My name is Ryan, and I have always been a passionate tech geek and a maker with a drive to improve how things work. Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by the intersection of hardware, software, and mechanical engineering.
While attending Diablo Valley College, I shifted from food service into the tech industry by taking a lead technician role at a local computer repair shop. That soon grew into my own concurrent business, Custom Computers and Repairs. In 2011, I moved to San Francisco to pursue my passion for design at San Francisco State University, graduating in 2014 with a Bachelor degree in Industrial Design.
I purchased my first FDM 3D printer right after graduation and have been exploring, troubleshooting, and even building custom printers ever since. My career quickly evolved from hobbyist builds and a large scale service bureau that delivered over five hundred custom parts to three hundred and fifty clients into professional industrial manufacturing. Earlen’s Corporation was the perfect stepping stone where I transitioned from just operating equipment to owning a complete digital manufacturing pipeline.
At Earlen’s, I served as a Manufacturing Development Engineer where I held end-to-end ownership of a high-volume custom hearing aid production line. My work went far beyond 3D printing to include custom process automation using Python scripts, managing ISO quality management requirements, and creating scalable SOPs that reduced hours of production downtime into minutes of routine maintenance. I served as the bridge between software and physical hardware, refining CAD models and executing process improvements to ensure daily pipeline uptime at scale.
I am now working as a Senior R&D Engineer & IT Lead at Solideon, an advanced manufacturing startup focused on the development of large scale automated metal additive and subtractive systems. My days are spent bridging electronics, embedded systems, and robotics while designing custom control architectures and optimizing automated work cells. Outside of work, I am deeply fascinated by AI and robotics. I actively explore local LLMs, automation agents, and maker robotics to push the boundaries of both physical hardware and intelligent software.
I am grateful for the journey that has taken me from a local repair bench to managing production labs and robotics R&D. I look forward to seeing where the next chapter in making, building, and innovating takes me.
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryangingerich
Thingiverse Public Designs: https://www.thingiverse.com/ryang3d/designs