Henry R. Smith

MIT MechE '25 | Mechanical Engineering & Innovation

Welcome to my engineering portfolio. I'm passionate about designing innovative solutions to complex mechanical problems. Below you'll find my featured projects.

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Henry R. Smith

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I'm always interested in hearing about new projects and opportunities. Feel free to reach out!

Featured Projects

2026
DART vehicle cutaway diagram

EIGSS: Precision Resupply

DART — Denied Area Resupply Tool

Designed and tested a high-speed, airbag-cushioned resupply vehicle for GPS-denied environments, reducing payload impact deceleration by 85%.

AerospaceImpact DynamicsTesting
2025
CAD overview of the folding container

2.77: Precision Product Design

Fold-Out Shipping Container — Fall 2025

Designed a self-folding shipping container using a 4-bar linkage mechanism, sized its actuators, and validated the concept with a quarter-scale prototype.

Precision DesignMechanismsCAD
2024–2025
Finished syringe-pump 3D printer

Undergraduate Research

Syringe-Pump 3D Printer for Aluminum-Water Reaction Structures

Designed and built a custom syringe-pump 3D printer to manufacture water-soluble polymer structures loaded with oxide-free aluminum nanoparticles for hydrogen-generation research.

3D PrintingCADResearch
2025
Machined headstock housing held in hand

2.72: Elements of Mechanical Design

"Lathe Class" — Precision Mini-Lathe

Contributed thermal modeling, testing, and housing manufacturing to a team project designing, modeling, and manufacturing a precision lathe accurate to 0.002".

Precision DesignThermal ModelingManufacturing
2024
Corvette Racing IMSA GTD car

Pratt Miller Motorsports Internship

Motorsports Design Intern — Summer 2024, Brooklyn, MI

Designed endurance race car components for Corvette Racing's IMSA GTD/GTD Pro program, resolving a suspension assembly interference issue from analysis through an accepted design change.

MotorsportsGD&TFEA
2023–2024
MIT Motorsports team photo

MIT Motorsports / FSAE

Mechanical Lead, MY24

Led a 40+ student mechanical team through a full year design-build cycle, fielding MIT's first car to compete in every event since 2019.

LeadershipVehicle DesignManufacturing
2024
Research poster: Effect of Material on Electromagnetic Shielding

2.671 Measurement and Instrumentation

Effect of Material on Electromagnetic Shielding

Designed and ran a controlled experiment measuring how enclosure materials shield FSAE electronics from motor EMI, finding aluminum tube shielding cut interference by 92%.

Experimental DesignStatisticsEMI
2023
Machined injection mold

2.008 Design and Manufacturing II

Injection-Molded & Thermoformed Yoyos

Manufactured 100 injection-molded and thermoformed yoyos, learning mass-manufacturing process and quality-control design.

Injection MoldingDFMManufacturing
2023
Gearbox technical drawing

2.007 Design and Manufacturing I

Competition Robot

Designed, calculated, and manufactured a competition robot's drivetrain, selecting motor count and gear ratio from torque-speed analysis.

Drivetrain DesignManufacturing
2023
Team photo with the wheelchair prototype

MakeMIT 2023

Ergonomic Wheelchair — 24-Hour Hackathon

Built an ergonomic wheelchair attachment in 24 hours, winning the Formlabs Award for most creative 3D print.

Hackathon3D Printing
2022
Pneumatic fist rig being tested

MITh-busters

Can a Person Punch Down a Tree?

Built a dual-piston pneumatic fist to test whether a punch could fell a tree. Conclusion: busted — wood is too dense.

PneumaticsFor Fun