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In the LA area until Monday, September 22nd, 2025.

If you have already read my one pager and one-page resume, you can skip to the red arrows. >>>>>>>>>

+1-626-648-1938 hugo.trombert@gmail.com LinkedIn

Mechanical engineering Master's from EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland), class of 2025.

Just finished my Master's Thesis in Caltech's Manthiram Lab, doing electrochemistry because I want to work on making gigascale cheap non-fossil hydrocarbons.

>>> Long-time non-fossil hydrocarbons enthusiast: when I was 15, I grew microalgae in a photobioreactor and steam distillated it to extract the oil.

More recently I built a jet engine to improve my machining and welding skills.


Image Credit: Francesco Stante
My jet engine and I after a succesful test in the Mojave desert. (Image Credit: Francesco Stante)


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PAST WORK AND ENGINEERING EXPERIENCES:

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EPFL ROCKET TEAM
At EPFL Rocket Team, I designed the mechanical assembly for a modular cryogenic rocket engine electric pump.
I was supposed to design the geometry of the labyrinth seals, but I ended up designing the entire mechanical assembly of the pump in 4 months. Negotiated parts down saving more than 1500$.
Testing at our testing facility is expected later this year after the main competition.

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SAILOWTECH
I co-founded and was Vice-President of Sailowtech, a student-group at EPFL that organizes and runs oceanographic expeditions and outreach events in schools on ocean conservation.
Our first expedition, focused on plankton and circling the North Atlantic Ocean for a year with a crew of 6, was a success, with research findings having already informed academic semester projects. I was a crew-member for the last 4 months, in Canada, Greenland and France.

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EPFL CARBON TEAM
I designed and built a vacuum chamber from sheet metal with radiative heating elements for research on the performance of different adsorbants for Vacuum and Temperature Swing Adsorption (VTSA), a method for Direct Air Capture.

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ALPHA IMPULSION
As an engineering intern for 2 months, working on the world's first autophage rocket (the tank is the solid fuel in the hybrid rocket engine, burning both radially and longitudinally like a candle), I designed dynamic tank parts which succeeded in the pressure tests, and I designed and implemented some of the electronics and interfaces for the electric motor control system.

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OTHER:
- Part-time internship at CIM UPC doing mostly CAD,
- Summer and student jobs as a waiter, physics TA, in door-to-door sales, and in washing machine installation.

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ENGINEERING HARD SKILLS (besides the assumed MechE knowledge):

- Machining: 	self-taught, good enought to build a functional, low-thrust jet engine. I had no machining classes at EPFL so I bought used equipment and learned with friends and Youtube,
- Welding: basic skills with MIG and stick on steel,
- PCB design: good on KiCAD for a MechE,
- Analytical chemistry lab experience.

>>>>>>>>>

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HOBBIES:
In my spare time, when not working on personal projects (like those on my old Instructables), I like to:
- fly airplanes (flew as towplane pilot at Yverdon Glider Club, flying the mighty Aerospool WT-9 for free),
- SCUBA dive,
- climb mountains (testament for enjoying Type >1 fun),
- travel to remote places (rode the Mauritania Iron Ore train and visited an indigenous community in the Costa Rica forest that had not been visited for 2 years),
- read books,
- repair my cars,
- learn languages (French: native, English: fluent, Italian: decent but I replaced most of it with Spanish, Chinese: beginner).

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THINGS I'M INTERESTED IN:
- decarbonizing heavy industry and transportation,
- exploring and settling space.

>>> Dreaming of GDP-GHG decoupling, and of industrializing Mars during the year and astro-mountaineering on the holidays.

Proud Make Sunsets customer.

French citizen, aspiring American immigrant. Not a current US citizen nor a permanent resident.