Engineer
Frank Guercio is a California high desert native who has always been fascinated with creating new things with a purpose. Early in his life this feeling morphed into a drive to address the challenge of saving the planet, a path he is firmly on in his third decade of life. Guercio attended the innovative Apple Valley charter school the Lewis Center for Educational Research and, through his mentor, Matt Huffine, met Tim Shields. He has been assisting in Hardshell Labs projects ever since, and having studied at Victor Valley Community College, with an emphasis on psychobiology.
Applied mechanics and engineering are part of Guercio’s intellectual DNA, being passed from grandfather to father to son. 3D printing is a passion — he loves the ease of prototyping it affords, and the freedom from machining principals allows him to quickly create objects that would be difficult or impossible to make otherwise. Guercio has been involved in the Techno-tortoise project almost since its inception and created two prototypes for a moving model, the better to fool predators.
Always looking to broaden his frame of reference, Guercio played a pivotal role in rapid production and continuous refinement of remote egg oiling equipment in HSL’s 2019 field season. Currently he is helping Hardshell Labs create startlingly accurate models of bird’s eggs.
He is excited by the opportunity with HSL because, “It feels like what I was made to do.”