Meet the Team: James Austin, Lead Mechanical Engineer

“Imagination. Creativity. Attention to detail. Ability to multitask. And passion for the work.” Meet our lead mechanical engineer, James Austin, and find out why he says these are the skills required to do his job well.

Meet the Team: James Austin, Lead Mechanical Engineer

Hi, I'm James Austin, and I'm the lead mechanical engineer here at PSYONIC. As lead mechanical engineer, I'm responsible for pretty much all of the mechanical aspects of the hand, either designing them myself or supervising to make sure they get done properly. That includes structural elements, mechanisms that transfer motion from the motors to the fingers, manufacturing processes, as well as testing and verification of quality on all the mechanical components that we produce.

Q1: What got you interested in engineering?

Ever since I was a kid, I've always been interested in engineering. I always loved doodling designs and blueprints and manufacturing and stuff like that. I liked all science, but I especially liked biomedical science stuff that integrated technology with physiology. My undergraduate degree was in mechanical engineering, but I did a minor in biomed that I really was interested in and that led me to a masters in mechanical specifically in the area of prosthetics. I took mechanical engineering in undergrad specifically because I liked robotics a lot. And when I took a biomedical minor, I realized that there could be this amazing intersection of robotics and biomedical technology, the crux of which was prosthetics. So that's what I leaned into and it got me to where I am today.

Q2: When did you join the PSYONIC team?

I've been working for PSYONIC for nearly four years. I joined in January 2019, moving here from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to a very tiny team that was just doing R&D prototypes. So I was looking for a position within a prosthetics company, ideally, and I looked all around Canada. I couldn't find anything. I looked around the States, was looking around Chicago, and just happened to come across this little company that was looking for a lead mechanical engineer and I went and visited, saw the space, and just fell in love with the whole vibe and everything they were doing and all the enthusiasm and energy here.

Q3: What does it take to do your job well?

What does it take to do my job well? Well, I'm always trying to figure that out myself and do a better job than I did yesterday. But I'd say imagination, the ability to visualize and conceptualize mechanisms and how they interact with the parts around them before I've even designed them. Creativity, figuring out novel structures, novel manufacturing methods that we maybe hadn't considered before. Attention to detail. The ability to diagnose problems quickly and efficiently. The ability to multitask, to have a lot of ideas in my mind at once and balance them all out against how we're gonna produce them. And passion. I mean, I wouldn't still be here if I wasn't enthusiastic about it. We've had some long nights and stressful crunch periods, but it’s all worth it because I believe in what we do.

Q4: How would you describe the work culture at PSYONIC?

The vibe is very creative, cutting edge, moving fast, trying new things. We're a very small team and we have a lot of flexibility and freedom to try things that we think will work—and lots of projects don't pan out—but the ones that do allow us to do things in new ways that have maybe never been done before in this industry. And I love having that freedom and flexibility and the creative energy of the team all comes together to really make miraculous things happen.

Q5: What is your favorite part of working at PSYONIC?

I find my job extremely fulfilling for a number of reasons. I get to do what I'm interested in, as I mentioned, biomedical engineering. I get to do a variety of different things. Every day is different. I could be CADing, I could be manufacturing. I could be writing a paper, I could be doing logistics, I could be filming a video. There's always something new to be done. I get to interact with so many cool people, and I get to work with patients who are really inspiring. I get to help bring back something to their lives that they've lost, and really make a difference in people's lives personally. And all this just comes together to make it just a really satisfying, fulfilling job.

Q6: What excites you most about PSYONIC’s future?

I'm really looking forward to seeing PSYONIC grow and develop in the future, and what my role will be in that. When I first joined, we were very purely R&D trying to come up with the first prototypes. As we moved forward, I took on a lot of roles in manufacturing optimization and management, which was cool in its own way. But I'm really excited to be getting back to more pure mechanical R&D, which is really my forte. Now that manufacturing is sort of self-sustaining, I'm looking forward to doing some big projects, like completely revamping parts of the hands with new motors or maybe even new prosthetics entirely like fingers, elbows, legs. Just excited to be moving on to some big new stuff in San Diego.