Jesse Kegley

I've always been interested in learning about how things worked - and what began with chemistry experiments and taking electronics apart as a kid quickly turned into developing practical repair skills and intuition, whether it be small engine repair around the house or modifying my guitar. In high school, I opted to couple my normal courseload with the welding program offered at a nearby trade school, which began my foray into professional fabrication.

The welding course was set up as a carreer pathway, and as such it wasn't long before I was working in DC as a steamfitter/welder. This job gave me valuable fabrication experience, as well as some startup cash to purchase equipment and start my own welding outfit. After driving to Pennsylvania to pick up an engine-driven welder, I called a handful of local landscapers that I had met while working at Starbucks to promote my new welding and repair service; and what started as a slow-roll of (at the time) daunting jobs quickly became a daily routine, with a mixed bag of fabrication and repair jobs coming in through word of mouth.

That background carries into the engineering work. In maintaining my own equipment I developed equipment troubleshooting and repair skills that have greatly benefited my robotics work. The fabrication and repair experience that I have encourages me to be thoughtful in designing parts that can actually be made and serviced, and my experience communicating with customers and understanding their needs correlates directly with understanding engineering requirements for any given project.