CFD and numerics engineer · between equations and hardware.
— · —
Computational aerodynamicist, based in the Alberta foothills.
Most recently on contract at Sepal AI
(Nov 2025 – Mar 2026), building reproducible aerospace analysis
workflows for fixed-wing UAV sizing. Between roles now, with
the numerics and CFD work continuing in parallel.
I finished the MEng at UTIAS in summer 2025. The MEng
project, supervised by Prof. David W. Zingg,
was on high-order summation-by-parts (SBP) finite-difference
operators with generalised Gregory boundary closures: discrete
energy estimates, SAT penalty sweeps, convergence and stability
on model PDEs. Before UTIAS, a BESc in
Mechanical and Materials Engineering from
Western (2019–2023), and two competition cycles on UTAT Aero
Design — Minerva in year one,
the Stratus tiltrotor in year two — wing
aerodynamics through the full design–build–fly cycle on both.
On the side: a Python implementation of the
Lomax–Pulliam–Zingg two-book CFD curriculum, an OpenFOAM
Ahmed-body workflow, and a small multi-node cluster the
workflow runs on. The applied work keeps pace with the
method side.
Open to CFD, simulation, or numerics roles —
aerospace, automotive, or energy for preference.
Contact →
The work
Equations that have to survive contact with hardware.
The work sits between numerical method and applied
aerodynamics. Two anchors below: the MEng project on the
method side, and an applied loop where CFDLab, the
Ahmed-body workflow, and the cluster carry the same idea
through every layer.
I · MEng project · UTIAS · supervised by Prof. Zingg
Generalised Gregory Quadrature Rules and Summation-by-Parts Operators.
High-order SBP finite-difference operators are honest in the
interior; the boundary is where the order is won or lost. The
MEng project pins down the energy-stability behaviour of
generalised Gregory closures — where the closure earns its
advertised order, where it quietly does not, and which SAT
penalty ranges keep the scheme stable. Most of it is operator
analysis and numerical evidence; the kind of result that
reads as a project report rather than a single legible figure.
CFDLab is my Python implementation of the Lomax–Pulliam–Zingg
two-book CFD curriculum — three structurally different
quasi-1-D Euler solvers, an analytical-method probe layer, a
worked Exercise Guide. The figure carries the central
algorithmic comparison: JST artificial dissipation smears the
Sod contact over ~3 cells; characteristic-decomposition
upwinding holds it in ~1. Alongside the codebase, an
OpenFOAM Ahmed-body workflow runs on a small multi-node
cluster I configured and maintain — queueing, MPI,
monitoring, post-processing. The reason for owning every
layer is not FLOPs; it is visibility. The residual histogram
and the y⁺ map are where a workflow gives up the information
a black-box run hides. The inverse is the discipline: if the
workflow gives the wrong answer, the workflow is what is wrong.
When the workflow gives the wrong answer, the workflow is what is wrong.
Selected experience
Roles that shaped the through-line.
Five roles, before and around the MEng, that put the equations
on real airframes, real solar cars, and real software loops.
Stratus — the year-two airframe, on the taxiway.
2023–2025 · UTAT SAE Aero · wing aerodynamics lead
UTAT — Minerva in year one, Stratus in year two.
Wing aerodynamics on Minerva in year one and the Stratus
tiltrotor in year two: nonlinear lifting-line on the aero
side, beam-bending spar sizing on the structural side,
an MDO loop tying the two to the competition's payload /
MTOW objective. Airfoil choice had to survive balsa and ply
tolerances, and the planform had to clear the trailing-edge
robustness check before it cleared the lift-distribution
one. The cycle ran twice — two airframes, two seasons, two
design reports.
/work/utat-wing-mdo →
Nov 2025 – Mar 2026 · Sepal AI · Aerospace Engineer
Reproducible aerospace analysis workflows.
Aerospace engineering inside Sepal AI's task-based system —
building reproducible analysis workflows, including
constraint-driven fixed-wing UAV sizing, that someone
without the original setup can re-run and trust. Same
theme as aeroAUTO and the Ahmed-body work: turn a one-off
analysis into something you can hand off.
Squamish — C-GNSF on the strip, between flights.Sandbar landing — Squamish, the airframe at touchdown.
On-site in Squamish: SolidWorks structural components for
an experimental STOL platform, iterated next to the
fabrication bench so each part made the trip from screen
to fixture with its tolerances intact. The CAD-to-fab loop
is short and unforgiving when you are standing next to
the millwright. Riding along in the airframe — and
watching it land on a Squamish sandbar — is what grounds
every drawing after.
The shop continues the Murphy Radical lineage; Marco now
builds float kits for the same airframe under
Orca Floats.
Tubular-frame chassis redesign in SolidWorks with FEA, run
alongside the aero and electrical sub-teams so the
array-mounting and packaging constraints stayed compatible
with the structural target. Solar-car engineering is
everyone's constraints landing on one small frame; the
FEA is where they argue.
