Hydraulics Consultants: 5

David Smith is an experienced mechanical engineer (MS, PE) with seven issued patents. Award-winning inventor. Vice President of Alpine Engineering and Design, a mechanical engineering consulting company with clients around the United States ranging from individual inventors to Fortune 500 companies. Worked on the development of multiple successful products including among other things: aerial lifts, garbage trucks, thrill rides, ziplines, trailers, oil and gas equipment, exercise equipment, manufacturing equipment, and multiple consumer products. 

Graduated Cum Laude with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Completed a master's of science degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA with an emphasis in product development. Licensed professional engineer (PE) and certified safety professional in comprehensive practice (CSP). Certified trainer for boom lifts, scissor lifts, rough terrain, and counterbalanced forklifts. Over 10 years of experience in product development, patents, equipment safety, and risk assessments. 

Experienced expert witness having drafted over 200 reports/declarations in patent cases and catastrophic injury and death cases. Designed and built multiple custom testing devices to obtain data and evaluate opinions. Created multiple demonstratives to explain the mechanics and circumstances of accident sequences and patented devices. Testified in deposition 11 times and in trial once.

CivTek International is an Infrastructure Solutions, Program Management and Multi-Disciplined Life-Cycle Integrator. CivTek focuses on core industries and infrastructure fundamental to the economic and physical health and well-being of all societies: Energy, Water, Air, Agriculture, Transportation, Waste Management, Telecommunications, Internet, and Ancillary Technologies necessary to more efficiently deliver and operate these industries in an environmentally friendly, safe and profitable manner.

CivTek International now has roughly $50 billion in pre-feasibility studies in estimated capital costs projects as a result of national and international relationships and exclusive agreements CivTek International holds in various infrastructure and transportation technologies. They have signed 50-year Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Agreements with national governments of emerging economies.

CivTek International provides expert assessment, advice, guidance, opinion, contracting, construction support, program management and design services to leaders in government, industry and the legal community. They address major challenges in complex cultural settings, environmental, economic, legislative or forensic consequence in programs and projects relating to capital infrastructure in transportation, green sustainable environmental solutions, energy, oil & gas, and industrial facilities.

Clients have included Leadership of Domestic and International Industry, CEO's and Corporate Leadership, Banks, Financial Institutions and Investors, Risk Management and Insurance Industry Leaders, Attorneys, Legislators, Heads of State, and Heads of Departments and Ministries.

CivTek Capabilities:

Principal, Thomas J. Young, PE, has over 37 years of experience in national and international Transportation Construction, the Civil Engineering specialty regarding highways, bridges, rail, airports, harbors, and associated infrastructure.

Mr. Young is a skilled integrator of the parameters of program and project life cycles, leadership, management, business operations, engineering and construction. He has extensive knowledge of regulatory compliance, environmental processes, industry standards, best practices, and field operations in urban and remote areas.

Mr. Young has broad construction management and design background for many of the knowledge and skill areas required in mining operations, bridges, highways, land development, major soil/structure type facilities, land survey, and construction surveying, including work in Arctic facilities and in desert regions.

View Thomas J. Young's Expert Witness Profile.

Dr. Kazerooni is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also serves as the Director of the Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory. With over 35 years of experience in mechanical engineering and a doctorate from MIT, he is a leading expert in automated machinery, including robotics, medical devices, ergonomics and human-machine systems, wearable and assistive devices, exoskeleton systems, as well as orthotic and prosthetic systems. He is the inventor of more than 200 US and International patents, over 80% of which have been licensed, and has been inducted into the U.S. National Academy of Inventors.

In addition to his academic teaching and research, Dr. Kazerooni is an active entrepreneur. In 2005, he founded Ekso Bionics (eksobionics.com), which became a publicly traded company in 2014 and now supplies the Ekso medical exoskeleton to rehabilitation centers worldwide. He later founded suitX (suitx.com), a venture capital-, industry-, and government-funded company providing industrial and medical exoskeletons. suitX was acquired in late 2021 by Ottobock, a medical device company in Europe.

Litigation Support - Dr. Kazerooni has been deposed and testified in various Intellectual Property cases. His services include thorough examination and reporting, depositions, and trial testimony as needed.

Areas of Expertise:

• automated machinery
• robotics
• medical devices
• ergonomics and human-machine systems
• wearable and assistive devices
• exoskeleton systems
• orthotic and prosthetic systems
• intelligent assist devices
• control algorithm

Mechanical Solutions, Inc. (MSI) provides new equipment design, computer-aided analysis, installed equipment field testing and problem solutions. MSI staff performs these tasks for all types of Pumps, Compressors, Fans, Turbines, and Motors. For pumps and compressors, expertise includes both centrifugal and positive displacement (e.g. reciprocating or screw) configurations.  Turbine knowledge and experience include hydraulic turbine generators (“hydroturbines”) as well as aircraft gas turbine engines and land-based gas or steam turbine power generation systems. Applications include green energy, power, process, petrochemical, paper, and water resource industries.

