In 1999 Matt received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. That same year he joined an industrial aerospace company in Pasadena (Alliance Spacesystems Inc.) where he worked on several R&D as well as space flight robotic hardware projects.

In 2003 Matt left ASI to pursue a masters degree in controls from Boston University. Matt's research at BU focused on medical applications of robotics, specifically for prenatal heart surgery.

In the spring of 2005 Matt joined the Robotic Hardware Systems group at JPL. Since arriving at JPL Matt has been the chief mechanical engineer for the ATHLETE hex legged rover. Matt is also working on surface operations for the Mars Exploration Rovers as a Rover Planner. He sends tactical mobility and IDD commands to drive the rovers and operate their robotic arms on the surface of Mars.

Matt is also a faculty member at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and teaches a class in mechanical engineering design.

M.S. Mechanical Engineering (2005)
Boston University
B.S. Mechanical Engineering (1999)
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

JPL (2005 - Present)

• Mechanical design of the ATHLETE hex legged rover
• MER surface operations (rover driver)
• Design of a high precision interferometer scan mechanism

Alliance Spacesystems Inc. (1999 - 2003)

• Design of an ultra-smooth translation mechanism for the Planetary Atmosphere Occultation Spectrometer (PAOS)
• Aided in the design of the MER Instrument Deployment Device (IDD)
• Design of several snake-line prototype robots for gas pipe inspection
• Mechanical and magnetic design of miniature brushless DC motors for space applications

JPL (Summer 1998)

• Design of an under-actuated hopping robot prototype

Mechanical design and control of robotic systems and mechanisms