Capstone, on the display floor — Western.
Sep 2022 – Apr 2023 · Western capstone · Simulation Lead
Solo-sailboat docking assist for confined marinas.
Fourth-year capstone at Western — a docking-assist system for
a solo sailor in a confined finger-dock marina, designed to
stay usable across a variety of wind and current conditions.
As simulation lead I built the dynamic model: boat plus
docking mechanism in the loop. CAD on the mechanism,
prototype, design report. The lesson the capstone left was
that the model is only as honest as the disturbance it admits.
Awards · two reports, two airframes
Two first-place design reports.
Wing aerodynamics owns part of the design report on every UTAT
airframe. Two cycles, two reports, two first-place finishes —
Minerva at SAE Aero Design West 2024, Stratus at SAE Aero
Design East 2025.
SAE Aero Design West 20241st Place · Advanced Class · Written Design ReportMinerva — UTAT year one.
SAE Aero Design East 20251st Place · Design Report Award · Advanced Class · Fort WorthStratus — UTAT year two.
How I got here
From the airframe to the residual.
UTAT, lakeside — between flights.
I grew up around airframes — close enough to learn that a
mechanical system tells you what it is, if you read it
carefully. The math came later, when "the airframe flies that
way" stopped being enough of an answer.
From there the through-line is short. The same instinct that
learns to read a small airframe in turbulence learns to read
a residual histogram; the same one that traces an N54
misfire learns to read a y⁺ map. Different substrates, same
way of looking — and I keep the bench busy on all of them.
Engine teardowns, ignition resets, cylinder borescopes;
E-series BMWs and Mooneys see most of the bench time. Pilot
training continues, intermittent. The espresso machine is
its own small control problem. None of these are hobbies in
the decorative sense — each keeps a different muscle of the
same engineering instinct warm.
That instinct lives in three places on this site, and reading
across them is intentional. Work carries
the finished projects — what survived the bench.
Notes is the bench itself, with the
answer not yet settled. Worlds is the
rest of where the instinct is at home: foothills under a DJI
pass, an E-series in the bay, an espresso machine learning
to be repeatable. Each room leads to the others.
Coursework, teamwork, and independent work sit on the same
shelf for the same reason. UTIAS taught me to take the
discretisation seriously; UTAT made me build twice; the
bench keeps me honest about what an analysis can and cannot
tell you about real hardware; CFDLab and the cluster are
where I keep all those lessons sharp in private. Work
catalogues the public artefacts — the connection running
underneath them is the part that doesn't appear on any
one page.
◇Edu⊕Cert●Role▲Team∂Self★Award→Open
Western2019 – 2023
2019–2023◇EduBESc · Mechanical and Materials EngineeringWestern University
2022⊕CertSolidWorks certificationsSim Pro · Surfacing Pro · Flow Sim Pro · AM Associate
2022–2023▲TeamSunstang Solar Car — CAE Design EngineerTubular chassis redesign + FEA
2023–2024▲TeamUTAT Aero — MinervaWing aerodynamics, year one
2024★AwardSAE Aero Design West — Minerva1st Place, Advanced Class · Written Design Report
Fall–2024◇EduUTIAS · AER1211H Human Control of Flight Systems
2024–2025▲TeamUTAT Aero — Stratus tiltrotorWing aerodynamics, year two · build to flight
2025★AwardSAE Aero Design East — Stratus1st Place, Advanced Class · Design Report Award · Fort Worth, TX
2024–→∂SelfCFDLab · multi-node CFD server · Ahmed-body workflowIndependent, ongoing
After2025 – present
Nov 2025–Mar 2026●RoleSepal AI — Aerospace EngineerReproducible analysis workflows for fixed-wing UAV sizing
2026–→→OpenOpen to CFD / simulation / numerics roles
Worlds · three lanes alongside the work
None of these are projects. All of them are where the rest
of the work happens — the airframes the analysis has to
survive, the foothills it gets thought through in, the
benches it gets serviced on.
Looking for CFD, simulation, or numerics work — aerospace,
automotive, or energy for preference. The shape I work best
at is end-to-end: mesher, solver, post, server. The shape I
look forward to is method-side: the boundary closure that
decides whether a high-order scheme actually delivers its
order. SBP / SAT, DG, finite volume, DNS / LES / RANS —
comfortable up and down that stack.
Currently running: continued development on
CFDLab and the
multi-node cluster;
the Ahmed-body workflow at
/work/aeroauto; and SBPLab — a
post-graduation numerics sandbox where the SBP / SAT operator
work continues in private. Threads in
Notes are the working surface — SBP
boundary closures, the Ahmed-body y⁺ pass, and the bench
side (N54 ignition, N55 boost-pressure, Mooney cylinder
borescope).
Best way in is email. Happy to walk
through the SBP / Gregory work, the Ahmed-body workflow, or
the UTAT MDO loop on request.
