Michael Raba

Michael Raba

Mechanical Engineer, MSc 🇺🇸

Michael Raba, Mechanical Engineer

I'm a mechanical engineer in Lexington, Kentucky, with an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kentucky (December 2025). My work spans finite element analysis, acoustic simulation, material modeling, machine design and closed-loop controls, and I write the code to check my own models. I'm looking for a hands-on design, test, simulation or product engineering role.

See projects Resume (PDF) LinkedIn
CAD model of the ball-on-beam rig

Ball-on-Beam Control Rig

Servo-driven beam that balances a ball using a time-of-flight sensor and a feedback controller. Interactive 3D CAD inside.

ControlsSimulinkArduinoCAD
 Multichamber muffler internal geometry

Multichamber Muffler

Transmission loss from 0 to 1000 Hz in ANSYS Acoustics, checked against a 1D transfer-matrix model and measured data.

ANSYS AcousticsSIDLABNVH
 POD reconstruction of turbulent pipe flow

MSc: Turbulent Pipe Flow Reduced-Order Model

MATLAB framework that boils about 5 TB of DNS data down to a handful of energy modes to study how rotation suppresses turbulence.

MATLABCFD dataPOD / ROM
 Stress versus inelastic strain curves for a solder alloy

Viscoplastic Solder Joint Model

Anand's model coded in Python to predict rate- and temperature-dependent stress in solder, used to check an ANSYS material model.

PythonANSYSReliability

What I work with

Simulation / CAE
ANSYS Workbench (Static Structural, Acoustics, nonlinear materials, parameter optimization), SIDLAB, FEA meshing and post-processing
Design
Rhino CAD; static and fatigue design of shafts and machine elements (Shigley)
Controls / hardware
Simulink, Arduino, servo actuation, time-of-flight sensing
Programming
MATLAB, Python (NumPy, Plotly, Flask), C++, Fortran, SQL, R, Linux, LaTeX
Methods
Reduced-order modeling (POD), constitutive modeling, numerical methods, design of experiments

Currently

  • Taking undergraduate Machine Design (ME 344) and Controls (ME/AER 440) at the University of Kentucky to round out the core undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum alongside my MSc.
  • Designing shaft and drivetrain components for a 40 HP, 1750 RPM electric motor, and building the ball-on-beam controller with my ME 440 team.
  • Working at UK HealthCare, where I’ve built small software tools that make day-to-day work faster.
  • Open to engineering roles in the Lexington area and to remote simulation or computational roles. The best way to reach me is through LinkedIn.