About
I'm Liam Reid, I'm eighteen, and I'm based in San Diego.
Most of what I know came from taking something apart and then being on the hook to put it back together. Competition robotics taught me that under time pressure the hard part is rarely the engineering — it's keeping a team upright when the thing you built stops working an hour before you need it.
I've been lucky about rooms. I've sat in on consciousness research lectures since I was small, watched a rocket go up at night, and spent four years of convention weekends learning how a working artist actually runs a business. None of that was a programme I applied to — mostly it was showing up and being useful.
Right now I'm rebuilding a pinball machine from the 1970s and looking for engineering internships.
Everything, in order
- NowRobotics & Making
Refurbishing a 1970s pinball machine
Electromechanical, not solid state — which means the logic is relays, stepper units and a lot of continuity testing. Rebuilding it as it was.
- 2011–nowPeople & Work
Docent at A Ship in the Woods
A nonprofit cultural incubator for art, music and science in North County San Diego. I have been showing people around since I was five, and still help out.
- 2026People & Work
Open Sauce, San Francisco — third year
The big STEM/maker fair. Went 2023, 2024 and 2026; spend most of it talking to builders about how they actually made the thing.
- 2025Robotics & Making
BattleBots: Training Grounds — Las Vegas
Took a robot we built for fun to a real competition. Won our first fight, then blew a motor controller and rebuilt it between matches.
- 2025People & Work
2E Camp — 1517 Fund, Hidden Villa
A small invitation-only camp in the Bay Area for teenage builders, run by the 1517 Fund. Visits to early-stage science and hardware companies, and workshops the campers themselves teach.
- 2024Science & Ideas
Night launch — cerebral organoids to the ISS
Watched a night-time rocket launch carrying brain organoids up to the International Space Station.
- 2024People & Work
Designer Con, Las Vegas
Fourth year working the booth for San Diego artist Dave "PERSUE" Ross. Setup, teardown, crowd, sales.
- 2024Science & Ideas
UCSD Extension — Pre-College Engineering Program
A summer of university-level engineering coursework.
- 2024Robotics & Making
Built a theater-scale surround system for the school engineering lab
Self-taught sound engineering. Specced, wired, tuned and installed it. It is still in there.
- 2022People & Work
The Young Entrepreneur (TYE) — San Diego
Three-month entrepreneurship program. Took 3rd place with my own invention and business plan.
- 2021–24People & Work
Designer Con, Anaheim
Volunteered and worked conventions with PERSUE — 2021, 2022, 2023.
- 2018Science & Ideas
Put Roger Penrose into VR
Flew to London and Oxford, then ran the VR setup that placed Sir Roger Penrose into a virtual space during a live event in San Francisco.
- OngoingScience & Ideas
Science of Consciousness conference, Tucson
Been going since I was young. Volunteered, sat in on neuroscience and philosophy lectures, and interviewed Dr. V.S. Ramachandran.
- OngoingPeople & Work
Ran my high school’s engineering lab
Kept the lab running for several years — machines, inventory, and unsticking students and teachers when the technology fought back.
- Middle schoolRobotics & Making
FIRST LEGO League — LegoLand San Diego
Our team was the only one in the school’s history to advance to the next round of competition.