Corporate Experience
Corporate Experience
A dedicated view of Robert Fithen’s corporate, defense-laboratory, and applied-industry work: Air Force Research Labs computation, aircraft CFD validation, manufacturing software, engineering certification testing, finite element software commercialization, orthotics design support, and the current finance-business role at 5thN Financial.
Earlier industry and defense-lab work that shaped the current finance direction
The resume history shows a long pattern of applied computation outside the traditional classroom. Before the current emphasis on finance research and 5thN Financial, that pattern included defense/aerospace modeling, Air Force Research Labs research, manufacturing software, engineering certification testing, and commercial finite element software development.
5thN Financial, LLC
2017-Present
CEO, Portfolio Manager, and Owner. The finance-business role extends the computational career into portfolio methodology, machine-learning-informed allocation, robust implementation, client portfolio monitoring, and compliance-aware advisory operations.
Air Force Research Labs / Wright Research Labs
1990-1995; Summer 1999; Summer 2000
Defense-laboratory research at Wright Patterson Air Force Base included computational fluid mechanics, electromagnetic propagation research, magneto-hydrodynamic boundary-layer simulation, and fluid-structure interaction work coupling nonlinear finite element structures with Navier-Stokes solvers.
5thN / StressComp Inc.
2005-2009
Software Engineer and Owner. Developed a 3-D structural finite element software package used inside DesignCAD, with geometry generation, C++ finite element analysis, visualization workflow, and TetGen-based unstructured grids.
General Dynamics / Lockheed
1986-1989
Worked in the Computational Fluid Dynamics Group and served on the original design team for the F-22 fighter program. The work included validating CFD codes against experimental results for Advanced Tactical Fighter work, including 3-D forebody-inlet solutions, inlet/engine-face analysis, vertical stabilizer drag, and canopy-forebody pressure predictions.
AT&T Consumer Products
1984-1986
Authored an in-house software package to plan more than 80 punch-press operations used in the construction of AT&T pay phones.
Dunham Manufacturing
1983
Planned and performed Association of American Railroads certification work for semi-trailers used in intermodal transport, including multi-cycle, creep, and drop testing.
What these roles have in common
Validated computation CFD and finite element models were compared against experiments, coupled to physical systems, or used to inform aircraft and engineering design questions.
Software as leverage Manufacturing, CAD, finite element, laboratory, and portfolio methods were translated into working software rather than left as abstract theory.
Engineering accountability Certification testing, design validation, government research, and compliance-aware operations all required disciplined documentation and repeatability.
Finance as continuation 5thN Financial extends the same quantitative discipline into portfolio construction, backtesting, and research-driven implementation.
Previous corporate and applied-industry experience
How the earlier experiences connect
Air Force Research Labs and Wright Patterson AFB
This experience adds a government-defense research dimension to the corporate page. The work involved advanced computational mechanics and physics: computational fluid mechanics, electromagnetic propagation, magneto-hydrodynamic solvers, aeroelastic/fluid-structure coupling, and code development for nonlinear shell structures tied to Navier-Stokes simulation.
Aerospace computation at General Dynamics / Lockheed
The General Dynamics work shows applied numerical validation in a high-stakes engineering environment. The key point is not simply that CFD was used; the numerical predictions were compared against experiments and used to inform aircraft-design questions around inlet performance, vortex behavior, drag, pressure recovery, and forebody/canopy pressure fields.
Manufacturing software at AT&T
The AT&T work shows early software-driven process automation. Planning more than 80 punch-press operations required translating a complicated physical manufacturing sequence into an internal software tool that supported repeatable production decisions.
Certification testing at Dunham Manufacturing
The Dunham work adds a physical-test and certification layer to the story. Multi-cycle, creep, and drop testing for AAR certification connects mechanics, reliability, and real-world acceptance criteria.
Commercial finite element software through 5thN / StressComp
StressComp moves the story from analysis to productization. The work joined CAD control, geometry creation, mesh generation, finite element analysis, and visualization into an engineering-software workflow.
Practical design collaboration with Jaeco Orthopedics
The Jaeco collaboration shows engineering applied to human-centered products. The upper-extremity orthotics work fits the broader theme of bringing computation, mechanics, and design thinking to practical constraints.
From defense, aerospace, and engineering software to 5thN Financial
The corporate and applied-sector experience is more than a list of past employers. It helps explain the present research shift: current work in Portfolio Computational Methods, Expanded Portfolio Theory, and HiFuPi backtesting builds on decades of practical computational modeling where the result had to be implemented, checked, and used in real systems.
Earlier applied work
Defense-lab research, aircraft design simulations, manufacturing process software, finite element products, orthotics collaboration, and certification testing required reproducibility, validation, practical constraints, and working code.
Current finance work
Portfolio research at 5thN Financial uses the same mindset: formal models, repeatable backtests, implementation discipline, documented decision rules, and attention to how theory behaves when it becomes an operational system.