UBC Injury Biomechanics Lab Letter of Recommendation

November 30, 2008
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Re: Letter of Reference for Sebastián Arboleda
To whom it may concern:
Department of Mechanical Engineering
6250 Applied Science Lane
Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z4
Tel: (604) 822-2781
Fax: (604) 822-2403
It is my pleasure to write this letter of reference for Mr. Sebastián Arboleda. I am providing this letter to
Mr. Arboleda directly so that he may provide it to potential employers as a record of his abilities as they
were demonstrated under my supervision. I am an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and
Orthopaedics at the University of British Columbia. I direct a laboratory called the Injury Biomechanics
Laboratory. In the Injury Biomechanics Laboratory, my colleagues and I conduct research focused on
human injury and novel ways to prevent injury. I presently supervise five doctoral students and six
Master’s students. Mr. Arboleda worked as a research engineer in my laboratory for one year starting in
August, 2007.
Mr. Arboleda worked on several aspects of a current project in my lab, namely the development of a
helmet to prevent neck injuries during head-first impact. This helmet is called Pro-Neck-Tor TM and Mr.
Arboleda’s duties included finite element computer modeling, three-dimensional measurement, rapid
prototyping, Computer aided drafting and hands-on and computer-aided manufacturing machining and
design tasks to design and construct various prototypes. Mr. Arboleda also participated in web-based and
media-based marketing efforts and in this context he actually developed some of the initial drafts of the
text for the website that we designed to market and explain the helmet project (www.pronecktor.com). In
fact he was chiefly responsible for assembling almost all of the static images used on the website and
most of the solid modeling images that we use on the site are the product of his own solid modeling
efforts.
I would certainly characterize Mr. Arboleda’s skill set and his tasks within our group as very broad. They
encompassed technical, marketing and editorial aspects, as is evident from the list I have provided above.
He was always willing to learn a new software program or a new skill and likewise he was always happy
to help other members of the lab when someone needed help with a task that he was familiar with. Mr.
Arboleda is a very hard worker and he accomplished a great deal during his year in the lab. When he was
given a task he worked on it in an extremely determined and strong-willed manner. He was capable of
working on tasks independently.
Some specific milestones that he reached in the project included: providing analysis, three-dimensional
digitizer-based measurement and design engineering in collaboration with a PhD student in the lab and
myself to develop and build be a testable prototype of our novel neck-injury prevention helmet. This

esulted in the construction of a low-cost production of a full-scale, testable helmet prototype that will be
involved in future research into neck-injury prevention strategies following head-first impacts.
Additionally, in collaboration with other scientists and engineers in our lab, he was also involved in the
design and manufacture of a rapid-prototyped demonstrative model of the Pro-Neck-Tor TM helmet to aid
the marketing of the intellectual property associated with the helmet. The demonstrative prototype was
featured on nation-wide print and broadcast media and served as a valuable tool to illustrate the
technology to a wider audience.
He was also the first researcher in our lab to use several of measurement instruments and software tools
that have become available to us only recently and which could be applied in his work. This included a
3D non-contact laser digitiser and its associated software tools, and various finite element and computer
aided drafting software packages. His work has left a legacy of capabilities with these tools for other
students and engineers in my lab.
I would be happy to provide more information pertaining to my interactions with Mr. Arboleda if that
would be of use. Please feel free to contact me (at 604 822 6629 or cripton@mech.ubc.ca) with any
questions or for more detail.
Sincerely,
Peter A. Cripton, PhD, P.Eng.
Assistant Professor
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