About

…me.

My parents have a picture of me standing on a concrete slab that will be the floor of our garage. My dad built it. I’m three or four and obviously anxious to help in this new construction project. I have a tool belt strapped around my waist with about my body weight in nails stuffed into every pocket. Parenting concerns aside (I didn’t hurt myself and was well supervised with all those sharp objects around me), so began my engineering career. I’ve been working with my hands ever since. Years and many math classes following my stint as a construction worker, I earned a BS and MS in mechanical engineering.

My professional experience ranges from pure science in a government lab to integration of flight and payload hardware on the space shuttle to applied nanotechnology to micro-actuation to, most recently, autonomous vehicles. I’ve been fortunate to work along side good people on amazing projects. In the past I conducted research for the Autonomous Robotics & Perception Laboratory and lectured at GWU. I taught a senior level computer aided engineering course utilizing Pro/E Wildfire 5.0 focused on design intent and human centered design. I currently work on autonomous vehicles and robotics for Aurora, and formally Zoox.

…this site.

This site serves a dual purpose, displaying a sample of my work and allowing me to chronicle some thoughts. I hope to summarize books and experiences so that I can draw some connections and insights from the work of others. I want to get smarter and better which can really only come from reading and implementing. The aim is to produce quality content but no promises are made.

I will also occasionally use quotations and parts of others works in posts. If you are the owner of this work and feel your copyright has been infringed on, please let me know and I will either remove or modify the content. I can be reached via email (contact at jontorrey dot com) or through the various outlets located to the right.