John D. Zender

Determined to leave an impact in this world in any way possible. Hoping to help expand mankind’s space exploration, advance robotics automation, produce self-sustaining energy, or advance our military defense systems to protect our country from any danger.

I’m looking for a career that will challenge me constantly. I’m not afraid to fail over and over again; if you never fail you’re not trying hard enough. My dream job includes wearing multiple hats that keeps me involved in all aspects of a project.

“The people that are crazy enough to believe they can change the world, are the ones that do” – Steve Jobs

I hope to be crazy enough that it encourages others to do the same.

Career Interest

Aerospace
Automation
Consumer Products
Military Defense
Renewable Energy Production
Waste/Recyclable Management Systems

Strengths

CAD (SolidWorks, Creo, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Rhino3D)
EPDM and Windchill
Rapid Prototyping (3D Printing and Machining)
Matlab & EES (Engineering Equation Solver)
Arduino and Microsoft Visual Studios
3D Scanning/Reverse Engineering

Professional Experience

Kenworth Truck Company

Design Engineer, March 2019 – Present

Kenworth introduced me to the automotive industry and designing with Creo. Kenworth is a Paccar company, which provides many opportunities to collaborate with people from all around the world and travel to new places. Using Creo 4.0 I have designed many HVAC lines, interior options, and mirrors. Utilizing design for six sigma tools and following industry standards, I have successfully lead and managed multiple projects.

John is conscientious about meeting deadlines, supporting team goals and deliverables. He has been proactive in creating a task tracking system for himself.

Lizbeth Davern - Engineering Manager

Design Engineer, January 2019 – March 2019

Bellingham Marine is well known around the world for their modular marinas and docks. Using SolidWorks and AutoCAD I designed and drafted floating structures. I worked on several types of docks for different clients including the City of Bellevue and Bainbridge Yacht Club. I also completed analysis to determine the stability and Freeboard.

Mechanical Engineer Intern, May 2018 – December 2018

SEL challenged my electronics packaging skills and abilities to design parts for different manufacturing processes including: injection molding, stamping, die punching, and machining. At SEL, I completed various types of analysis including: FEA, thermal, tolerance, and frequency to determine part specifications. I gained hands on experience using testing equipment and through rapid prototyping. For every part I designed I also drafted in 2D to communicate the design efficiently with the machine shop/vendors.

Mechanical Engineer Intern, May 2017 – December 2017

Originally hired by Redpoint Structures in May, later merged with Bellingham Marine Industries who was previously their contracting agency. At Redpoint Structures, I used SolidWorks and AutoCAD to design and draft floating structures. I worked on several types of docks for different clients including the City of Bellevue and Bainbridge Yacht Club. I also completed analysis to determine Freeboard and stability.

Washington State University

Research Assistant, January 2016 – May 2016

Assisted Dr. Arda Gozen with soft matter electronics. Through this experience I designed various tensile samples from various elastic materials. After tensile testing, I calculated material properties such as Modulus of Elasticity. The purpose of this research is to advance 3D printing to enable high flexibility for the medical industry and consumer wearables.

Engineering Projects

Zender Industries

Founder & Owner, 2013 - Present

Designing and producing 3D printers has been my greatest hobby for the past 7 years. Initially, designing the printer was use to learn SolidWorks, but now I build printers to innovate new subsystems to improve the industry. Ideally, in the next few years I’ll have well developed printers and accessories to sell to friends and family as a side business to help pay off student loans.

October 2020 - December 2020

During COVID I decided I wanted to start make accessories for my Rav4, starting with a ladder for the hatch. In order to make my own custom designs I thought it would make life easier if I first had a 3d model of my car to upload into SolidWorks. Therefore I began researching different 3d scanning techniques and started trying out each one. The end result turned out great!

December 2018 – May 2018

For my senior design project, I was assigned to Microsoft who requested our team to design a new carrying device for their hardware in the manufacturing process. This device is used for all of their hardware products to be carried through the assembly process while automation machines and humans datum off it for precise pick and place. Prior to our team, each product required its own carrying device, now they only require one. This was a simple design project, however, it taught me a lot about tolerance stack up and rapid designing.

Polymer Extrusion Recycling System

November 2016 – December 2018

I proposed this project to the WSU 3D Printing Club to develop a recycling program on campus and to make the club self-sustainable. This project was split up into three teams: shredder, extruder, and spooler. My focus was leading the extruder team. This recycling system is still in the making, and it has developed my project management skills and creating timelines.

Brick Extruder for Ugandan Village

September 2017 – June 2018

My pre-CAPSTONE course introduced this project which split up an entire brick producing machine into subsystems. My group was tasked with designing and making the extruder portion. This brick extruder was designed for a village in Uganda with the goal to produce 20,000 bricks per day. This project enhanced my skills with flow analysis and technical writing skills.

Cascadia Eye

October 2017 – December 2017

Cascadia Eye was interested in designing their own brand of frames for prescribed lenses. They asked me to help reverse engineer competitors designs and then make changes to meet their own design requirements.

John D Zender