Scientists study the world as it is, engineers create the world that has never been.
— Theodore von Kármán
Welcome to my engineering portfolio!
Mechanical Engineering · Georgia Tech
Benedict Virtucio
Designer. Builder. Researcher.
Mechanical Engineering student at Georgia Tech, graduating December 2027. I work on aerospace hardware, hybrid propulsion, manufacturing, and test engineering. My work spans structural design on a 1000 N hybrid rocket lander, hands-on machining, undergraduate research at two Georgia Tech labs, and a published AIAA study on hybrid rocket mass and inertia evolution during powered flight.
I design hardware, machine parts, run tests, and build the analytical and software tools that support physical systems. Looking for internship and co-op roles in aerospace, propulsion, mechanical design, manufacturing, and test engineering.
Experience
Structures Vice Lead · Frame Design
Propulsive Landers at Georgia Tech
Primary-structure design, structural analysis, engineering drawings, and multidisciplinary integration for a hybrid-rocket lander.
Responsibilities
- Led primary-structure design for the Monarch free-flight hybrid rocket lander in SolidWorks.
- Developed vehicle frame geometry, mechanical interfaces, and mounting hardware from concept through detailed design.
- Produced engineering drawings and documentation for fabricated structural components.
- Coordinated structural interfaces with propulsion, avionics, tanks, feed-system hardware, and other vehicle subsystems.
- Performed structural analysis and calculations to support design decisions.
- Supported fabrication, assembly, hardware integration, and iterative design reviews.
Mechanical Design & Prototyping Assistant
Symbiotic and Augmented Intelligence Laboratory
Mechanical design, iterative prototyping, and experimental hardware development for human-assembly research.
Responsibilities
- Designed and prototyped physical hardware and experimental fixtures supporting human-assembly research studies.
- Developed iterative mechanical prototypes in SolidWorks for controlled experimental settings.
- Supported experiment setup, participant sessions, and hardware maintenance between runs.
- Contributed to experimental data organization and documentation.
- Worked with graduate researchers to revise hardware based on experimental outcomes and evolving study needs.
Hypersonics VIP · Undergraduate Researcher
Georgia Tech Hypersonics
Structural concept development and early analysis for high-speed experimental test hardware.
Responsibilities
- Contributed to structural concept development for high-speed experimental test hardware.
- Performed early structural analysis to support hardware design feasibility evaluations.
- Participated in technical reviews and design iteration within the Hypersonics VIP team.
Projects
Featured Projects
Monarch 1000 N Hybrid Rocket Lander
Lead mechanical design and development of the vehicle frame, structural hardware, and mechanical interfaces while coordinating packaging and integration with propulsion, avionics, and other vehicle systems.
- Designed and iterated primary frame geometry in SolidWorks around structural, packaging, assembly, and vehicle-interface constraints.
- Performed structural calculations to support design decisions.
- Developed bolted structural interfaces and mechanical joints for the vehicle frame.
- Produced fabrication-ready drawings and component definitions for manufactured structural parts.
- Coordinated mechanical interfaces with propulsion, avionics, tanks, and feed-system hardware across successive design revisions.
- Fabricated and integrated mechanical hardware components for the vehicle.
- Helped lead structures work across a multidisciplinary student engineering team through design reviews and revision cycles.
Analytical Modeling of Oxidizer Motion and Fuel Regression in Hybrid Rockets for In-Flight Mass Evolution
Read Paper ↗Developed a reduced-order simulation framework coupling solid-fuel regression, oxidizer drainage, pressurant redistribution, slosh dynamics, and time-varying mass properties for a 1000 N hybrid VTVL rocket. The model updates vehicle mass, center of mass, and inertia throughout a throttled flight profile for use in system-level dynamics and control simulation.
- Derived an analytical fuel-regression model based on oxidizer mass flux and evolving grain-port geometry to predict nonlinear fuel depletion during burn.
- Coupled commanded thrust to oxidizer mass flow, mixture ratio, chamber pressure, and feed-system behavior through a thrust-commanded propulsion solver.
- Modeled nitrous-oxide drainage through the valve and injector using a reduced-order two-phase Dyer flow formulation.
- Accounted for nitrogen pressurization and propellant redistribution as oxidizer volume and tank ullage changed throughout the burn.
- Implemented a reduced-order Duffing slosh model to capture acceleration-driven oxidizer disturbance forces without full CFD.
- Recomputed vehicle center of mass and inertia at every timestep by combining CAD-derived dry mass properties with evolving fuel, oxidizer, and pressurant states.
