Hi, I'm Jeff

I was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.  After high school, I went to the local community college to pursue an associates degree in automotive maintenance.  I got my degree and worked as an auto mechanic for a couple years.  Every day at work I would do Sudoku puzzles and crosswords for fun. My boss used to say I should be fixing rocket ships, not cars.  That got me thinking that I really did want to do something more significant with my life. 

So I quit my job as an auto mechanic, moved to the city of Chicago, and pursued a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Still having an interest in cars, I became an active member of my school's automotive club where we built and raced a formula car and a mini baja car every year to compete in national events. 

While a student at UIC, I was lucky enough to get three internships along the way.  I spent a summer in Columbus, Indiana working at Cummins diesel designing EGR coolers.  The following summer I worked at Electro-Motive Diesel in LaGrange, Illinois running tests on 3500 horsepower locomotive engines.  After that I spent almost two years working at Federal Mogul in Skokie, Illinois, writing programs for automating CAD drawings among many other tasks. 

I graduated UIC in 2015 with a degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in computer science. 

I have since been working as a Mechanical Engineer at Orion Industries in Chicago, an industrial coating applicator.  I have designed and built several machines ranging from large curing ovens to automated parts cleaning systems.  I am responsible for a large amount of programming work including programming our four (soon five) robots that we use to automate some of the trickier parts we coat.

In my spare time I enjoy tinkering with all sorts of machines, especially motorcycles, of which I am currently in the middle of building my own.  I have worked with a couple of small theater companies in Chicago as well helping them design sets for their shows.  I have pursued a few entrepreneurial ventures and when it comes down to it, I just like building things.  At heart, I am an inventor and I love working with other people who are passionate about what they do.