ERIK NORRIS

Staff Mechanical Engineer | Robotics · Prototype → Production

// Structure the chaos · Index the decisions · Ship the hardware

eriknorris.com
resume.eriknorris.com
linkedin.com/in/eriknorris
github.com/eriknorris
Redwood City, CA

Professional Summary

I treat physical engineering with the forensic rigor of a software codebase. The difference between a rescued program and a failed one is rarely the capability of the engineer - it is almost always the fidelity of the record.

I lead mechanical design for actuated systems that survive contact with the real world: a cobotic food-assembly platform coordinating 70+ actuators at ±2% portion precision and 350 meals/hour; a disc-changer mechanism whose 100% field-failure mode I traced through 3,000,000+ logged cycle events to a friction-coefficient drift; a head-mounted display whose spring-steel headband I validated to 81,000 physical destruction cycles against a 25,000-cycle requirement - FEA correlated within 4.2%. I take subsystems from whiteboard through DVT into high-volume production, and I go to the factory floor - Suzhou, Guadalajara - when the yield data demands it.

Forty-plus commercial products, no git reset. The same forensic methodology I apply to a tolerance stack or a thermal yield crisis, I now apply to intelligent systems: I build and operate a local AI-agent infrastructure, engineering constraint structures for software the way I fence failure modes in hardware.

Core Competencies

ENGINEERING
  • Robotic Mechanism & Actuator Design
  • Tolerance / Alignment / Load Paths
  • Wear & Failure-Mode Analysis (RCA)
  • GD&T · Stack-Ups (WC / RSS)
  • DOE Test-Method Design
  • FEA-Correlated Validation (ANSYS)
  • Haptic & Kinematic Tuning
MANUFACTURING
  • DFM / DFA for Automated Assembly
  • High-Volume NPI (Tool Start → MP)
  • Injection Molding · Die Casting · Sheet Metal
  • Accelerated Life / Destruction Testing
  • Yield Recovery & CAPA
  • CM Management (Suzhou · Guadalajara · Taipei)
TOOLS & REGULATORY
  • Onshape, Creo, Solidworks
  • PLM Architecture (Agile / Arena / Windchill)
  • Thermal Simulation (CFD)
  • UL 1472 / UL 20 / FCC
  • MIL-STD-1472G
  • Class III Medical Standards
  • Class-A Surfacing

