Growing up, I loved baseball and I still do. In baseball, a great batting average is to get a hit only 1/3 of the time. Therefore, humility becomes a familiar lesson. However, there is no better feeling than to connect with the ball for a solid hit. Although engineering is quite a bit different from baseball, I have learned some of the same humbling lessons in the process.

One of my favorite quotes is “Engineers use science to solve their problems if the science is available. But available or not, the problem must be solved, and whatever form the solution takes under these conditions is called engineering” (Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design 10e, 2016, p. 280). As a graduate of the Mechanical Engineering program at BYU, I had no shortage of difficult classes. However, there's nothing like that light bulb moment that comes from gaining a deeper understanding of how another small piece of this universe works. Additionally, that understanding can then be used to answer extremely important questions such as "How much snow does Olaf's snow flurry from Frozen I need to produce in order to keep him alive during a Norwegian summer?"

Answering other critical questions like "How would different outcomes in The Lion King have changed the population dynamics?" in my dynamic systems and modeling class eventually led me to study robotics at the University of Michigan. After doing some research about kinematic modeling of flying snakes (yes, I know, it's terrifying that they exist), I completed my MS Robotics degree from the University of Michigan in April 2022.  I then began work as a Research Edison Engineer (development program) with General Electric/GE Aerospace working on a variety of challenging problems ranging from illumination algorithm development to untethered soft-robot design for inspection. Since finishing the Research Edison Program in June 2025, I have been working as a Research Engineer in the Robotics & Autonomy department for GE Aerospace. I'm continually excited to learn and use my knowledge to create automated, efficient solutions to the world's problems.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you think I would be a good fit for opportunities related to robotics, dynamics, mechatronics, controls, or other similar areas within the engineering realm. You can see my resume below along with a few of my personal projects by clicking on the Projects tab.

Spencer Talbot's Resume