Synopsis
I'm Mike Carovillano. I'm originally from Arlington/Fort Worth in Texas, but have lived in St. Louis, Orlando, Dublin, San Francisco, Ann Arbor, and now Cincinnati! Most of my career has been in aerospace engineering but now I work as a consultant in the data and AI space. I'm hoping to pick up some helpful tools, tips, and tricks in this course as well as get more experience with data wrangling.
I love making things, such as wood working, metal working, glass blowing, 3D printing, etc. and spend quite a bit of time volunteering to help run CubeCats, the University of Cincinnati's student run satellite research organization that will be launching the first ever space mission from the UC later this year! Check us out! Don't hesistate to reach out as we are always looking for potential collaboration opportunities.
Experienced aerospace manager in engineering and production with an in depth knowledge of various fabrication techniques, electromechanical devices, space and IR sensors, composites, additive manufacturing, design for manufacturing, project management, and business development/sales
Academic Background
- Degree / Program: BA in Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, 2019
- Degree / Program: MBA , University of Cincinnati, 2025
- Degree / Program: Certificate in Artificial Intelligence for Business, University of Cincinnati, 2025
- Academic Interests: e.g., time series, NLP, operations analytics
Experience
AMEND Consulting
Consultant • Cincinnati, OH • March 2025 – Present
- Helping lead new AI developments and client work
- Data engineering and data for several >$1B revenue clients.
L3Harris — Space and Sensors
Manufacturing Engineer • Mason, OH • February 2024 – March 2025
- Lead subject matter expert (SME) on dewar sensor manufacturing and vacuum processes, supporting 18+ product lines and multiple clean room labs.
- Drove Lean/Six Sigma improvements that increased yield, improved process performance, and reduced maintenance; realized labor & material savings of $300k+.
- Partnered with development and engineering teams on New Product Introductions for space & defense applications.
- Owned failure analysis, test discrepancy investigations, and manufacturing reports across RF, electro-optical, and space-based sensor lines.
Vayu Aerospace
Engineering & Production Manager (previously Design Engineer and Composites Technician) • Ann Arbor, MI • September 2021 – January 2024
- Built and managed production for the flagship G1 aircraft and tactical drone lines; cut unit build time by >60%, reduced aircraft weight by >10%, halved part failure and downtime, and lowered BOM cost by >30%.
- Standardized SOPs and QA checks for traceability and continuous improvement; reduced maintenance and rework.
- Led ERP migration and implemented production-planning software, streamlining workflow and reducing downtime.
- Drove mechanical design & integration across lift systems, landing gear, avionics, and other subsystems; achieved >25% weight reduction on key projects while improving safety and usability.
- Established partnerships with the University of Michigan and external organizations; recruited, trained, and led a high-performing team.
- Owned technical sales & business development (≈20% of annual sales) and expanded into new markets.
- Designed the process flow and facility layout to scale production 10× using lean manufacturing principles.
The Container Store
Visual Sales, Merchandise Processing • San Francisco, CA • March 2020 – July 2021
- Generated new leads, identified customer needs, and delivered customized solutions.
- Maintained top conversion rates for purchases and new membership sign-ups.
- Managed inventory & order processing and supported store operations and customer escalations.
Henriksen Lab Research Group
Undergraduate Research Fellow • St. Louis, MO • Sept–Dec 2017; May 2018 – May 2019
- Researched graphene and nano-scale electronic devices; supported studies on parity-time symmetry behavior.
- Designed, modeled, and fabricated instrumentation and interfaces, including an inert-gas glove-box station for air-sensitive materials.
- Built dielectric PCBs and interfaces for nano-scale electronics; developed and tested resistance thermometers.
- Expanded lab fabrication: SolidWorks modeling, PCB prototyping, laser machining, electroplating, machining, and automation.
- Manually exfoliated and prepared nano-scale materials (incl. graphene) for application and research use.
Skills & Activities
Fabrication & Assembly
Composite materials, woodworking, machining (CNC), additive manufacturing (FDM, MJF, SLA), metal foundry, welding, Electroplating, blacksmithing, glassblowing, hazardous materials, cryogenics, clean room & PPE training
Electromechanical & Programming
PCB prototyping, circuit card assembly (CCA), surface-mount technology (SMT), ultra-high vacuum (UHV)
Design/Programming
SOLIDWORKS, Vectric, CAMWorks, Altium, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Cura, Java, C/C++, Python, Mathematica, LaTeX
Software/Computer skills
NetSuite, SAP, MES, MiniTab, Salesforce, Arduino, Microcontroller (C), G-code, Cura, Adobe Creative Suite
Lean & Six Sigma / Projects
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (projects), process improvement, safety & quality systems
Theater
Production, scenic design, prop construction, furniture carpentry, sculpture
Volunteering
Community theater; Project Open Hand & SF-Marin Food Bank (COVID-19 relief), critical aid logistics
Cube Satellite Work
Business development, industry partner collaborations, systems engineering; experiment design —
Links:
LEOPARDSat-1,
HABSat-1
Experience with R
Not much R experience sadly, but similar tools such as miniTab, LaTex, etc. I'm excited to learn more R in this class!
Optional: Equation & Inline Code
The quadratic formula: x = (-b ± √(b² − 4ac)) / (2a).
Inline code example (iris rows):
Optional: Tiny R Code Chunk
This shows a quick summary of the built-in cars dataset.
## speed dist
## Min. : 4.0 Min. : 2.00
## 1st Qu.:12.0 1st Qu.: 26.00
## Median :15.0 Median : 36.00
## Mean :15.4 Mean : 42.98
## 3rd Qu.:19.0 3rd Qu.: 56.00
## Max. :25.0 Max. :120.00
You can also embed plots, for example:
