Robert first came to JPL in May of 1999. He began his JPL journey as an Academic Part-Time (APT) employee for the Mars Outreach Office under the coordination of Catherine Davis (Siffert). After spending a little "get to know JPL" time in Outreach, Robert then ventured into a Manufacturing Engineer Intern position with the Mechanical Prototype & Hardware Fabrication Section. His immediate supervisor for Fabrication was Randall Foehner. As times became tough in Fabrication due to the completion of the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), he decided to take a step back and return to Outreach to follow MER as it began its journey onto Mars. When MER began to level out, Robert was fortunate to obtain another APT position with the Robotic Hardware Systems group. Here today, Robert is working diligently on Rover Maintenance and other assigned tasks.
Robert and his wife currently live in their hometown of Glendora, CA. His main hobbies include working around the house, fixing anything he can get his hands on, fishing, boating, camping, playing his bagpipes, and spending quality time with his family and friends.
Robert is currently an Academic Part-Time Employee working on his Bachelors Degree at Cal Poly Pomona. His degree will be in Engineering Technology with an emphasis in Mechanical/Manufacturing. Expected graduation date is June 2006. After a "short" vacation from school, Robert plans on attending graduate school to obtain his Masters Degree in Business Administration.
Since Robert began his current position with the Robotic Hardware Systems group, he has been able to utilize the knowledge that he obtained from school as well as being a manufacturing engineer.
As a manufacturing engineer for the Mechanical Prototype & Hardware Fabrication section, Robert was able to finally get a feel for how things actually get done. From art to part, he was given the opportunity to strengthen his knowledge in the theory and development of ground support, non-flight, flight, and research hardware.