Austin Yusi Cao

Austin Yusi Cao has a strong background in mechanical engineering, with experience in various roles. Austin Yusi is currently the Director of Mechanical Engineering at Nusano, a position they have held since April 2023. Prior to this, they served as a Senior Mechanical Engineering Manager at Nusano from August 2022 to April 2023. From October 2021 to September 2022, Austin worked as a Senior Mechanical Engineer at Nusano, and from October 2020 to October 2021, they were a Mechanical Engineer at the same company.

Before joining Nusano, Austin worked at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) from May 2019 to October 2020. During their time at PPPL, they started as a Diagnostic Mechanical Engineer, and later took on leadership duties in diagnostics, opto-mechanical systems, and thermal shielding control accounts for a nuclear fusion device upgrade project.

Prior to their work at PPPL, Austin was a Mechanical Engineer at Cornell University from February 2017 to May 2019. At Cornell, they worked on the CHESS-U Upgrade Project, gaining progressive responsibility for two out of eight beamlines. Austin Yusi designed and built various components for particle accelerators, including electromagnets, x-ray optics, and ultra-high vacuum systems.

Austin's earliest work experience was as an Instrumentation Intern at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) from February 2013 to August 2014. At NIST, they played a key role in the design and assembly of the fourth-generation NIST Watt Balance, a highly accurate kilogram-level measurement instrument used in the redefinition of the kilogram using Planck's constant. Austin Yusi was responsible for designing and optimizing vacuum components, gimbal systems, kinematics, and a 1-ton magnet splitter device.

Austin Yusi Cao completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland from 2010 to 2014. After that, from 2015 to 2016, they pursued graduate coursework in Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In addition to their formal education, Austin Yusi Cao obtained the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute in July 2020.