Mechanical Engineering · UT Austin

Nathan Barnes

Hi, I'm Nate, a Mechanical Engineer with a passion for motorsport.

Major
Mech. Eng.
Minor
Comp. Sci.
GPA
3.94
Graduating
May 2027
Nathan Barnes
Fig. 0 — Portrait images/hero.jpg
SEC. 01

Professional Experience

AutoZone
Customer Satisfaction
Aug 2023 — Aug 2024

Provided trustworthy advice to customers on the parts they needed to solve their automotive issues.

Valeron Strength Films
Engineering Administrative Assistant
May 2025 — Aug 2025

Wrote technical documentation for machine operators and created 100+ documents supporting ISO certification.

Daikin Comfort Technologies
Design Engineering Intern
May 2026 — Aug 2026

Optimized heat exchanger geometry, cutting fin count 20% for $1.75M in savings, and ran AHRI-compliant testing.

SEC. 02

Experience

Aug 2024 — Present
Active

Longhorn Racing (FSAE)

Designed and validated intake system. Utilized both simulation and real world testing to validate and adapt designs. Pictured is the complete 2025 intake with all components integrated (fuel injectors, plenum, runner & throttle body). FSAE has provided me with a space to see how to balance simulations, and real world testing during the engineering process.

Jan 2024 — Aug 2026

BattleBots

For the past three years, I have been a part of team "Big Bark". Together we have created three different iterations of a 3 lb battle bot that needs to be both durable and able to pack a punch. I have been able to learn a lot about material selection and 3D printing through battle bots.

Nov 2021 — Present
Active

24 Hours of Lemons

I have been involved with Lemons since I earned my driver's license at 16. I started as a driver, but after being involved with the team, I now prepare the car before a race weekend and diagnose/repair any issues faced during the weekend. While Lemons is quite low-stakes, it was my introduction to the paddock and has shown me the importance of safety and high-quality work for a successful race weekend.

More Info →
SEC. 03

Personal Projects

5 Months

Engine Rebuild — '87 Mustang 5.0L

Rebuilt a Ford 5.0L engine to bring life back to an '87 Mustang. Took the junkyard engine entirely apart and replaced parts if they were out of specification/tolerance. I was able to learn about the inner workings of a combustion engine.

3 Months

Engine Swap — '89 Mini

Assisted my dad in replacing the 998cc engine in his Mini with a 1275cc. Since this engine was quite a bit older than the one in the Mustang, I got to see the simplicity of an older engine and where the gains in efficiency have been made in engine development.

Personal Project

Ender 5 Restoration

Restored a Creality Ender 5 found on the side of the road to working condition. Once functional, added upgrades including a faster motherboard, a BLTouch for automatic bed leveling, and a direct drive extruder to allow printing with TPU.

SEC. 04

School Projects

Mechatronics Lab

Wind Turbine

Converted "wind" provided from a fan into a usable DC voltage. This was done by converting the AC voltage from a generator into DC with a "smoothed" full-wave rectifier. There was also a light system to indicate the amount of voltage being supplied: Red = Low, Yellow = Medium, Green = High. An Arduino was used to control the logic of this circuit, and a capacitor was added to the rectifier to minimize any ripple.

Robot Mechanism Design

Horse Racing Mechanism

We utilized a simple four-bar mechanism, along with motors and an Arduino, to mimic a horse race. The Arduino controlled the speaker and lights, and detected when a horse had finished the race. On the mechanical side, a rack and pinion was used to move the four-bar mechanism.

More Info →
Custom RC car project from Machine Elements class
Fig. 9 images/custom-rc.jpg
Machine Elements Class

RC Car - Redesign

The purpose of this project was to improve an existing RC car with custom designs and parts. My team decided to focus on reducing weight, lowering the center of gravity, and stiffening the suspension. Our car ended up placing second in the class after our modification.

More Info →
SEC. 05

Education

University of Texas at Austin

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Certificate in Computer Science. Aug 2023 – May 2027.

GPA
3.94
Relevant Coursework
Thermodynamics Engineering Mechanics Fluid Dynamics Circuits Material Science MATLAB Computer Science I & II Heat Transfer Finance Databases Mobile App Development Controls Elements of Mechanical Design
SEC. 06

Contact

SEC. 07

Resume

Below is my full resume, feel free to download and share with your fellow decision makers.

Your browser can't preview PDFs inline. Use the download button below instead.
Download Resume (PDF)