Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Engineering Science, Mechanical Engineering, University of California, San Diego, 2023
  • M.S., Engineering Science, Mechanical Engineering, University of California, San Diego, 2019
  • B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2015
Licenses & Certifications
  • Professional Engineer Mechanical, California, #42303
Academic Appointments
  • Instructor, Dept. of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, 2022
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego 2017-2021
Professional Affiliations
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
  • Pi Tau Sigma International Mechanical Engineering Honor Society

Dr. Lynch is a mechanical engineer who specializes in robotic and electromechanical system design, analysis, and control. He has experience designing custom testbeds for mechatronic systems and with rapid prototyping, sensor integration, signal processing, and hardware-in-the-loop control design and evaluation. In addition, Dr. Lynch has significant experience leading cross-disciplinary projects including biomedical laboratory automation, dynamic testing of biological materials, and bio-inspired robotics.

Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Lynch received his doctoral degree from the University of California San Diego, where he studied the dynamics and control of flapping flight in insects and bio-inspired flying robots. He developed a dynamically scaled flapping robot that mimicked the biomechanical properties of insect flight anatomy and used it to characterize the efficiency, controllability, and resistance to perturbations of biological and robotic flapping systems across a wide range of morphologies. He also invented a novel adaptive control scheme for flapping robots inspired by insect flight muscle dynamics, which was implemented on a centimeter-scale flapping wing. In recognition of this work, Dr. Lynch was awarded a University of California San Diego Graduate and Professional Student Association Interdisciplinary Research Award in 2022.

While at the University of California San Diego, Dr. Lynch was a teaching assistant for the undergraduate mechanical engineering senior design course for four years, teaching mechatronic system design, modeling, and optimization. He developed course materials to promote curiosity in undergraduate engineers through inquiry-based, hands-on lab activities and played an active role in transitioning the course to a hybrid teaching model during the COVID19 pandemic. Those efforts earned him the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Teaching Assistant of the Year award in 2021.