Jaxton Monterey Willman

About me

Engineer. Since I was little, I knew I was going to be an engineer because I've always loved solving problems. I wanted to start with biomechatronics because I was inspired by Hugh Herr and his work in bionics. I chose to pursue mechanical engineering with a focus on biomechanics and a minor in computer science. I want to take an interdisciplinary approach to my work as I enjoy the integration of all aspects of engineering. It is this integration that interests me the most. I plan to continue learning electrical engineering to grow my skill set and ability to approach a problem from all angles.

Gator. I attended the University of Florida from 2018 to 2022 and enjoyed my time there. I am proud to be a part of that community. Whether going to football games or engineering events, I was there and proud to be a part of the Gator Nation. I was with the Solar Gators team at the Circuit of the Americas for the Formula Sun Grand Prix, and it was an amazing moment as our whole team got into our Gator chants. Even other colleges joined in! And I love giving back what I can to that community, especially as a mentor.

Innovator. This is what gets me up in the morning. I love coming up with interesting functional designs and introducing new ideas to my projects. In Solar Gators, I convinced the executive team to allocate team members to design and integrate an electronic steering wheel with buttons that could control all the functionality we had been wanting. Akin to a consumer car, the steering wheel would allow cruise control, various power efficiency driving modes, and conform to ASC regulations all over CAN bus. I was excited to oversee a new design that would improve driver comfort and effectiveness. In my senior capstone project class, the design constraints were challenging. But because one of my proposed designs incorporated a simple but functionally complex flower petal folding mechanism, our team was the only team that managed to follow the design constraints. Then the constraints were changed, and we adapted. I enjoy innovating and want to do more of it. Finding new ways to do things efficiently is the part of engineering that excites me most. I want to push the envelope to develop things for people they didn't know they wanted. The future is so exciting, there are crazy cool innovations in technology being developed today, whether it's battery tech or software and it's easily going to change how people live their lives. These are innovations I want to be a part of - I'm excited about them.

Mentor. Wisdom is best used when given to someone else. In my freshman year, I had an amazing RA who gave us so much knowledge and understanding of the four years I was about to face. He worked with us to handcraft a schedule and helped us find what we wanted to do. I wanted to follow in his footsteps as much as I could. In my later years, I focused on advising and teaching my peers. As a peer advisor, I worked with students to create better schedules that helped them succeed, showed them opportunities they didn't know about, and helped with shaping career goals. It was awesome to hear back from students when they found great success in finding a lab to do research or enjoyed their schedule more as the semesters went on. In Solar Gators, I oversaw getting an instructional program running to get students geared up with the skills the senior students had to continue the success of the Solar Gators team. As a TA, I fostered a community the lab hadn't seen in a while. More than 40 students sought help during office hours. When I was not running lab experiments, I was working with the students to teach them the lab concepts and finer principles of report writing and presentation. As an engineer, I think it is most important to be involved in passing along information as we all grow stronger from it.

Competitor. I love being competitive. Competition grows a better product and thus a better grade! My competitive edge helps to push me forward and convince me to pursue more challenging but rewarding designs which require hard work and determination. In Solar Gators, we wanted our solar car to perform the best at the Circuit of the Americas. Our team was focused on retrofitting our current car while some of the team was allocated to designing the next car with significant advancements. While our team was split in our design work, we all came together to work nearly 16-hour days during competition week as we got our car ready for scrutineering, the mechanical design challenges, and putting out fires. In DML, my first engineering team-based class, we were specified to design a robot to compete in an arena challenge with a complex set of rules with tennis balls. Like a FIRST robotics challenge, just more two-by-fours instead of plastic. Other teams sought safe designs, but I convinced my team to pursue a venturesome design that would beat the other teams in half the time. All teams could train on the parts they were to manufacture ahead of time, but we were the only team to finish manufacturing all the major components on the first day, allowing more time for testing and driving training which was part of my plan.

Extra. Things I like to do. I like learning about new technologies. There are so many cool and interesting things that are being developed right now that will change our future. Like fusion and gravity drives! I am deeply interested in the intersection of computing, engineering, and biology. I like traveling. This summer I studied abroad in Japan which opened my eyes to a whole new culture: the foods, sights, communication, and experiences in a new place. Because of my adventurous spirit, I'm willing to relocate and learn a new community. I like learning that there are different ways to do things. I like playing video games. Video games allow you to discover new worlds, rules, and cultures and allow creativity and thinking. I love computers; it is fascinating to learn about each abstraction from the operating system to moving bits around the registers. I enjoy coding as I can conceptualize and create a new interface, something visually cool, or a whole new world.

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