In 1971, he was serving as a counselor to Bishop Henry B. Eyring in the Stanford Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when Bishop Eyring was called to be the new president of Ricks College.
Todd accepted an invitation to become the first professor of mechanical engineering at Ricks to have a Ph.D.[2] He then joined the faculty of Brigham Young University in 1989, where he was appointed Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
He developed BYU's mechanical engineering capstone program which was begun in 1990.
Among other assignments at BYU, Todd has served as the coach of the Formula SAE racing team.
[4] Todd wrote the Manufacturing Processes Reference Guide (1991) along with Dell K. Allen and Leo Alting, and has written papers on the capstone project primarily with Spencer P. Magleby and Carl D. Sorenson.