About Us
Professional, experienced engineers from the aerospace, robotics, and medical device industry available as consultants to support the right project.
Staff
Deborah Sigel
An engineer and artist with over 19 years in the industry, Deb has designed mechanical hardware for on-orbit hand tools for astronauts, Mars Rovers, space deployable structures, underwater robots, miniature manufacturing fixtures, and retinal implants for returning sight to the blind. At NASA JPL she designed hardware for the skycrane for the MSL (Curiosity) rover, was a PI & project manager for wind tunnel and drop test R&D programs for a Venus mission, and developed novel space deployable structures and antennas. Her R&D and testing done at Second Sight Medical Products to improve the design of a retinal implant is now patented. In addition to hardware design, she is an experienced project manager and is highly effective with managing small teams. She specializes in R&D, prototyping, fixtures for really tiny parts, softgoods/textiles, and testing. She loves solving problems in Matlab. Outside of work she is an experienced STEM education professional, teaching fun, accessible tech topics for children and adults in her free time. As an artist Deb loves to constantly learn new ways to make things. She works in traditional 2D media of pencil, ink, and acrylics, has illustrated and self-published 2 books, makes unique sculptures in metal clay, silver, copper, and steel with a jeweler’s oxy-propane torch, does wood carving, and can be found designing and fabricating custom mechatronic stuffed animals.
M.S. Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University
M.S. Aerospace, University of Maryland
B.S. Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
John McNeil
John is a engineer and manager with experience in commercial, aerospace, and defense industries who has developed many highly successful products. Most notably, he led the Flight Termination Systems team for SpaceX which delivered the world’s first operational autonomous flight safety system, which enables the recovery of multiple rocket boosters simultaneously and access to new trajectories from existing launch sites. He developed H-Drive family of gas boosters for Haskel (now Ingersoll-Rand), which transformed Haskel from a minor player to one of the leaders in the hydrogen & CNG refueling market. Haskel was also where John developed an aptitude for manufacturing as part of a corporate team that launched several new product lines in Burbank, CA and onshored the production of industrial mixing equipment. John learned engineering management at AeroVironment where his desire to create a better working environment for the engineers motivated him to take on the management of the Mechanical Engineering group, responsible for drone hardware development and composite structures. Like the often-told story of a talented engineer promoted to management, John learned the pitfalls that come with practicing management without management training. But thanks to good mentorship and a lot of reading, he was able to grow the department into a capable team that generated significant IP for the company. John started his career working as an engineer for an Army laboratory developing & testing large caliber ordnance which took him to locations around the US and the middle east. John is also a recreational tinkerer, mechanic, carpenter, and machinist who enjoys building custom vehicles and machines.
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Union College
B.S. Aerospace Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
CV (available by request) LinkedIn
Registered Professional Engineer in NY (#84917, not currently active)