industries, including aerospace, RF testing, and ion beam microscopy. Designed parts for injection molding, vacuum forming, machining, and sheet metal fabrication.

Worked with clients on and off site.

Worked as a contractor designing aluminum components for a robotic subsea drill. Created drawings for each component, which consisted of machined, welded, and sheet metal subsections. Assisted in the assembly of these new components as well as the general assembly of the drill.

I left a great job with an amazing team at Dendreon to move back to the Portland area to determine my next career move. I would like to move into engineering design work. I had accepted an offer for the Master in Product Development program at Carnegie Mellon University, but decided to defer my acceptance.

I worked on several projects during this time which are shown on my website, http://www.erikroby.com/.

Assisted the Validation Department during the FDA approval of the first prostate cancer immunotherapy. Designed fixture equipment to perform air flow studies in manufacturing biological safety cabinets. Wrote internal protocols and reports. Reviewed and approved contract manufacturer protocols and reports. Conducted engineering shipping studies. Managed interdisciplinary teams to conduct air flow studies at manufacturing facilities.

I joined a group of researchers and a UW Technology Manager to help with market and competitive research for a medical device technology to non-invasively detect circulatory shock. In January of 2009 I was asked to assemble a team of students to take the company, Shockmetrics, through the UW Business Plan Competition.

The team consisted of myself, an evening MBA student (Ryan Bergsman), and a PhD student in BioEngineering (Anthony Rodriguez). With the help of the research team and various advisors, we created a business plan and all of the additional documentation required by the BPC. My main responsibilities during the competition included market size and competitive analysis, along with general team and deadline management.

We finished in 3rd place out of 90 teams.

After entering the UW Business Plan Competition with a technology to monitor ankle motion in a shoe, we decided to form a company to commercialize the technology.

We were initially looking to use the technology in a running shoe to help prevent overuse injuries and act as a virtual coach. We also considered other uses such as rehabilitation, work force injury monitoring, and professional sports applications.

During my time with AMT I was the main driver attempting to move the company forward. This involved market and competitive research, patent research and preparation, seeking advice from business, medical, and running experts, as well as pitching at events such as Entrepreneur University and Invest NW.

In the end we had most of the information we would need to raise money, a proposal from a research team at the University of Utah to help with a preliminary design, a deferred payment program set up with a local law firm, and the interest of a local product development firm that was willing to help us with technical issues and eventually (after funding) with the development of a production level device. Unfortunately right as all of these pieces were coming together we ran into some potential patent issues and I was no longer in a financial situation where I could continue to work with a startup pre-funding.

Greenwood Technologies was a VC backed startup in Bellevue, WA. I was brought on to learn how the CE certification process applied to their line of high efficiency wood furnaces so they could initiate sales in Europe. I also worked with the engineering and marketing teams on various projects. I developed an Excel based savings calculator for customers to estimate how much they would save by switching to Greenwood, based on their location and house specifications. Later on I helped increase the company's web presence through various methods.

Planned, coordinated, and carried out the first mentoring program for the UW Science and Engineering Business Association (SEBA). Q1: planned the initial structure for the program with the help of the UW MBA Mentor Program. Q2: attracted interest from both students and business professionals. Q3: coordinated between students and mentors and ran the meetings. Finished by preparing documentation for year two of the program.

This program is still being run by SEBA today.

After my junior year I was hired by Spiration in Redmond, Washington. Spiration is a medical device startup that is developing a minimally invasive treatment for patients with emphysema. I spent most of my time working on a reloadable catheter system that will be used once the system is commercially available. This involved creating a tolerance stack for the product assembly, designing part test fixtures, testing product functionality, and determining the molded-in stress of plastic parts. Because this was a small company I had the opportunity to be a part of meetings in areas of the company outside of engineering. I enjoyed being able to apply what I had been taught in school to problems unrelated to engineering.

After my sophomore year I worked for a division of Pratt & Whitney in Bellevue, Washington that was designing a product called SHOCKSystem. This system uses the shockwave created by the detonation of propane and oxygen to remove soot buildup in coal burning power plants. During my internship I spent my time assisting in lab tests, assembling new gas mixing systems, researching new components, and designing and assembling a vacuum system for their lab. I also spent one week in Rockport, Indiana where I assisted in diagnosing a problem with a system that was already installed.

Built and installed boat docks and ramps made from aluminum tubing and plastic float boxes. Used a variety of equipment: fork lift, skill saw, acetylene torch, plasma cutter, band saw.

Fabricated HVAC ducting from sheet metal using a variety of machines.

Collected and analyzed data related to water conditions for a small lake near Hood River, OR. Used a variety of data collection tools along with Excel and Access.