MSI uses advanced finite element analysis (FEA), rotordynamics, and torsional analysis tools, and uses computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to analyze 3-D steady or unsteady fluid flows and heat transfer, enabled by its 230 high speed processor supercomputer. MSI also uses top-of-the-line testing equipment, including multichannel FFT analyzers (up to 200 simultaneous channels) to accurately read the outputs of various vibration, stress/strain, and pressure sensors, as a function of both time and frequency. As a unique additional test capability, MSI uses motion magnification video cameras to amplify and display scene vibration by 1000x. MSI uses calibrated exciters while equipment remains running, to locate structural, rotor, and acoustic natural frequency resonances as they exist at any particular operating point, without interfering with machinery operation.  In addition, MSI performs stress, acoustic, dynamic pressure pulsation, electric current spectrum, and aero/hydraulic performance testing. 

MSI also has been project team leader in the development of advanced rocket turbopumps, as well as turbopump diagnostics, for the U.S. Air Force and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. MSI is funded for several large projects with the U.S. Navy and Air Force involving vision-based systems that automatically evaluate and display/amplify machinery or system dynamic events.  As a result of these projects, MSI has developed its VibVue® vibration motion magnification system, which can magnify vibration 1000x in the full field-of-view of the equipment.  This system is available as a service, or for purchase.

Mechanical Solutions has a staff of approximately 30 technical professionals, many of whom are well known internationally in the area of pumps, compressors, and turbines.  For example, MSI’s Dr. Edward Bennett won the ASME Gopalakrishnan award for best pump fluids technologist, and was later awarded another ASME medal for CFD.    MSI’s Paul Boyadjis has won the Hydraulic Institute 2021 Standards Partner of the Year award. Since its founding in 1996, MSI has strived to provide best-in-class service throughout the world.

William D. Marscher has over 50 years of experience in the field of Fluid Systems and their rotating and reciprocating machinery, particularly large turbines, generators, compressors, and pumps.  His typical work responsibilities include design, analysis, and testing of all types of plant machinery, as well as other types of fluid and mechanical systems.   

Mr. Marscher received a B.S.M.E. from Cornell University in 1970, and a Master Eng. (Mech. Des.) in 1972, when he was a NASA Fellow and the lead graduate student for the original Mars Rover Design project.  In 1976, he received an M.Sc. in Engineering Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is a registered and licensed Professional Engineer, State of New Jersey Lic. No. 40626.

For 25 years, Mr. Marscher has been one of the U.S. voting representatives on the ISO (International Standards Organization) TC108 committee, and has been the US Coordinator concerning, among other issues, machinery dynamics of centrifugal pumps and hydraulic turbine generators. He is past president of the Society of Tribologists & Lubrication Engineers (STLE), the primary technical society worldwide for the study and design of bearings, seals, wear, and erosion issues in machinery.  For the past 45 years he has been a voting member of the ASTM Fatigue Standards Committee E9, as well as the ASTM Wear & Erosion Standards Committee G2.  He is also the past Board of Directors Chairman for the Machinery Failure Prevention Technology Society (MFPT), and has been active in the Vibration Institute.   Mr. Marscher is a 23-year member of the Texas A&M Turbine-Pump Users Symposium Advisory Committee (essentially the Board of Directors for the Symposium).   For ASME, Mr. Marscher was Chair of the Predictive Maintenance committee, and was Organizing and Presiding Chair of the 1993 RoCon Rotating Machinery Conference and the 1995 Tribology Conference.

Mr. Marscher has written thirteen handbook chapters for various major engineering handbooks, which have focused on turbomachinery mechanical issues, including dynamics, and bearing and seal design   In previous employ, he was a senior engineer Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Engines, and Director of Mechanical Engineering for Worthington HQ (pumps, compressors, and turbines), and for Dresser Worthington Division after their acquisition of Worthington.   Later, he was VP of Concepts NREC, from which 30 years ago he spun off Mechanical Solutions, Inc. as an independent turbomachinery technology company.  He has since become a charter Standards Partner for the Hydraulic Institute (HI), the trade association for the pump industry, became Vice Chair of the vibration technical committee for HI, and was HI Standards Partner of the Year for 2018.   He also won the 2019 Vibration Institute MFPT Frarey Award for Diagnostics Excellence.

View MSI's Expert Witness Profile.

Harold E. McGowen III, PE, offers unparalleled expertise in the Upstream Oil and Gas sector, providing strategic consulting services to optimize operations, enhance profitability, and maximize asset value. With over 40 years of experience in petroleum engineering, field development, and executive leadership, Harold combines technical acumen and strategic vision to deliver measurable results for operators, private equity firms, and industry stakeholders.

As President and CEO of Navidad Operating Company, LLC, Harold has led multimillion-dollar oilfield development projects. His expertise includes horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, completion technology, reservoir management, and operational safety. He excels in negotiating joint ventures, structuring acquisitions, and building high-performing teams, helping clients reduce costs and enhance efficiency.

Harold’s consulting services focus on field development optimization, reserves estimation, drilling and completion planning, and asset valuation. He provides actionable insights to improve well performance, mitigate risks, and unlock potential in oilfield assets. With deep knowledge of reservoir engineering and extensive project management experience, Harold offers practical, results-oriented solutions.

In addition, Harold assists clients with strategic planning and business growth. His success in securing capital, managing private equity-backed ventures, and driving innovation underscores his ability to deliver in challenging market conditions. Recognized with Aggie 100 honors and Top CEO accolades, Harold is committed to helping clients navigate complexities and achieve their goals.

View Harold McGowen's Expert Witness Profile.