Resume

Braxton Makai Herold Mechanical / aerospace engineering · Controls & autonomy

braxton.herold@gmail.com linkedin.com/in/braxton-herold San Diego, CA

Projects

Sisyphus — autonomous propulsive-landing rocket Solo, self-directed

Aug 2024 – present

Solid-motor thrust-vector-controlled vehicle (~0.9 kg, ±5° gimbal) aimed at powered vertical landing; 30+ launches. Designed every subsystem: airframe CAD, KiCad flight-computer PCBs, embedded C flight software, quaternion attitude estimation with Kalman filtering, and abort system.
Validated designs before flight with Monte Carlo campaigns in a Python 6-DOF simulator (mass, servo slew, latency, wind) and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
Diagnosed failed flights from telemetry, replicated failure modes in simulation, and refined the model from bench tests (measured thrust-loaded actuator slew of 54 deg/s against an assumed 74 deg/s).
Documented successes and failures on LinkedIn and YouTube (150,000+ total views), discussing design improvements with working engineers in the comments.

Thrust-vector-controlled rocketry team AeroFusion Rocketry, founder

Feb 2022 – Aug 2024

March 2024: stable autonomous TVC flight on a custom PCB, no fins.
Collaborated on a team of three; responsible for mechanical design, the controller, and some circuit board iterations.
Received press coverage in the Del Mar Times.

Experience

Engineering Intern Fairino of North America (formerly Devonics Automation), San Diego · ~20-person robotics firm

Jun – Jul 2026

Built a 6-DOF haptic master arm teleoperating a Fairino FR3 collaborative robot by feel, with three graduate-student interns.
Designed custom PCBs and electronics, haptics firmware, and part of the mechanical CAD.
Wrote part of the FR3’s collision avoidance: a virtual ground plane using landing-burn kinematics, working back from a maximum deceleration to the last point the arm can still stop.
Built a web app for real-time control and haptics gain tuning that ran the final demo; delivered the project on time.

Education

Canyon Crest Academy, San Diego Class of 2027

2023 – 2027

GPA 3.92 UW / 4.32 W · ACT 35 · SAT 1540 · AP Scholar with Distinction
AP exams: Calculus BC: 5 (AB subscore 5) · Physics 1: 5 · Physics 2: 5 · CS Principles: 5 · Chemistry: 4 (eight total, all 4s and 5s)
Senior year: AP Physics C (Mechanics + E&M), Calculus III, Linear Algebra, AP Computer Science A, AP Statistics, AP Gov, AP Macroeconomics, AP English Literature
FRC 3128 controls (shoot-while-moving ballistics) · Lacrosse, JV captain · Jazz Band (piano and bass)
Self-taught through university lectures and textbooks: control theory (PID, LQR, ADRC), state estimation (Kalman filtering), orbital mechanics.

Leadership & Teaching

Solo glider pilot, SGS 1-26 single-seat sailplane (44+ hours) — handled a real tow-rope break emergency alone at 1,500 ft with a precise landing.
FTC Team 32811 “Pineapple Power” (2025–26) — co-founder and mechanical lead; recruited and trained members; reached San Diego regionals; earned Innovate Award.
Open Sauce exhibitor, 2023–2025 (~20,000 attendees a year) — presented TVC and landing rocket projects with a professional booth and interactive demos for PID control and TVC to hobbyists and educational influencers including BPS.space, Destin Sandlin from SmarterEveryDay, and Scott Manley.
Mentoring two students remotely (India, US) building their own TVC rockets based on my public documentation.
Boys and Girls Club Youth Arts Academy Student Advisory Board — VP (2023-2024), President (2024–2026); organized and ran 10+ rock band events and fundraisers, stood in on drums for the band “Emergency” at a live show; 2024 Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year nominee.

Skills & Certifications

Engineering: CAD (Onshape — Certified Associate; Fusion 360) · PCB design (KiCad, Eagle) · Python · embedded C/C++ · MATLAB/Simulink · ROS2 · Git

Languages: English (native), French (fluent, DELF B2 — two years in France)
Also: Red Cross First Aid/CPR · Science Olympiad medals (Sounds of Music, Mousetrap Vehicle) · First-degree black belt, Taekwondo