Engineering Spotlight: Damon Tordini
Damon Tordini is the Product Portfolio Manager for Hawk Ridge Systems based in southern California. A graduate of the aerospace engineering program at Cal Poly, Damon received the SOLIDWORKS Elite Applications Engineer award in 2012 and is a two-time presenter at 3DEXPERIENCE World. When he’s not waiting for his last simulation to finish, you can probably find him making some kind of noise which he claims is music.
Why Engineering? When did you know you wanted to pursue engineering and design?
Two of my uncles have degrees in aerospace engineering, so I grew up hearing about this stuff all the time, and I guess I came to believe that technology and good design were sort of inescapably tied to human progress. Watching a lot of movies with exciting space battles didn’t hurt either.
I had such a fascination with the future that one time in probably about the 4th grade, my mom helped me write a letter to Walt Disney Imagineering trying to convince them to redo part of Tomorrowland using a ride concept I had sketched out. They didn’t take my advice, but they did reply back with a thank-you and an official stamped document stating that my drawing was going in their archives. I never got to design that ride but I had found what I wanted to go to school for, and I did end up selling churros and popcorn at the park during summer breaks.
Why Hawk Ridge Systems?
There aren’t many jobs in the engineering world where you get to work on a brand-new challenge every day and pull from a huge toolbox of solutions to find an answer. Getting the chance to spend my career this way has been a real privilege.
Advice to people considering engineering as a career?
Engineering (especially aerospace and mechanical engineering) is a lot of math and a lot of physics (which is also a lot of math). Learn to love it, but also, don’t forget to find ways to apply what you learn outside of the classroom.
What’s the most fun or quirky project you’ve ever worked on?
Believe it or not, CFD software can be used to improve the design of a vaporizer pen. I’ve been asked to help with this on multiple occasions.
Favorite side or pet project?
Probably tinkering around with my 2000 VW Beetle. I modeled the intake manifold a few years back, and I think trying to 3D print some new door handles might be next on the list.
Favorite client engagement? Why? What problem did you get to help solve?
I once got the chance to work with Tom Mueller, designer of the Merlin 1A rocket engine. We created some examples to test how SOLIDWORKS could be used to design and validate the regenerative cooling systems on those kinds of engines.
What are you reading/watching/learning/playing currently?
For some reason I’m currently making my way through Caesar’s commentary on the Gallic wars. Nothing to do with engineering whatsoever, which is honestly a nice break at the end of the day.
What do you want to learn next?
I’m a longtime SOLIDWORKS user, but I’ve been spending more time in CATIA and despite how different it can feel I’m starting to better understand its strengths. At some point I hope to have the time to model a complete airframe.
Favorite engineering or dad joke or meme?
Jerry Seinfeld had something about Neil Armstrong’s toothbrush at the Smithsonian. That was pretty good.
What’s a recent engineering trend or innovation you’re excited about?
It’s hard not to be excited about the rise of reusable launch vehicles. Putting stuff into space is becoming cheaper every year, and for anybody who hopes to make it themselves one day, I think that’s the ticket.
Where can people follow you online or see more of your work?
Most of the content I’ve done can be found on the Hawk Ridge Systems YouTube channel or here on this blog, but I’m also on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dtordini83/.
