Hezekiah Pendley

Founding engineer building autonomous material-handling systems for large construction sites. I own mechanical design, manufacturing, and test for our v1 robot — from actuation assemblies, mounts, and serviceable hardware through structural, thermal, sealing, and ruggedization decisions for equipment that has to survive outdoor jobsite conditions. Working across disciplines to bring the machine up: with electrical on packaging and cable routing, with autonomy on sensor placement and calibration, and with operations on manufacturability, serviceability, and field repair. Making practical engineering tradeoffs under real startup constraints, and helping build Strata's early engineering culture. Most of my time right now goes to talking with superintendents, materials managers, and field crews to understand how material actually moves through a jobsite — so what we build reflects the real work, not our assumptions about it.

Student-led team that designs and manufactures an FSAE car for competition and showcase at Formula Hybrid and FSAE Electric national competitions. Currently a member of the Front Powertrain subteam of the Mechanical Engineering Team.

Designed and analyzed a custom parachute-packing self-reaction fixture, verified with FEA, delivered at 40% of the projected budget, facilitating key improvements of the parachute deployment system, saving over $360,000. Directed shipping logistics and authored a technician-ready guide, enabling deployment and operation of critical hardware at a remote test site. Doubled the structural allowable for crewed capsule parachute deployment during re-entry by using FEMAP to model bounding strains in complex composites and readying an in-house Qualification-by-Test campaign. Led design reviews and coordinated cross-functional teams to deliver projects on time, within budget, and aligned with stakeholder requirements. Expanded technical breadth by attending engineering lectures and touring SpaceX facilities to study advanced design and manufacturing methods across multiple programs(Dragon, Falcon, Starlink, Starship, NASA Langley).

Created CAD in Fusion 360 to support the chassis of a molten regolith electrolysis forge for NASA’s Big Idea Challenge. Fully automated the steel production process to operate with minimal astronaut intervention which saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in astronaut man-hours Used MATLAB to model various pressure vessel designs that our produced steel could be used to create.