Senior Mechatronics Engineer working full time at Rockslice, and an industrial PhD candidate at NTNU. 6+ years in surgical and construction robotics. Based in Bergen, Norway.

Liam Nolan (white helmet) with colleagues inspecting a cut in a rock tunnel

I take robotic systems from concept to field test: mechanical design, controls, firmware, and manufacturing

ABOUT

I’m Liam, a mechatronics engineer with 6+ years in surgical and construction robotics, based in Bergen, Norway. I work full time as a Senior Mechatronics Engineer at Rockslice, where I was the first engineering hire and build explosive-free robotic rock and concrete cutting. Alongside that I am pursuing an industrial PhD through NTNU’s Field Robotics Lab, in partnership with Rockslice, on advanced control and material sensing for the cutting platform. Before that I was a mechanical engineer at Ethicon (formerly Auris), working on Johnson & Johnson’s Ottava surgical robot, and I hold an M.Sc. in Mechatronics from MCI Innsbruck and a B.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

LIAM NOLAN — BERGEN, NORWAY

RESUME

Mechatronics engineer with 6+ years in surgical and construction robotics, working full time at Rockslice while pursuing an industrial PhD at NTNU.

Download resume (PDF)

Sept 2025 – present
Bergen, NO
Full time
Senior Mechatronics Engineer
Rockslice
National Startup Award 2024 winner: explosive-free robotic rock and concrete cutting.
- First engineering hire, owning design, prototyping and testing
- Redesigned the patented water-turbine sword saw: 10× cheaper, 20 → 10 kg, cut depth 1 → 1.5 m
- Designed a 3-DoF robotic sword positioner for flush, square-cornered cuts in confined spaces
- Leading the company’s first customer pilot project (December 2026)
Autumn 2026 – present
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Alongside Rockslice
Industrial PhD Candidate
NTNU, Field Robotics Lab
Research Council of Norway industrial PhD, in partnership with Rockslice.
- Proposed thesis: Optimizing Material Removal Rates in Robotic Stone and Concrete Cutting through Advanced Control and Material Sensing
2024 – 2025
Innsbruck, AT
Master’s Thesis
MCI
ROS 2-based Implementation of Advanced Control for a Teleoperated Surgical Robot.
- Ported a surgical teleoperation robot to ROS 2 / micro-ROS in C++
- Gain-scheduled LQR and LQI + feedforward control from closed-loop PRBS system identification
- Reduced mean tracking error by 94% (pitch) and 74% (roll) vs. proportional control
- First-author paper at IEEE ICARM 2026
2019 – 2023
Santa Clara, CA
Mechanical Engineer
Ethicon Inc. (formerly Auris)
Johnson & Johnson surgical robotics: the Ottava soft-tissue surgical robot.
- Project lead of the patented surgeon console immobilization system
- Designed, tested and implemented robotic subsystems
- Managed the capital equipment packaging project as team lead
- Diagnosed and debugged system-level mechanical and software issues in clinical settings
2018
Santa Clara, CA
Mechanical Engineering Intern
Ethicon Inc. (formerly Auris)
- Designed and manufactured an immobilization actuator for a surgical system
- Assembled, tested and characterized robotic arm performance
2017
Goleta, CA
Mechanical Engineering Intern
Orbital ATK
- Prototyped assembly methods for satellite deployables
- Assembled and tested engineering development units
2015 – 2016
Kent, WA
Mechanical Engineering Intern
Breedt
- Designed, manufactured and tested large-scale industrial tooling
- Mechanical and electrical design of a robotic hydroponic foam cutter

EDUCATION

M.Sc. Mechatronics

MCI, Innsbruck, Austria

Oct 2023 – Jul 2025

B.Sc. Aerospace Engineering

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, USA

Sept 2015 – Jun 2019

PUBLICATIONS & PATENTS

L. Nolan, M. Messner, S. Winkler, Y. Kim, “Implementation of an Advanced Control System for a Teleoperated Surgical Robot Using ROS 2,” IEEE ICARM 2026.

Surgeon console immobilization system, Ethicon Inc. Patents US20230390010A1 and WO2023238053A1.

LANGUAGES

English (native) · Norwegian (basic) · German (basic)

SKILLS

Robotics & controls