“I’d rather be naive than inert”

Hello! My name is Michaelangelo Parkinson and I am a Mechanical Engineer at Michigan State University. I created this website to document the progress of my projects. With this website I can solidify my learnings and understandings from my projects, my thought process and my failures and finally a way for me to improve my explanation skills.

I hope this site helps give a better understanding of my passions and goals as an engineer.

Why engineering?

Right off the bat, an important question that dictates my personality is why did I choose this field? What made me decide to go to college and tackle this difficult profession?

Since a young age I was always curious at how the world worked. I saw planes flying through the sky and wanted to build my own. Eventually I scrambled enough LEGO pieces to create a fighter plane that looked to be a mix between the F-15 Eagle and F-22 Raptor. I threw that thing into the air so many times the front was chiseled down to a blunt semi-circle. I owned a huge book detailing the ins and outs of fighter jets and would spend days creating my own design from them.

In middle school I became obsessed with technology and wanted to know just how they worked. I found myself sneaking out of my room to disassemble my mom and dad’s laptops and figure out what the internals did. Eventually I saved up enough money to build my own computer — some of those parts I still use to this day. I became obsessed with computer hardware and consumer electronics, leading my way to rumor websites on what the next iPhone, graphics card, or game console would be… they never were true, but it helped pass the time!

High school saw me take these desires and find an outlet: FIRST Robotics. I joined Team 2832 The Livonia Warriors as a member of the mechanical team and eventually team captain. 2017 saw our first appearance at the FIRST Robotics World Championships and 2018 and 2019 being subsequent appearances. I found myself staying late at night to machine my own projects and refine our robot design to the best it could be. From this experience, I knew I wanted to pursue mechanical engineering.

As a mechanical engineering undergrad at Michigan State University, I joined the Formula SAE team to pursue my interest in Formula 1 and become a better mechanical engineer. There I became the Aero Manufacturing lead and oversaw the machining and manufacturing of our rohacell and carbon fiber aero elements. I craved more engineering experience and took a leap of faith on an engineering co-op. Now, as of 2022 I am living in the San Francisco Bay Area as a Mechanical Engineering Co-op with Johnson & Johnson Medtech. I hope to continue expanding my knowledge and experience as a mechanical engineer.