Mechanical Engineering Portfolio
Kayla O'Neal
Dual-degree student in Physics & Applied Math at Saint Mary's College and Mechanical Engineering at Notre Dame. I hope to build things that have to work in the real world — aerospace structures, robotic mechanisms, and prosthetic devices.
Areas of Interest
Aerospace
Structures, propulsion, and flight systems — the discipline where materials, thermodynamics, and dynamics all have to agree at once.
Robotics
Mechanism design, actuation, and control. Physics and applied math turn a linkage sketch into predictable, repeatable motion.
Prosthetics
Human-centered mechanical design: comfort, load transfer, and durability, engineered around the person who wears it.
Featured Project
Stove Solutions
A team engineering design project focused on safer, more efficient cooking stoves. The work spanned problem definition and user needs, iterative concept generation, CAD modeling, and physical prototyping — validating heat transfer and combustion performance against real usage constraints rather than ideal-case assumptions.
It's the clearest example of how I like to work: define the constraint honestly, model it, build it, then measure whether the build agrees with the model.
Learn more on the Projects page- Role
- Design & analysis team member
- Methods
- CAD modeling, heat transfer analysis, prototyping
- Outcome
- Tested prototype with documented performance iterations
Education
Saint Mary's College
Junior
B.S. Physics & Applied Math
Analytical foundation — mechanics, differential equations, numerical methods, and modeling.
University of Notre Dame
Sophomore
B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Dual-degree engineering track — design, CAD, thermodynamics, materials, and hands-on labs.
Technical Toolkit
- CAD / Solid Modeling
- MATLAB
- Python
- Statics & Dynamics
- Thermodynamics
- Numerical Methods
- Prototyping & Fabrication
- Technical Documentation
Contact
Looking for internships in aerospace, robotics, and prosthetics.
Happy to talk through project details, coursework, or how I'd fit a team.
Kayla O'Neal — Saint Mary's College · University of Notre Dame