Fernando Marill-Tabares is shifting his career into high gear as a Manufacturing Training Intern at Tesla in Fremont, Calif. The position lets the Pitt Business senior (Finance & Physics) fuse together his passions for business and advanced technology.
“By understanding core concepts from my disciplines, like the time value of money or the conservation of linear momentum, I am capable of producing ideas that are outside the box,” Marill-Tabares says. “Often my solutions directly contradict industry standards but are effective.”
Marill-Tabares is a part of the Manufacturing Training team that is in charge of training around 3,000 employees on the Tesla facility assembly line. The facility produces all Tesla vehicles and also manufactures the major components for those vehicles. His daily work varies between talking to suppliers, placing purchase orders, computer programming, troubleshooting circuits —and cutting steel beams.
“It’s constant motion,” Marill-Tabares says.
Marill-Tabares, who is originally from Havana, Cuba, was drawn to the University of Pittsburgh as a child.
“I visited a few times when I was a kid, and I could see myself being happy here,” he says.
Marill-Tabares uses the tools he gained in the classroom at Pitt Business to guide him in his current and past internships.
“The many hands-on projects offered at the school allowed me to observe exceptional leaders at work and identify qualities that I should try to imitate,” he says.
He was able to imitate his observations during his 2017 internships with the CuberRover in Pittsburgh.
“CubeRover was essential to my formation as a professional. It is a startup that is designing and building a super-lightweight lunar rover to be delivered to NASA in 2020 for flight,” Marill-Tabares says. “By taking on more and more responsibilities, I was eventually named Science Team Lead, in charge of testing scientific instruments to prove that a small-size robot could gather meaningful data on the Moon.”
Marill-Tabares was then promoted to Mobility Team Lead, where he helped to design wheels and a suspension system for the rover.
“It was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I have ever had. Under my supervision were employees with advanced degrees and many more years of experience,” Marill-Tabares says. “By setting clear objectives and taking tough decisions, I ultimately helped create what is now the baseline mobility system for that rover.”
Marill-Tabares credits Pitt Business for shaping his journey throughout his exceptional career.
“I would not be able to enjoy the opportunities I am enjoying today if I had not received an exceptional education and been given the chance to apply knowledge in real-world scenarios,” Marill-Tabares says. “The global reach that my career can have is a direct effect of the lessons taught by incredible professors.”
So what is next for Marill-Tabares? He plans to accelerate his career trajectory through his internship with Tesla.
“During the next six months, I will be able to explore the culture in Silicon Valley and interact with other companies that meet my interests,” Marill-Tabares says. “This includes attending startup pitches and venture capital events to learn more about early financing and to begin to build a network.”
Whatever comes next, Marill-Tabares aims to work on cutting-edge technology and to make a dent in the universe.
