Alden Iselin
Mechanical Engineering
I'm a mechanical engineering student who likes turning ideas into working hardware, especially in spaceflight and sustainability. Outside of engineering, I'm an ultrarunner with nine ultramarathons behind me, including two 100-mile races.
Experience
Roles and projects
Resume
Resume
Contact
Get in touch
- alden.iselin@gmail.com
- linkedin.com/in/alden-iselin
Benchmark Space Systems
My summer internship was funded by NASA through the Vermont Space Grant Consortium. I then earned a return offer, and Benchmark now funds my work on the Mechanical Design Team through the academic year.
Projects
Monopropellant manifold conversion
A client needed monopropellant operation, but our pressure-management manifold had been designed, qualified, and tested for bipropellant use. A brand-new manifold would have needed its own qualification campaign, and the schedule didn't allow for that, so we adapted the existing one instead.
I carried out the conversion: I created the new monoprop assembly, made the manifold's technical drawing, and set configuration-specific details such as patch heaters. I also designed the plug shown here, a trim regulator tube cap CNC-machined from 6061-T651 aluminum. It has two AS568-010 O-ring grooves that form a static radial seal and hold in the manifold's pressure. It was my first flight part, and the manifold is scheduled to launch on SpaceX Transporter 19.
Thermal-vacuum and vibration fixtures
I designed and analyzed three fixtures that work for both thermal-vacuum testing and vibration testing up to 2,000 Hz. Between them they covered four types of valves (six to eight mounted at a time), a manifold, and a fill/drain valve.
The manifold and fill/drain valve were vibrated while pressurized, so I plumbed in the tubing, valves, and pressure transducers for those two campaigns. I routed the tubing in CAD and bent it myself. Shaking a pressurized part adds risk, so I also modified a blast enclosure built from aluminum extrusion to surround the table.
SOLIDWORKS API
Benchmark asked me to audit our design process and find ways to modernize, optimize, or automate it. My main recommendation was a single SOLIDWORKS tool that combines several jobs, and I'm now building it.
First, it reorganizes vendor CAD files into a standard format, automatically filling in part properties, mass properties, and other fields. Second, it checks parts against Benchmark's established standards, flagging empty properties, broken sketches, and similar problems. The hardest piece, which I'm still working on, runs a modal analysis on every part automatically. That gives us baseline natural-frequency estimates to validate early designs and to make sure parts can survive the vibration of a rocket launch.
More photos
UVM Aerospace Club
Vice President
May 2026 – Present2026–27 competition aircraft
This year's mission centers on a towed “sensor.” In one mission it simply rides inside the aircraft in a shipping container. In the next, it has to be deployed and recovered in flight, stay aerodynamically stable while towed, and switch its lights from blinking to solid between laps.
I co-lead the team of about 20 and drive the high-level decisions: competition strategy, aircraft configuration, and the surface model design itself. I also handle much of the team's project management.
Industry partnerships
I helped lead the effort that brought BETA Technologies on as a technical partner. Their engineers now mentor our team and review our designs. I've led our presentations to BETA and to the Vermont Space Grant Consortium board. Together with our club president, I also reach out to local companies, which has brought in sponsorships, guest speakers every other week, and facility tours for our members.
Mission Systems Lead
Aug 2025 – May 2026Final wing assembly
I started the season leading mission-system integration. When the design effort fell behind in the second half of the year, I moved into broader aircraft design to help the team recover, and ended up designing and building the final wing.
The wing has laser-cut basswood structure covered in MonoKote, 3D-printed winglets, internal electrical routing and interfaces, and retractable landing gear. Looking back, the retractable gear added complexity we didn't need, but for the time and resources we had, the wing came out well.
Solestice Labs
Founding and pilot program
Solestice Labs started with a friend of mine who had worked at Heartbreak Hill Running Company through middle school and high school. He pitched the idea to Heartbreak, which invested $30K, and then brought me on to turn the idea into a functional prototype, ready for deployment in stores.
Scanning system
A customer puts their shoe on a shoe tree, slides it into the enclosure, closes the door, and presses scan. Cameras photograph the shoe, and an AI model trained by the rest of the team analyzes its wear and compression patterns.
I designed and built the complete physical system: the enclosure, the dual-camera imaging, and the supporting electronics. The toughest problems were training the model and getting reliable scans; the hardware was the more straightforward part. I stepped away once the store-ready prototype was finished, since I wouldn't have time for it during the school year. The company is now rolling the scanner out across Heartbreak's stores.
MOTIV Engineering
Solar-array platform
MOTIV's modular solar array is built to provide on-demand power for disaster relief. I built the structural frame myself, then helped assemble the rest of the platform, including the pneumatic actuators that track the sun and the stacked solar-panel turret, and helped run its deployment tests.
Sonic-anemometer deployment system
The array needs to know wind speed so it only operates in safe conditions, and that measurement comes from a sonic anemometer. For this U.S. Navy-contracted system, I designed and prototyped the mechanism that deploys the anemometer. It uses a stepper-driven rack and pinion with encoder feedback and limit sensing. I bench-tested the prototype and mounted it on the array to confirm it worked as intended.
Interests and Achievements
Ultramarathons
I've finished nine ultramarathons, including two 100-mile races: the Orcas Island 100, with almost 30,000 feet of climbing, and the Leadville 100, a race in the highest elevation city in the U.S.
Nordic ski racing
I raced the Last Nordic Skier Standing, where skiers keep completing laps until only one is left. That year was exceptionally cold, with a daytime high of 0°F. I covered 70 miles before dropping because I could no longer feel my hands. It was -11F.
Interests
Backcountry skiing, biking, mountaineering, cooking.