Professional Experience

MECHANISTIC | Principal Mechanical Architect
2022 - Present
Consultancy: systems architecture, crisis recovery, and AI-augmented engineering operations.
  • Conduct pre-production forensic audits for hardware startups - stress-testing thermal management, tolerance stack-up, and supply-chain fragility before tooling commitment.
  • Built and operate EN-OS, a locally-hosted AI-agent infrastructure for research, root-cause synthesis, and decision documentation - the constraint methodology is identical to physical-systems engineering: fence the failure modes before assembly.
HYPHEN | Staff Mechanical Engineer → Principal Systems Architect
2021 - 2022
Lead mechanical architect, Augmented Makeline - cobotic food-assembly robotics deployed with enterprise partners. Co-inventor, US20240164588A1. Recalled under contract three times since.
  • Architected the gravimetric dispenser library (Types A-F) with de-agglomeration logic for adversarial ingredients (shredded proteins, sticky rice) - portion variance cut from industry-standard ±15% to ±2%, food waste down 98%, at 350 meals/hour sustained and 99.9% order accuracy.
  • Integrated 70+ actuators with the controls stack (Beckhoff C6030 IPC, TwinCAT 3 / EtherCAT) at millisecond precision; TwinSAFE zone passivation cut safety wiring by ~50%.
  • Resolved axial helix migration in the dispenser gear train - CTE mismatch between Acetal gears and Aluminum enclosures - with sleeve alignment guides and low-clearance retaining rings.
  • Engineered hot-swap blade architecture (MTTR under 5 minutes) and a 15-minute tool-less sanitation breakdown (push-to-unlock hoppers) for NSF compliance in the IP69K washdown environment.
MECHANISTIC | Senior Mechanical Designer
2018 - 2021
Product-development consultancy: micromobility, connected devices, lighting.
  • Engineered a ruggedized IoT module for Lyft's Bay Wheels eBike fleet - system architecture through detailed part design for outdoor deployment - plus an eCargo-bike platform, concept through detail design.
NOON HOME | Head of Mechanical Engineering
2017 - 2018
Multi-SKU smart-home lighting ecosystem - four hardware platforms, concept through EVT/DVT. UL 1472 / UL 20 / MIL-STD-1472G. Acquired by Savant Systems.
  • Resolved dual EVT1 failure modes on the flagship Director switch: OLED delamination at 45°C from CTE mismatch (flex-mount PSA bracket) and a rotary interface below the 150g tactile threshold (pre-loaded spring detent restoring the 250g signature click; passed 85°C storage qualification).
  • Built WC/RSS tolerance stack-up models guaranteeing mechanical retention and 0.1mm gap reveal across mass EVT2 builds of a screwless multi-gang wall-plate chassis.
  • Recovered 100% EVT2 yield on the extension switch by isolating a 0.1mm CAD geometry mismatch; pivoted PSA to structural adhesive and drove steel-tooling modifications.
AVEGANT | Senior Mechanical Engineer - NPI / DFM / MP
2015 - 2017
Avegant Glyph - award-winning VRD head-mounted display, late-EVT through mass production. Best of CES 2016.
  • Resolved headband clamping-force fatigue failure (FMEA RPN 192) via ANSYS FEA + Central Composite Design DOE - 0.8mm 3/4-hard CRSS at 1207 MPa; destruction testing averaged 81,000 cycles vs. 51,073 predicted (4.2% FEA error) - 300% over the 25,000-cycle requirement.
  • Reversed optical-engine yield collapse from 35.4% to 77.9% RTY in a 10-week sprint - cleanroom protocol plus O4/O7 DMD inspection stations.
  • On-site at Intretech (Suzhou): diagnosed magnesium chassis warpage and deployed Go/No-Go fixtures - casting yield from under 60% to over 95%; drove T1-T6 tooling revisions resolving telescoping ear-can cable kinking (40% failure at 250 cycles).
  • Delivered magnesium castings, injection-molded plastics, soft goods, and packaging on a 234-day Tool Start → MP schedule.
KALEIDESCAPE | Senior Mechanical Design Engineer
2008 - 2015
Sole ME for six generations of premium home-cinema hardware - NPI through sustaining across a Taiwan / Mexico / Canada supply chain.
  • Eliminated a 100% field-failure population in the M700 disc changer: analyzed 3,000,000+ cycle events to isolate friction-coefficient drift in the pinch roller; redesigned with dual radial spring balance bars; recovered questioned carousel inventory via revised inspection criteria - zero scrap.
  • Cleared an M500 stop-ship (resistors shearing off the PCB under handling load) by tracing sheet-metal flexure into the PCBA load path and designing a retrofit structural tray - no inventory scrapped.
  • Directed manufacturing transfer to Sanmina Guadalajara; eliminated a 15% rework rate caused by a 0.005 in fan-tray tolerance stack-up by re-dimensioning the sheet metal.
DIGIDESIGN (AVID) | Lead Mechanical Engineer
2003 - 2008
Flagship audio control surfaces - C|24, D-Command, SC48, ICON, 003; 12+ products shipped.
  • Integrated 19 distinct PCBs (C|24) and 17 (SC48) under Data Control Drawings governing outlines, keep-outs, and connector placement - 100% mechanical fit on initial physical builds.
  • Resolved SC48 CPU thermal shutdown with a 16-configuration DOE matrix (chassis volume × fan size × voltage) defining the Safe Operating Area - internal rise stabilized at 22.6°C with 13.8°C of headroom.
EARLIER WORK | Consumer · Medical · Workstation Hardware
1986 - 2003
WebTV / Microsoft (Xbox, UltimateTV; Galaxy set-top: 150W in consumer plastics via a 28.3 CFM wind-tunnel chassis) · frogdesign (KaVo dental systems, Newscorp satellite, Vadem Clio convertible PDA) · SGI (workstation thermal-acoustic analysis) · EP Technologies (Class III cardiac-ablation catheter production - where the forensic methodology started).

Education

De Anza College
Associate’s Degree, Automotive Engine Performance

Recognition

  • Patent US20240164588A1: Modular System for Food Assembly (co-inventor)
  • Avegant Glyph: Best of CES 2016 (Senior Mechanical Engineer, NPI → MP)
  • SC48 Venue Mix Rack: TEC Award, Sound Reinforcement Console Technology
  • Kaleidescape Cinema One: CEPro Product of the Year
  • Motorola MP3 Player: CES 2002 Design Honoree