Carter Fortunato, a Hermosa Beach student in El Camino College’s machining program and SBWIB Aero-Flex graduate, discovered his passion through high school robotics, blending coding and hands-on fabrication. After briefly studying computer engineering, he returned home to focus on machining, where he now thrives tackling real-world challenges.

One of his proudest achievements was creating Damascus steel keycaps on a 5-axis machine, an advanced project requiring him to recover lost kinematic data and log over 70 hours of work. With job readiness training from SBWIB and technical mentorship from Northrop Grumman, Carter is now pursuing a career in aerospace manufacturing, eager to contribute to innovative, hands-on engineering projects.