Luca Franchi

Mechanical Engineering student at the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. College Park Scholar and Peer Mentor.

Guilford, Connecticut, United States

About

I am a junior mechanical engineering student at the University of Maryland's A James Clark School of Engineering. I look forward to expanding my knowledge in CAD, robotics, and project design and applying it through projects, internships, and research. I have used Fusion 360, Matlab, and Arduino in team projects. These projects helped me hone my skills and become familiar with a team-building environment. Outside of engineering, I am a peer mentor for the College Park Scholars Program at the University of Maryland. I guide, mentor, and teach five freshmen about the complexities of college and offer a helping hand in anything they need.

Experience

  • Crossfire Team Member at XPRIZE
    Sep 2025 - Present · 11 mos

    Conducting impact analysis for the XPRIZE Wildfire Competition, dramatically improving the detection and suppression of destructive wildfires. Advancing development in the Autonomous Wildfire Response Track, which challenged teams to deploy drones capable of detecting and suppressing high-risk fires with greater speed, accuracy, and precision than current methods. Driving innovation in predictive wildfire modeling, incentivizing technologies that forecast fire behavior and risk in real time to strengthen early detection and rapid response.

  • Mechanical Engineering Intern at The L.C. Doane Company
    May 2025 - Aug 2025 · 4 mos

    Engineering and manufacturing quality heavy-duty fixtures, we set the standards for today’s submarine and surface ship lighting. • Worked with the manufacturing team to fabricate and assemble naval and industrial lighting fixtures that met strict industry standards • Updated CAD models and technical drawings in AutoCAD to support design revisions and improve accuracy for future projects • Built and monitored ballast endurance test rigs, scaling capacity from 40 to 80 units to support multi-year evaluation of 30,000+ components

  • College Park Scholars Peer Mentor at University of Maryland
    Aug 2024 - May 2025 · 10 mos

  • Waterfront Staff at Town Of Guilford
    May 2021 - Aug 2024 · 3 yrs 4 mos

    Provided exemplary customer service to patrons. CPR certified.

  • Lead Data Work at UMD Engineering Truss Project
    Apr 2024 - May 2024 · 2 mos

    Worked in a team of 8 people to create a truss that met the objective restraints with a goal of withstanding a force of one thousand pounds. Calculated the member that would receive the most stress and gave an estimate for our strength given material stress values.