Meet the Team
Team Bios
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2023-2024 Student Team
Jasen H. Nicolas (Mechanical Engineering, 2024)
Turbine Design: Team Lead, Electronics and Controls
JNicolas56@csum.edu | Linked In
Jasen H. Nicolas is a 4th year mechanical engineering student at California Maritime
Academy. Since his early years competing in the VEX Robotics Competition, he has developed
an interest in all things related to solving engineering challenges: product design
and development, programming, troubleshooting, etc. Further pursuing this interest,
Jasen decided to attend Cal Maritime’s engineering program which offers a unique professional
and academic experience. Since then, Jasen has academically excelled with a 3.822
GPA, while simultaneously growing his professional experience. He has worked as an
Engine Cadet, completed an Instrumentation and Controls internship for an Engineering
Consulting Firm, and completed another internship with a Nuclear Power Plant Engineering
Design Firm as the Instrumentation, Controls, & Electrical Intern. Participating on
various sub-teams in Cal Maritime’s Collegiate Wind Competition Team for the previous
two years, Jasen plans to lead this year’s team to success as the Project Manager,
while still pursuing his engineering interests on the IC&E team.
Matthew Rizzi (International Business and Logistics, 2024)
Project Development: Team Lead
Vonne Ng-Bader (Mechanical Engineering w/ License, 2024)
Connection Creation: Team Lead
Turbine Design: Foundation
VNg-Bader63@csum.edu | Linked In
Vonne is a senior mechanical engineering major who has also obtained her USCG 3rd
Assistant Engineer License. With the license, she hopes to sail as an engineer on
research vessels or river cruises. She is from El Cerrito, CA and attended El Cerrito
High School. At El Cerrito High School, she played varsity soccer (4-time league champion)
and varsity tennis, and currently is the captain of the Cal Maritime Women’s soccer
team. Additionally, she has played for the Women’s and Men’s Soccer teams at Cal Maritime.
She has sailed as an engine cadet on the Seaward Endeavor and Seaward Explorer and
has also completed two training cruises on Training Ship Golden Bear. She was the division commander for division 4 Engine her junior year and senior
cruise. She has been involved with CWC since her sophomore year of college. Throughout
the years, she has enjoyed manufacturing parts and designing the turbine and foundation.
Connection Creation has given her a chance to make lasting relationships with the
community and introduce new people to renewable energy.
Tobias Afdahl (Mechanical Engineering w/License, 2024)
Turbine Design: Mechanical Design
TAfdahl56@csum.edu | Linked In
Tobias Afdahl is a Senior cadet at the California Maritime Academy. He is majoring
in mechanical engineering and also minoring in mathematics. His future aspirations
are to sail as a marine engineer for a few years on commercial vessels, and then to
use the practical knowledge and experience gained to find an industry that needs better
engineering. To this end, he has had much experience sailing in the last 4 years at
Cal Maritime. Much of this was aboard Training Ship Golden Bear, where he and his classmates gained valuable engineering training. This led him to
cross the Pacific Ocean and visit many places including Samoa, Cabo, and Astoria.
Another defining piece of his engineering experience was the time spent onboard the
sub-sea construction vessel M/V Island Venture, on which he learned the real world
of the industry and made life-long friends. This also was an excellent opportunity
to make connections in the maritime industry. While on campus Tobias is an officer
in the Corps of Cadets at Cal Maritime. Always tending to lead and take on a challenge
without fear, this came naturally to him. One of his greatest interests currently
is the Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC). He joined Cal Maritime’s CWC turbine design
team early in his junior year and made the competition his mechanical engineering
capstone project with a group of his friends who are now also his competition teammates.
His main objective as the team's mechanical subteam leader is to develop a variable
pitch system for the turbine’s blades to help get the team a high score in the rotor
speed control category of the competition.
Lucas Kennedy (Mechanical Engineering w/ License, 2024)
Turbine Design: Generator, Mechanical Design
LKennedy61@csum.edu | Linked In
Cyrus Khaleeli (Mechanical Engineering w/ License, 2024)
Turbine Design: Electronics and Controls
CKhaleeli11@csum.edu | Linked In
Cyrus is a senior Mechanical Engineer pursuing a United States Coast Guard Third Assistant
Engineer’s License at the California State University Maritime Academy. Originally
from Rancho Palos Verdes, California, his interest in all things engineering sparked
in high school. Last year he helped the turbine design team as a junior with controls
and electronics, specializing in I2C communications and instrumentation. This year,
he hopes to build on his prior knowledge and develop a reliable control system for
the team’s turbine.
Victor Mashevsky (Mechanical Engineering w/ License, 2024)
Turbine Design: Blades Subteam Lead
VMashevsky06@csum.edu | Linked In
Victor is a senior mechanical engineering major with USCG 3rd Assistant Engineer License
Option at California State University Maritime Academy. He is from Redondo Beach in
southern California, where he attended El Camino College before transferring to CMA.
He has sailed as an engine cadet with Military Sealift Command, and works as an engineering
and math tutor on the Cal Maritme campus. Victor’s interest in engineering was inspired
by his dad and brother, who are both mechanical engineers. After graduating, he hopes
to put his marine engineering skills towards a worthy cause by working as a 3rd engineer
on research vessels.
Kent Suzuki (Mechanical Engineering, 2024)
Turbine Design: Foundation
KSuzuki78@csum.edu | Linked In
Kent is a senior mechanical engineering major at California State University, Maritime Academy. He grew up in Los Angeles, CA but also spent a lot of time in his early years in Japan. In the summer of 2022, he was a reliability engineering intern at BioMarin Pharmaceuticals Inc’s Novato campus. This year, he hope to create a new design of foundation in the aims to reduce the weight significantly.
Nathan Witte (Mechanical Engineering w/ License, 2024)
Turbine Design: Generator, Electronics and Controls
Nathan is a senior mechanical engineering student pursuing a Coast Guard Third Engineers
license, and is currently involved in Cal Maritime’s Collegiate Wind Competition team
as the Generator and Controls team lead. Nathan also completed two cruises on Training
Ship Golden Bear, where he got to see systems functioning in action. He performed system inspections,
and maintenance on the 45 day and 60 day cruises. He also worked on the USNS Grasp
on a 68 day cruise, where he was responsible for standing watch and performing maintenance
for Military Sealift Command. These cruises have brought Nathan to places all over
the pacific, from Cabo, to Appia Samoa, to Hilo and Honolulu, Hawaii, to Seattle.
His experience with small system integration, and theoretical knowledge of larger
systems, like those found on ships make him uniquely suited to tackle any kind of
problem. Nathan’s hobbies outside of school include disc golf, hiking, and running.
Nathan plans to use his degree working in an HVAC or plant operations setting. Some
employers he is looking at right now are Lockheed Martin, Tesla, Southland, and ACCO
Engineering.
Faculty Bios
Principal Investigator: Dr. Thomas Nordenholz (Mechanical Engineering)
tnordenholz@csum.edu | (707)654-1114 | Linked In
D
r. Nordenholz has been a Cal Maritime ME faculty member for 25 years. He has taught
courses mostly in the mechanics area (statics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, vibrations,
fluid mechanics, and material/mechanical laboratory). He has also developed and teaches
lecture and lab courses in energy engineering including theory, experiments, and issues
with wind. He has conducted DOE-funded research on the design of a large scale offshore
wind turbine rotor. Dr. Nordenholz has been the PI and engineering faculty advisor
for the CWC each year since its inaugural year in 2014.
Contact
Tom Nordenholz, Professor for the Department of Mechanical Engineering
tnordenholz@csum.edu