- Integrated the mass-evolution framework into a fully coupled 6-DoF VTVL dynamics simulation with ascent, hover, and descent.
- Demonstrated smooth, continuous evolution of thrust, mass flow, chamber pressure, COM, and MOI under dynamic throttling conditions.
- Published through the AIAA Regional Student Conference as first author.
Monoprop UAV Adjustable Center-of-Mass Test Bed
Designed an adjustable mass-shifting mechanism providing approximately ±50 mm of center-of-gravity travel for an aerospace test vehicle. Iterated through multiple SolidWorks configurations while balancing actuation, packaging, structural integration, and mass.
- Designed a mechanism to provide controlled fore/aft CG adjustment of approximately ±50 mm.
- Evaluated multiple mechanical architectures for the shifting mechanism before converging on a configuration.
- Iterated across numerous CAD revisions, incorporating design review feedback into later configurations.
- Considered actuation approach, available internal volume, mass distribution, structural attachment, and accessibility throughout the design process.
- Supported repeatable test configurations by enabling controlled CG placement across test runs.
SAIL Gearbox Research Platform
Designed and iterated mechanical hardware for a gearbox assembly research platform used in human-subject experiments. Developed repeatable physical test infrastructure and supported experimental data and annotation workflows.
- Designed 3D-printed gearbox test-fixture components for repeatable assembly and loading.
- Iterated fixture geometry to ensure consistent data collection and experimental repeatability across participants.
- Integrated physical hardware with study requirements and experimental protocols.
- Supported human-subject testing and experimental setup for ongoing SAIL Lab research.
- Contributed to dataset annotation procedures and documentation.
- Hardware revisions were driven by experimental results from ongoing studies within the research lab.
More Projects
Autonomous Competition Robot
Designed, fabricated, programmed, and tested an autonomous competition robot integrating motor-driven mobility, pneumatic mechanisms, a telescoping actuator, limit-switch sensing, and multiple task-specific mechanical subsystems within a 40-second competition cycle.
- Developed an autonomous robot architecture consisting of Mobility, Sheep, Water Bucket, Torch, and Fish/Eel task subsystems.
- Designed mechanical components and assemblies in SolidWorks for 3D printing, laser cutting, and conventional fabrication.
- Implemented motor-driven mobility using a geared axle and developed timed autonomous motion for repeatable positioning.
- Integrated a limit switch with a pneumatic sheep-dispensing mechanism for position-based task execution.
- Designed and iterated a motor-driven telescoping Water Bucket mechanism extending approximately 3.5 ft from a 9.8 in collapsed configuration.
- Performed repeated subsystem testing and tuning for mobility timing, actuator delays, telescoping extension, mechanism geometry, and electrical connections.
- Used test results to drive design changes including motor swaps, revised telescope tolerances, component replacement, and subsystem simplification.
- Supported fabrication and assembly using 3D printing, laser cutting, bandsaw, jigsaw, drilling, soldering, wiring, and other shop processes.
- Final robot scored 91 points in its second competition round after iterative improvements.
Telerom
See More ↗Built a real-time instrumentation and data pipeline for an Arduino-based physical therapy hardware prototype, connecting serial sensor telemetry to Python, database storage, and a live web dashboard for engineering test sessions.
- Arduino hardware prototype streams NDJSON sensor data over USB serial at 115200 baud.
- Python gateway reads serial data and batch-inserts into Snowflake SQL for session storage.
- Flask server buffers incoming frames and serves a polled endpoint for the live dashboard.
- Dashboard renders angle and speed traces, repetition counts, and per-session run data.
- Built to support physical hardware testing; designed for reliability during live test sessions.
Skills
CAD & Analysis
- SolidWorks
- Siemens NX
- Fusion 360
- GD&T
- ASME Y14.100 Drawings
- Static FEA
- DFM / DFA
- Tolerance Analysis
- Mass Properties (CG / MOI)
- MATLAB
Manufacturing & Test
- Manual Machining (Mill, Lathe)
- 3D Printing
- Prototype Fabrication
- Tolerance Stack-Up
- Hardware Integration
Software & Documentation
- Arduino
- ASME Y14.100 & Y14.5 Drawing Practices
- Drawing Revision Control
- BOM Management
Instrumentation & Measurement
- DAQ
- Uncertainty Analysis (k=2 Coverage)
- Transfer Function Characterization
- Formal Test Reporting
Contact
Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, graduating December 2027. Open to internship and co-op roles in aerospace, mechanical design, manufacturing, propulsion, and test engineering.